Bill > H1174

This bill, titled the HOA Oversight Act, mandates that the North Carolina Department of Justice establish a system for receiving and recording complaints from members of homeowners' associations (HOAs), which are organizations of unit or lot owners formed under specific state laws (Chapters 47C and 47F). The Department will provide a public complaint form online and collect detailed information about each complaint, including complainant and association contact details, the nature of the dispute, and any steps taken to resolve it. Upon receiving a complaint, the Department will forward it to the party being complained about and allow them to respond. The Department will also maintain a public section on its website with information on the complaint process, HOA regulations, educational materials, and a searchable, filterable summary report of complaints, with personal member data redacted. Annually, by July 1st, the Department must submit a comprehensive report to legislative committees and publish it online, detailing complaint statistics, including the number of complaints, their origins by county, involvement of management companies, and the types of disputes, such as issues with assessments, fines, or covenant enforcement. Importantly, the bill explicitly prohibits the Department from creating regulations or guidelines for HOA administration or acting as an arbiter in disputes, and it appropriates $100,000 annually to fund these oversight activities.