How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in South Carolina?

30 days. The clock starts on the latest of three events: termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession, and demand by the tenant. SC 27-40-410(a) says 'within thirty days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession and demand by the tenant, whichever is later.'

What happens if a landlord does not return the deposit on time in South Carolina?

A landlord who fails to return prepaid rent or the security deposit with the required written notice owes the tenant three times the amount wrongfully withheld plus reasonable attorney's fees (27-40-410(b)).

Do landlords have to pay interest on security deposits in South Carolina?

No — South Carolina does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. Chapter 40 of the South Carolina Code contains no escrow, separate-account, or interest requirement for security deposits. The act's definition says a security deposit is held in trust by the landlord (27-40-210(18)), but no section says where or how the money must be kept.

What are the security deposit rules in South Carolina?

Verified October 1, 2026 All South Carolina topics →

Enacted but not yet in force. This page reflects the law in force today. The following measure has been signed and takes effect on the date shown:

2026 Act No. 214 (H. 4270), new S.C. Code § 30-2-60 — Signed but not yet effective: from January 1, 2027, eviction filings and records made under § 27-40-10 or § 27-37-10 that include a defendant's personal information — including cases ended by an order of eviction or writ of ejectment, by settlement, or by later payment of the judgment — must be removed from the public index and from publicly accessible files seven years after the final disposition or filing if no additional filing is recorded. No notice period, deadline or figure on the eviction page changes; the section governs court records after the case. Status: Ratified May 14, 2026 and signed by the Governor May 19, 2026 as Act No. 214; section 3 makes it effective January 1, 2027. (checked September 5, 2026).

South Carolina sets no cap on security deposits but requires landlords to return the deposit with a written itemization of any deductions within 30 days after the latest of three events: the tenancy ending, the tenant delivering possession, and the tenant demanding the money back.

Cited to SC Code 27-40-410 (a)-(e) and 2 more cited sources · Verified October 1, 2026

A landlord who fails to return the deposit with that notice owes the tenant three times the amount wrongfully withheld plus reasonable attorney's fees — with no bad-faith requirement in the statute. Tenants have a matching duty: provide a forwarding address in writing, or forfeit the damages remedy if the landlord had no notice of where the tenant went and mailed the notice and any refund to the last known address. One rule unique to larger properties: a landlord renting more than four adjoining units who uses different deposit standards for different tenants must post or hand every prospective tenant a statement of how deposits are calculated — otherwise the difference between that tenant's deposit and the lowest deposit charged for a comparable unit is immune from damage deductions. There is no escrow, separate-account, or interest requirement.

South Carolina security deposits at a glance

Maximum deposit	No statutory cap
Return deadline	30 days
Deadline conditions	The clock starts on the latest of three events: termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession, and demand by the tenant. SC 27-40-410(a) says 'within thirty days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession and demand by the tenant, whichever is later.' The tenant-demand element is part of the statutory text and routinely omitted by secondary sources, which start the clock at move-out or key return. The tenant must provide a forwarding or new address in writing; a tenant who fails to do so loses the right to damages under subsection (a) if the landlord (1) had no notice of the tenant's whereabouts and (2) mailed the written notice and any amount due to the tenant's last known address. Exception since May 18, 2026: on a protected tenant's early lease termination under the domestic-violence statute (SC Code 27-40-350, Act No. 184 of 2026), deposits are not required to be returned until the end of the lease term — see the notes.
Itemization required	Yes
Itemization rules	Any deduction from the security/rental deposit must be itemized by the landlord in a written notice to the tenant together with the amount due, if any, within the 30-day window (27-40-410(a)). Deductions are limited to accrued rent and damages the landlord has suffered by reason of the tenant's noncompliance with 27-40-510 (the tenant's maintenance obligations).
Separate account required	No
Interest owed to tenant	No
Account & interest rules	Chapter 40 of the South Carolina Code contains no escrow, separate-account, or interest requirement for security deposits. The act's definition says a security deposit is held in trust by the landlord (27-40-210(18)), but no section says where or how the money must be kept. Fifty-state charts that import other states' escrow or interest rules into South Carolina are wrong.
Pet deposits	No statute addresses a pet deposit, and no general deposit cap exists for one to count against. The pet-deposit rule, pet rent and fees, and the assistance-animal rules are on the pets and assistance animals page.
Non-refundable fees allowed	Not addressed by statute
Penalty for violation	A landlord who fails to return prepaid rent or the security deposit with the required written notice owes the tenant three times the amount wrongfully withheld plus reasonable attorney's fees (27-40-410(b)). The tenant recovers the property and money 'in an amount equal to three times the amount wrongfully withheld and reasonable attorney's fees.' The statutory text contains no bad-faith element and is a flat treble measure on the amount wrongfully withheld — sources that say South Carolina has no deposit penalty, or that soften it to 'up to 3x if the landlord acts in bad faith,' are both misreading the section. The forwarding-address failure described in subsection (a) is the one statutory escape hatch.
Tenant forwarding-address duty	Affirmative statutory duty — unusual among states: 'The tenant shall provide the landlord in writing with a forwarding address or new address' (27-40-410(a)). Failure forfeits subsection (a) damages if the landlord had no notice of the tenant's whereabouts and mailed the notice and refund to the last known address.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, South Carolina Security Deposit Laws (verified October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/security-deposits/south-carolina/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Generate a South Carolina security-deposit return letter — free, no signup, built on the same verified South Carolina law as this page.

Editable South Carolina deposit kit — the deposit disposition letter, the move-in receipt with the custody and interest statements, a deposits-held register with the return deadline computed, and the rules fact sheet built on the verified South Carolina rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.

Notes and caveats

No cap of any kind — silence, not zero — Chapter 40 contains no deposit cap anywhere in its text. The maximum-deposit answer is left empty because there is no statutory ceiling to report, not because the ceiling is zero.
The 30-day clock has three triggers, and tenant demand is one — 27-40-410(a) runs 30 days from the latest of three events: termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession, and demand by the tenant. Nearly every secondary source misstates this as 30 days after move-out or key return.
Domestic-violence early termination pauses the return clock — Act No. 184 of 2026 (H. 3569, approved May 18, 2026, in force on approval) added SC Code 27-40-350: when a protected tenant ends the lease early after a qualifying domestic-violence incident, 'no security deposits will be required to be returned until the end of the lease if such is due to be returned under the terms of the lease.' For that termination route only, the landlord does not have to return the deposit before the lease term itself ends. Official code pages lag this addition; the enacted text is on the Legislature's page for H. 3569.
The 3x penalty has no bad-faith element — 27-40-410(b) is a flat treble measure on the amount wrongfully withheld. Sources that soften it to 'up to 3x if the landlord acts in bad faith' are misreading the section.
Sources saying South Carolina has no deposit penalty are wrong — Subsection (b) of 27-40-410 is explicit. The claim that South Carolina imposes no penalty for a wrongfully withheld deposit is false.
The 'estimated in 30 days, final in 60' rule is North Carolina's — Some landlord guides describe an estimated accounting within 30 days and a final one within 60. That is North Carolina's G.S. 42-52 procedure imported into South Carolina by mistake — no such provision exists in chapter 40.
The more-than-four-units posting rule is narrower than it looks — Under 27-40-410(c) a landlord renting more than four adjoining units who uses different deposit standards for different tenants must post or hand every prospective tenant a statement of how deposits are calculated. It applies only where the landlord actually imposes different deposit standards on the premises, and its sanction is deduction immunity for the differential, not a fine.
Nonrefundable fees: the statute simply does not say — Chapter 40 neither authorizes nor prohibits nonrefundable fees, and 27-40-210(11) excludes 'security deposits or other charges' from rent. That makes them a lease-drafting question rather than a statutory one, which is why the field is left empty instead of answered yes or no.
A sale does not end the deposit duty — Subject to 27-40-450, whoever holds the landlord's interest in the premises when the tenancy ends is bound by the deposit rules (27-40-410(e)). A sale, an assignment or a foreclosure between the start of the tenancy and its end does not erase the deposit obligation. A landlord who sells in a good-faith sale to a bona fide purchaser stays liable for the deposit unless the deposit is transferred to the buyer and the tenant is notified in writing a reasonable time after the sale; in that case the buyer is liable (27-40-450(a)).

Common questions: South Carolina security deposits

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 much can a landlord charge for a security deposit in South Carolina?: No statutory cap.
How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in South Carolina?: 30 days. The clock starts on the latest of three events: termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession, and demand by the tenant. SC 27-40-410(a) says 'within thirty days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession and demand by the tenant, whichever is later.'
What happens if a landlord does not return the deposit on time in South Carolina?: A landlord who fails to return prepaid rent or the security deposit with the required written notice owes the tenant three times the amount wrongfully withheld plus reasonable attorney's fees (27-40-410(b)).
Do landlords have to pay interest on security deposits in South Carolina?: No — South Carolina does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. Chapter 40 of the South Carolina Code contains no escrow, separate-account, or interest requirement for security deposits. The act's definition says a security deposit is held in trust by the landlord (27-40-210(18)), but no section says where or how the money must be kept.
Can a landlord charge a non-refundable fee in South Carolina?: Not addressed by statute.

Citations

SC Code 27-40-410 · (a)-(e) (verified 2026) Official source
SC Code 27-40-350 · as added by Act No. 184 of 2026 (H. 3569); official code pages not yet updated (verified 2026) Official source
SC Code 27-40-450 · (a) (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 or separate-account 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 General Assembly kept working after sine die: Act No. 252 of 2026 (H. 3387), which rewrote the appeal stay in 27-40-800, was ratified on June 29, 2026 and approved on June 30, 2026. October 1, 2026: every section named above, with 27-40-450 and 27-40-910, was read again on scstatehouse.gov, whose banner says the online Code is current through the 2025 Session; the 2025 and 2026 Lists of Acts were searched for acts touching chapters 39 and 40, and Acts 184 and 252 of 2026 were read on their bill pages.