As used in this chapter unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "Department" means the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs.

(2) "Continuing care retirement community" means a community in which there is furnished, pursuant to a continuing care contract, to two or more persons not related to the administrator or owner of the facility within the third degree of consanguinity, board or lodging together with nursing, medical, or other health-related services, regardless of whether the services or lodging are provided at the same location or not. It does not include an institution operating solely as a nursing home or community residential care facility licensed by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

(3) "Entrance fee" means a payment that assures a resident a place in a facility.

(4) "Facility" means the place in which an operator undertakes to provide continuing care to a person.

(5) "Health-related services" includes a degree of personal assistance in feeding, dressing, or other essential daily living activities.

(6) "Continuing care contract" means a contract to provide board or lodging together with nursing, medical, or other health-related services:

(a) to a person sixty-five years of age or older at the time the contract is signed or purchased; or

(b) which provides for services for the life of the person or for more than one year, including mutually terminable contracts; and

(c) which requires payment of an entrance fee or other fee in return for a promise of future care.

(7) "Living unit" means a room, apartment, cottage, or other area within a facility set aside for the exclusive use or control of one or more identified residents.

(8) "Operator" means the promoter, developer, or owner of a continuing care retirement community or of an institution, building, residence, or other place, whether operated for profit or not, or a person who solicits or undertakes to provide continuing care under a continuing care facility contract.

(9) "Resident" means a purchaser of, a nominee of, or a subscriber to a continuing care contract. It includes a person for whom an entrance fee has been paid.

(10) "Trust institution" means a state or national bank, state or federal savings and loan association, or trust company authorized to act in a fiduciary capacity in this State.

HISTORY: 1989 Act No. 97, Section 1; 2000 Act No. 400, Section 1.