From offices on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, Ruth & MacNeille, P.A. proudly protects homeowners associations (HOA) and the individuals who govern and manage them. In the Beaufort County area, we help new developments become great communities based on extensive experience in seeing HOA's through the difficult transition from developer control.

A Homeowner's Association (HOA) or Property Owners Association (POA) is comprised of two or more homeowners that belong to a mandatory membership organization for the maintenance of commonly owned real estate and improvements and regulations of privately owned property in a given area. New community developments are often required to form a nonprofit corporation charged with maintaining common areas within the development. These are commonly called homeowners or community associations. HOAs typically are responsible for managing community finances and their board's direction, and enforcing the guidelines in their covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&R). Collecting unpaid assessments, enforcing the association's governing documents, handling disputes and dealing with contractors are just a few of the issues HOAs face daily.

The Bylaws are the guidelines for the operation of the Homeowner's Association. The bylaws define the duties of the various offices of the Board of Directors, the terms of the Directors, the membership's voting rights, required meetings and notices of meetings, and the principal office of the association, as well as other specific items that are necessary to run the homeowner's association as a business. The bylaws for the association may be viewed online within the Documents page of this site.

Homeowner's Associations can, and often do, assess mandatory fees for common property (roads, recreational amenities, maintenance of common property, and setting up reserves to assure the availability of funds required to sustain the common property).

Under South Carolina law, a homeowner's association can place a lien upon an owner's property for failure to pay assessments, and may foreclose upon that lien if the owner still refuses to pay past homeowners assessments. A lien may also be placed on the property for failure to pay fines properly imposed upon the owner; however the foreclosure process for foreclosing upon a lien for fines is more complicated and cumbersome. A lien is an encumbrance on the owner's property and remains so until the property is sold, when the lien must be paid.

Commonly called CC&R's the term usually refers to a written recorded declaration which sets forth certain covenants, conditions, restrictions, rules or regulations established by a Homeowner's Association to create uniformity of buildings and use within tracts of land or groups of lots.  CC& R's also define and establish various rights of the Association and the owners concerning the common property.

Serving on your HOA board of directors, no matter how committed and accomplished you may be, can be time consuming, complicated and exasperating - because you are dealing with peoples' homes, and the devil is always in the details of the rules. Legal assistance can save your HOA money and many communal (and personal) headaches by improving efficiency and addressing situations before they escalate into expensive problems. This is commonly accomplished by the development of effective rules & regulations and, in some cases, Security Regulations.

Condominium law governs and regulates the functioning of these types of units and their boards and associations. Associations, also called Regimes, as provided by the master deed are responsible for the management and administration of condominiums and condominium property in South Carolina, which includes the activities that are of common interest to the owners of the units. Our firm represents condo associations and boards of directors in handling any type of legal matter concerning them, from general representation to the transition from the developer to the managing of associations, to disputes and lawsuits involving unpaid maintenance fees, faulty construction, hazardous conditions, tax appeals, and other issues.

A timeshare is a type of ownership or right to use a property, such as a resort condominium unit in which many owners hold the rights to use it, generally being allotted an agreed-upon time period every year.  Several types of timeshares exist, including deeded and right to use contracts. Deeded contracts are sold as fractional ownership of real property. Such owners are responsible for their portion of real estate taxes, generally collected as part of their association maintenance fees. Right-to-use contracts allow purchasers to use the property according to the terms of their contract until the contract expires, at which point these rights revert back to the property owner. Timeshares may be sold as fixed weeks, floating weeks, or rotating weeks. As in any real estate transaction, specific laws and regulations govern timeshare transactions and matters, which is why it is important to consult with a reliable attorney in any aspect of the timeshare business.