From the Wilmington StarNews (11/17/10): Do you live in a planned community? Most housing/condominium developments in North Carolina are and will be planned communities. Within these communities the most powerful organization is the homeowners association.
Property owners are required to become members of the HOA. Unfortunately the Planned Community Act of North Carolina, as currently written, does not adequately protect the individual property owner.
Because the law lacks specificity, there is no predictable pattern of how these HOAs can and will operate over the course of their existence. We therefore have attended and participated in the House Select Committee’s hearings on HOAs, asking that the law be amended to make the organizations more accountable to their membership. The committee is considering ways to address the weaknesses and they will eventually need the support of the entire legislature to get the changes enacted.
We have requested the following common sense changes to the Planned Community Act: