How many days' notice must a landlord give before raising rent in South Carolina?

No rent-increase statute — notice derives from tenancy-termination rules (see summary).

Does South Carolina have rent control?

No — South Carolina has no statewide rent control or stabilization. South Carolina has no statewide rent control, and SC Code 27-39-60 bars every county and municipal corporation from regulating the amount of rent charged for privately owned residential or commercial property.

Does South Carolina preempt local rent control ordinances?

South Carolina law bars counties and cities from regulating the rent charged for privately owned residential or commercial rental property, with narrow exceptions for government-owned property and negotiated subsidized-housing agreements.

Can a landlord raise the rent during a fixed-term lease in South Carolina?

Rent cannot change during a fixed term unless the lease itself provides for it — a contract principle rather than a statutory one.

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.

Cited to SC Code 27-40-770 and 1 more South Carolina statute · Verified July 9, 2026

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 rather than a statutory one. No section of the South Carolina Residential Landlord and Tenant Act addresses mid-term or renewal increases.
Statewide rent control / stabilization	No
Rent control details	South Carolina has no statewide rent control, and SC Code 27-39-60 bars every county and municipal corporation from regulating the amount of rent charged for privately owned residential or commercial property. 27-39-60 sits in Title 27 chapter 39, 'Rent' — a general provision outside the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. It reaches 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 regulation	South Carolina law bars counties and cities from regulating the rent charged for privately owned residential or commercial rental property, with narrow exceptions for government-owned property and negotiated subsidized-housing agreements.
Frequency limits	Not addressed by statute

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, South Carolina Rent Increase Notice Laws (verified July 9, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/rent-increase-notice/south-carolina/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the South Carolina statute in the citations section below.

Create a South Carolina rent-increase notice — free, no signup, built on the same verified South Carolina rules as this page.

Notes and caveats

The 30-day figure is derived, not statutory — 27-40-770 never mentions rent increases, so no statutory notice period for an increase exists to show here. The 30 days commonly quoted is practice-derived from the termination rule, and should be read as the derivation it is.
What 27-40-770 actually says — It addresses termination only: written notice at least 30 days before the termination date for a month-to-month tenancy, and at least 7 days for week-to-week.
Preemption is express and statutory — and it sits in chapter 39 — 27-39-60 bars every county and municipal corporation from regulating the amount of rent, and it reaches privately owned residential and commercial property alike. It lives in Title 27 chapter 39, outside the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, so cite it from chapter 39 rather than chapter 40.
The '7 percent cap' circulating online is false — H. 3346 of 2025-2026, the 'South Carolina Rent Control Act,' would have added 27-39-370 with a first-year increase ban, a 7%-plus-CPI annual cap, 90 days' notice, and a three-months'-rent penalty. It died in House Labor, Commerce and Industry at sine die adjournment on May 14, 2026, with no action after January 2025 — yet posts still circulate claiming South Carolina limits rent increases to 7%.

Common questions: South Carolina rent increase notice

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

How many days' notice must a landlord give before raising rent in South Carolina?: No rent-increase statute — notice derives from tenancy-termination rules (see summary).
Does South Carolina have rent control?: No — South Carolina has no statewide rent control or stabilization. South Carolina has no statewide rent control, and SC Code 27-39-60 bars every county and municipal corporation from regulating the amount of rent charged for privately owned residential or commercial property.
Does South Carolina preempt local rent control ordinances?: South Carolina law bars counties and cities from regulating the rent charged for privately owned residential or commercial rental property, with narrow exceptions for government-owned property and negotiated subsidized-housing agreements.
Can a landlord raise the rent during a fixed-term lease in South Carolina?: Rent cannot change during a fixed term unless the lease itself provides for it — a contract principle rather than a statutory one.
How often can a landlord raise the rent in South Carolina?: Not addressed by statute.

Statute citations

SC Code 27-40-770 (verified 2026) Official source
SC Code 27-39-60 (verified 2026) 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 independently with all key 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, corrected 2026-08-12: H. 3346 (Rent Control Act) died in House LCI committee at sine die 2026-05-14, but H. 3569 (domestic violence in rental properties) did not die — it was ratified R180 on 2026-05-14 and approved 2026-05-18 as Act No. 184, in force on approval; its enacted text (new section 27-40-350 and definitions 27-40-210(19)-(20)) was read in full on the official bill page 2026-08-12, and its deposit-return exception and five-day perpetrator termination notice are now recorded on this page. The post-sine-die special session was limited to redistricting and the budget.