South Carolina Landlord-Tenant Laws
Local rent regulation in South Carolina
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.
Cited to S.C. Code Ann. § 27-39-60 · Verified August 12, 2026 · Full South Carolina rent-increase rules →
South Carolina Security deposits
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.
South Carolina Rent increase notice
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.
South Carolina Late fees
South Carolina sets no cap on residential late fees and mandates no grace period — rent is 'payable without demand or notice at the time and place agreed upon by the parties' (SC Code 27-40-310), so a lease-based late fee can begin accruing the day after rent is due.
South Carolina Entry notice
South Carolina landlords must give tenants at least 24 hours' notice before entering a rental for inspections, repairs, services, or showings, and may enter only at reasonable times — but the statute carves out three no-notice situations: emergencies (expressly including approaching weather that threatens the property), regularly scheduled periodic services like filter changes or pest treatment between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. if the lease conspicuously reserves that right and the landlord announces the entry, and tenant-requested services between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. with an announcement at the door.
South Carolina Eviction process
In South Carolina a landlord can begin evicting for unpaid rent once the rent is five days late, and no separate written notice is required if the lease contains the state's official conspicuous nonpayment warning.
South Carolina Application fees
South Carolina regulates nothing about rental application and screening fees: there is no cap, no tie to what a report costs, no receipt, no refund, no disclosure before payment, no state denial-notice duty, no reusable screening report law, no holding-deposit rule, and no rental fee-transparency law.
South Carolina mobile home park laws
South Carolina's Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act, S.C. Code Ann. Sections 27-47-10 through 27-47-620, governs the tenancy of a resident who owns a manufactured home and rents a lot in a park where five or more lots are offered for rent, and its headline rules are a mandatory written lease that must state the grounds for eviction, at least 30 days' notice before a new lot-rent rate takes effect, and a list of eight reasons for eviction that ends with any other reason sufficient at common law, so an owner who declines to renew at the end of a term is not confined to the list.
Lot-rent, closure, park-sale and home-sale rules with statute citations →
South Carolina Fair Market Rents (FY 2026) — HUD's benchmark rents for every South Carolina metro area and county.
Changes since last full verification
The Verified date above (July 9, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official state sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).
- Updated, August 12, 2026 — Act No. 184 of 2026 (H. 3569), in force since May 18, 2026, added Code section 27-40-350: on a protected tenant's early lease termination after a qualifying domestic-violence incident, security deposits are not required to be returned until the end of the lease term, and a landlord may terminate a remaining perpetrator-sole-tenant's tenancy on five days' written notice. The record previously reported the bill as having died at adjournment; both pages now carry the new law.
- Updated, August 12, 2026 — South Carolina's eviction page now records Act No. 233 of 2026 (in force May 19, 2026): housing authorities join the entities that may designate an employee or principal to represent them in magistrates court without engaging in the unauthorized practice of law (§ 33-1-103), and a new § 31-3-70 confirms a housing authority may designate an employee or a manager to do so.
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.