How much notice is required to raise the rent in South Carolina?

Verified July 9, 2026 All South Carolina topics →

South Carolina has no statute requiring advance notice of a rent increase — the 30-day convention for month-to-month tenancies is derived from SC Code 27-40-770, which lets either party end a month-to-month tenancy on 30 days' written notice (7 days for week-to-week), so a landlord proposing higher rent is effectively offering new terms the tenant can decline by leaving.

There is no cap on the size or frequency of increases: South Carolina has no rent control, and SC Code 27-39-60 expressly preempts every county and municipality from regulating the amount of rent on privately owned residential or commercial property. Fixed-term leases lock the rent unless the lease says otherwise. A 2025 bill that would have capped annual increases at 7 percent plus CPI with 90 days' notice (H. 3346, the 'South Carolina Rent Control Act') never received a committee vote and died when the legislature adjourned sine die in May 2026 — social-media claims that South Carolina now limits rent increases to 7 percent are false.

South Carolina rent increase notice at a glance

Notice — month-to-month	No rent-increase statute — notice derives from tenancy-termination rules (see summary)
Varies by increase size	Not addressed by statute
Fixed-term leases	Rent cannot change during a fixed term unless the lease itself provides for it — a contract principle; no section of the SC Residential Landlord and Tenant Act addresses mid-term or renewal increases.
Statewide rent control / stabilization	No
Rent control details	No statewide rent control exists, and SC Code 27-39-60 (in Title 27 chapter 39, 'Rent' — a general provision outside the RLTA) expressly bars every county and municipal corporation from enacting, maintaining, or enforcing any ordinance or resolution 'which would regulate in any way the amount of rent to be charged for privately owned, single family, or multiple unit residential, or commercial rental property.' The only carve-outs are property the local government itself owns and voluntary agreements with private persons.
Local rent control preempted	Yes
Frequency limits	Not addressed by statute

Notes and caveats

notice_days_month_to_month is null per the TX/GA/NC/AZ derivation convention: 27-40-770 addresses only termination (written notice, at least 30 days before the termination date for month-to-month; at least 7 days for week-to-week) and never mentions rent increases, so the 30-day figure is practice-derived — page copy should present it as the derivation it is. Preemption is express and statutory, unlike the hint that SC might lack one: 27-39-60 was read twice verbatim on scstatehouse.gov and covers residential AND commercial private property; cite it from chapter 39, not chapter 40. Misinformation flag: H. 3346 (2025-2026, would have added 27-39-370 with a first-year increase ban, 7%+CPI annual cap, 90-day notice, and a three-months'-rent penalty) died in House Labor, Commerce and Industry at sine die 2026-05-14 with no action after January 2025 — yet posts circulate claiming 'South Carolina rent control laws limit rent increases to 7%.' Debunked here; not flagged in pending_legislation per the dead-bill rule (AZ HB 2337 precedent).

Statute citations

SC Code 27-40-770 Official source
SC Code 27-39-60 Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official South Carolina Legislature site (scstatehouse.gov), Code of Laws Title 27: sections 27-40-410, 27-40-530, 27-40-770, 27-40-710, 27-40-310, 27-40-120, and 27-39-60 each read twice in independent fetches with all load-bearing figures matching verbatim (30-day deposit deadline and its three-trigger clause, 3x penalty, more-than-four-adjoining-units posting rule, 24-hour entry notice, 9-6 and 8-8 no-notice service windows, 30-day/7-day periodic termination notice, 5-day nonpayment cure). Also read once: 27-40-720 and 27-40-730 (cross-referenced access rights), 27-40-210(11) rent definition, 27-40-10 and 27-40-110 (short title, statewide territorial application). Negative checks run against the full chapter text: no deposit cap, no escrow/trust requirement, no deposit interest, no late-fee amount or grace-period regulation. Pending-bill check 2026-07-09: H. 3346 (Rent Control Act) and H. 3569 (DV early termination) both died at sine die adjournment 2026-05-14 (H. 3346 never left House LCI committee); the post-sine-die special session was limited to redistricting and the budget.