## Facts

- A condominium development sold by time-share weeks was governed by a homeowners association responsible for collecting annual per-unit maintenance assessments.
- The developer owned multiple units, including units never conveyed and units previously conveyed and later reacquired.
- The original recorded declaration required all unit owners, including the developer, to pay annual per-unit assessments and permitted amendments with approval of two-thirds of the association membership.
- While controlling two-thirds of the association votes, the developer recorded a supplemental declaration purporting to exempt itself from per-unit assessments on certain developer-owned units described as “remaining unsold.”
- The supplemental declaration instead obligated the developer only for operating expenses exceeding the association’s collections of assessments from other units.
- The association assessed per-unit maintenance charges against all units for 1986–1993; the developer refused to pay based on the claimed exemption.
- The trial court granted summary judgment for the association; the intermediate appellate court reversed in part based on ambiguity in “remaining unsold” and held 1986–1990 claims time-barred.

## Issues

1. Whether the Unit Ownership Act (as in effect when the project was created) permits a developer, by amending the declaration, to exempt itself from paying its pro rata share of common-expense maintenance assessments on units it owns.
2. Whether any portion of the association’s claim for unpaid annual assessments for 1986–1993 was barred by the statute of limitations.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of North Carolina reversed the intermediate appellate court and remanded for reinstatement of the trial court’s summary judgment for the association.
- The court held the developer’s attempted exemption from per-unit assessments was invalid because the governing statute required each unit owner, including the developer, to pay a proportionate share of common expenses.
- The court held no portion of the association’s 1986–1993 assessment claims was barred by limitations.
- Because liability turned on statutory invalidity of the exemption and the claims were timely, there were no material factual disputes requiring a jury trial.

## Legal Principles

- Under North Carolina’s Unit Ownership Act (Chapter 47A, as applicable), each unit owner—including a developer holding units—must pay a proportionate share of common expenses as an incident of ownership.
- A declaration amendment mechanism and the developer’s voting control cannot be used to contravene statutory allocation of common-expense liability; an amendment purporting to exempt a class of owners from required assessments is unenforceable to that extent.
- For periodic or installment-like assessment obligations, a separate cause of action accrues as each assessment becomes due; limitations runs from each due date, not from the creation or amendment of the declaration.

## Conclusion

The court held that a condominium developer cannot lawfully use a declaration amendment to exempt itself from statutorily required common-expense assessments and that unpaid annual assessments accrued over multiple years are not time-barred when suit is brought within the limitations period measured from each assessment’s due date.


Dunes S. Homeowners Ass'n, Inc. v. First Flight Builders, Inc., 341 N.C. 125, 459 S.E.2d 477 (N.C. 1995)