Before a Grand Strand HOA raises its budget for a turf project, what notice does it owe?

The decision: which statute is your association on

A Horry County board putting a common-area turf conversion to a vote first has to answer a narrower question: which South Carolina notice statute applies to this association. The two rules set different clocks, and getting the wrong one wrong can put the vote itself in question.

Most homeowners associations owe members at least 48 hours’ notice before the meeting where the budget increase is decided. That’s S.C. Code 27-30-140. But that section carries its own exception: it does not apply to an association incorporated under the SC Nonprofit Corporation Act. If yours was formed that way, Section 33-31-705 governs instead, and its notice window runs far longer — 10 to 60 days.

Check the association’s articles of incorporation, or ask its counsel, before the meeting is scheduled. That single fact decides the rest of this page.

What 27-30-140 requires

S.C. Code 27-30-140 was added by 2018 Act No. 245 and took effect 17 May 2018. It says that before a homeowners association may take action to increase an annual budget in any single year, it must give homeowners notice at least 48 hours in advance.

The statute lists four acceptable ways to post that notice:

• Posted in a conspicuous place in a common area in the community.
• Posted on an internet website the association maintains.
• Sent by electronic mail.
• Delivered through a method the association’s own bylaws set out, as long as it ensures actual notice.

Any one of the four satisfies the section. There’s no requirement in this statute that the notice name the turf project specifically or state a dollar figure — only that the increase itself, and the meeting where it’s decided, be posted 48 hours ahead.

What 33-31-705 requires instead

If the association is incorporated under the SC Nonprofit Corporation Act (Title 33, Chapter 31), Section 27-30-140 says plainly that it does not apply. Section 33-31-705 takes over.

That section requires notice “consistent with its bylaws” and “in a fair and reasonable manner,” and then sets the statutory floor and ceiling: no fewer than 10 days, and no more than 60, before the meeting date — stretched to a 30-day floor if the notice goes out by anything other than first-class or registered mail. For a regular or annual meeting where a budget vote is on the agenda, the notice must describe any matter that requires member approval under the cross-referenced sections of Chapter 31. For a special meeting called specifically to vote on the increase, the notice must describe the matter the meeting is for.

That’s a materially different timeline than 27-30-140’s 48 hours, and it’s built around the association’s own bylaws rather than a flat statutory window.

What a professional install plans for once notice is settled

Once the board has confirmed the correct notice track and the budget increase is approved, the project itself still needs its own timeline. A commercial or common-area turf conversion at this scale involves a free visit to measure the area and check the ground, a custom layout the board approves before anything is ordered, site prep and a base built for the soil on site, turf laid, seamed and edged, infill, finishing and cleanup, and a walkthrough of the care the finished area needs. None of that depends on which notice statute applied — it starts once the vote is final and the scope is set.

For a common area serving a Horry County community, our commercial turf page covers the service itself.

Questions the board, manager or owner should settle before the project is final

• Which statute governs this association — 27-30-140 or 33-31-705 — confirmed against the articles of incorporation, not assumed from how the community is described.
• Which of the four notice methods under 27-30-140 the board will actually use, and whether the bylaws already specify one.
• Whether the vote is for an annual or a special meeting under 33-31-705, since a special meeting carries its own description requirement.
• Whether the association’s own bylaws set a longer or more specific notice period than either statute’s floor — bylaws can require more than the statute, not less.
• Who signs off on the final layout before material is ordered, since that approval is separate from the budget vote itself.

A board that’s already run into other turf-related approval questions — whether the association can restrict turf at all, or how a project should sit in the reserve study — may find our HOA turf restriction guide and reserve study guide useful next. A board weighing whether to amend the governing documents outright, rather than approve a one-off project, can start with changing HOA covenants to allow turf. None of this is legal advice — for a dispute over which statute applies or whether a notice was proper, that’s a question for the association’s own South Carolina counsel.

Checklist before you schedule the vote

• Confirm whether the association is incorporated under the SC Nonprofit Corporation Act.
• If not, post 48 hours’ notice under 27-30-140, using one of its four methods.
• If so, post notice under 33-31-705’s bylaw-based window, with the special-meeting description if that’s the meeting type.
• Get the notice requirement in writing from the board’s own records before the meeting, not after.
• Once the vote is final, schedule a free visit so we can measure the common area, check the ground and put a custom layout in front of the board to approve.