2012 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 27 - Property and Conveyances
Chapter 32 - VACATION TIME SHARING PLANS
Section 27-32-200 - Vacation Time Sharing Recovery Fund.

(A) There is created a special fund known as the " Vacation Time Sharing Recovery Fund", which must be maintained by the commission and funded as provided for the payment of claims to persons injured by the acts of persons registered or licensed pursuant to this chapter.

(B) The funds must be held and accumulated from year to year in the State Treasury in a special fund for the commission, designated as the "South Carolina Vacation Time Sharing Recovery Fund". The fund is a continuing fund not subject to fiscal year limitations, and is under the administrative direction of the commission. Expenditures from this fund must be made in accordance with the provisions of this chapter without legislative appropriation. Warrants for expenditures from the fund must be drawn by the Comptroller General pursuant to claims approved and signed by the commission.

HISTORY: 1981 Act No. 106, Section 5; 1994 Act No. 385, Section 50; 2003 Act No. 84, Section 1.

(A) A person aggrieved by the conduct of a registrant or licensee may seek recovery from the Vacation Time Sharing Recovery fund if:

(1) the facts giving rise to the applicant's claim occurred on or after January 1, 1982, and were based on a specific violation of this chapter;

(2) the applicant has made demand upon the registrant or licensee by certified mail, return receipt requested, for his actual damages and the demand has been refused or ignored;

(3) the applicant is not:

(a) related by blood or marriage to the registrant or licensee;

(b) registered or licensed pursuant to this chapter;

(c) the employer, principal, or broker in charge of the registrant or licensee; or

(d) a party jointly responsible for the claim; and

(4) application for recovery is made not later than one year from the date or discovery of the loss.

(B) Application for recovery must be made under oath and upon a form prescribed by the commission and containing the following minimum information:

(1) name and address of the applicant;

(2) name and address of the registrant or licensee and his last known working address;

(3) amount of recovery sought, together with evidence supporting the claim;

(4) copies of all complaints or other legal process initiated;

(5) disclosure of any partial satisfaction received, offered, or otherwise available from the registrant or licensee, his broker-in-charge, or from a bond or policy of insurance or other source; and

(6) a detailed statement of the events precipitating the loss, together with documents and other evidence supporting the claim.

(C) Upon receiving a claim in proper form, the commission shall forward the claim by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the last known address of the registrant or licensee and to the broker-in-charge of the registrant or licensee. The registrant or licensee and the broker-in-charge shall file a verified answer to the claim within twenty days. If an answer is not filed within twenty days, the broker or registrant or licensee is in default and the commission shall schedule an arbitration of the claim. If the broker or registrant or licensee files a timely answer, the commission shall investigate the claim for a period not to exceed sixty days and after that promptly schedule an arbitration of the claim. The registrant or licensee, broker, commission, and claimant are entitled to present evidence, and question and cross examine witnesses as parties to the arbitration.

(D) Failure of the applicant to comply fully with this section is a waiver of all rights under the section.

HISTORY: 1981 Act No. 106, Section 5; 1994 Act No. 385, Section 51; 2003 Act No. 84, Section 1.

These limitations apply to payments from the recovery fund:

(1) Only the applicant's actual damages are paid from the recovery fund. An applicant may not recover punitive, special, or consequential damages or attorney's fees.

(2) The fund is not liable for more than five thousand dollars for each transaction, regardless of the number of persons aggrieved or the number of time sharing interests involved in the transaction.

(3) The liability of the fund may not exceed in the aggregate ten thousand dollars for any one registrant or licensee in a single calendar year and in no event may exceed twenty thousand dollars for any one registrant or licensee.

(4) If the maximum liability of the fund is insufficient to pay in full the valid claims of all aggrieved persons whose claims relate to the same transaction or to the same registrant or licensee, the amount for which the fund is liable must be distributed among the claimants in a ratio that their respective claims bear to the total of the valid claims or in the manner as the Board of Arbitrators in its sole discretion shall decide. The Board of Arbitrators in its sole discretion is empowered to join in one action all claims having a common factual basis so that an equitable distribution from the fund may be achieved.

(5) If valid claims against the fund exceed the monies it contains, the commission shall satisfy the unpaid claims or portions of them as soon as a sufficient amount of money has been deposited, together with interest at the rate of eight percent a year from the date of award. All claims against the fund must be made in the same order as the awards from it were authorized by the Board of Arbitrators. An award is not a claim against the State if it is not paid due to a lack of funds in the Vacation Time Sharing Recovery Fund.

HISTORY: 1981 Act No. 106, Section 5; 1994 Act No. 385, Section 52; 2003 Act No. 84, Section 1.