Did the City of Myrtle Beach get involved in HOA violations? The facts behind the story

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Did the City of Myrtle Beach send letters about an HOA violation to residents in the Meridian by D.R. Horton?

Spokeswoman Meredith Denari said in an email to The Sun News on Aug. 19 that the city didn’t.

“No, the city has not sent a letter to the HOA members of the Meridian community,” her email said.

Some of the confusion about the city’s involvement stems from rumors about road standards within the Home Owner’s Association.

The community’s association manager, Chris Lozier, said over the phone that none of the roads are currently owned or operated by the city.

In order to turn the roads over from D.R Horton to the City of Myrtle Beach, before the company turns the community over to the HOA, Lozier said some homeowners will need to redo their sidewalks or aprons from their driveways in order to meet code.

The issue is that 25 homes in the association hired someone to paint their driveways, and Lozier said the job was done incorrectly.

But, he explained, none of the notices for this repair came from the city.

“If we can’t turn over those roads and sidewalks, then we will be stuck having to take care of it,” Lozier said. “The sidewalks and the curves and the aprons and the roads, they are currently owned by D.R. Horton, and D.R. Horton is hoping to turn that over to the city, prior to turning over the HOA to the owners.”

If the roads don’t get turned over to the city, he said the association is looking at between $4 million to $5 million in repairs in the future for potholes, cracked sidewalks and leveling new asphalt.

“If an owner called me, I’ll work with them, but we have to have it done before any property is turned over... And as soon as that phase is done, they’re going to turn over the property,” Lozier said. “So we are doing everything we can to get those owners to take care of their driveways, so that the HOA does not have to take care of their own roads.”

The final deadline for owners to fix the violation is at the end of this October, according to Lozier.