With Brunswick politician at the helm, state committee on HOAs considers legislation

Jamey Cross, Wilmington StarNews
Updated ·2 min read
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N.C. Rep. Frank Iler, R-Brunswick, serves as the co-chair of the Select Committee on Homeowners’ Associations established by the state House of Representatives late last year.
N.C. Rep. Frank Iler, R-Brunswick, serves as the co-chair of the Select Committee on Homeowners’ Associations established by the state House of Representatives late last year.
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An effort to better understand and regulate homeowners’ associations in the state is moving forward with proposed legislation on the way.

The North Carolina House of Representatives established its Select Committee on Homeowners’ Associations last fall, will soon receive a report on the committee’s recent studies and deliberations. The committee was formed after House Bill 311 failed to garner enough support to pass during the last legislative session.

Rep. Frank Iler (R-Brunswick) proposed the bill last spring, which sought to establish a division of the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office to provide oversight of the state’s community associations. When the bill failed to pass into law, it was transformed into a resolution which established a house select committee to study homeowners’ associations.

The committee is co-chaired by Iler and Rep. Steve Tyson (R-Craven). Rep. Ya Liu (D-Wake) serves as vice chair, and the rest of the committee is made up of six representatives from across the state – three Democrats and three Republicans.

The committee will terminate on March 1, or when it files its final report, whichever comes first, according to the resolution.

As its time comes to an end, here’s what the committee is up to.

More: Catch up with the StarNews' coverage of Wilmington-area HOAs with these 7 stories

Drafting proposed legislation

The committee met twice in January and once in February, so far. In that time, the committee has begun working on a draft of a bill that, among other things, would require homeowners’ associations in the state to get a majority vote from its members before implementing big dues increases.

The draft bill is broken into five sections: Addressing transparency and resident access to key documents; fee increases; foreclosures; pre-litigation mediation and complaints.

Section two of the bill addresses fee increases and proposes HOAs require a vote by its members to ratify any proposed increase of more than 10% over the previous year’s fees.

If the bill becomes law, section five would permit the N.C. Department of Justice to collect and report complaints about homeowners’ associations and condominium associations to the general assembly annually. While the department already fields such complaints, this section of the bill would formalize its authority to report them.

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What’s next?

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 28. With a report due to fellow legislators by the beginning of March, it’s likely the committee will vote on the report and the proposed bill draft at that meeting.

Jamey Cross covers Brunswick County for the StarNews. Reach her at jbcross@gannett.com or message her on Twitter/X @jameybcross.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: The latest on North Carolina’s effort to regulate HOAs