South Carolina Landlord-Tenant Laws: The Complete 2026 Overview

South Carolina sets no cap on the deposit amount, but section 27-40-410 locks down the return: a landlord must refund the deposit within thirty days after the tenant surrenders the unit and delivers a written forwarding address, together with a written itemized statement of any amount withheld. The written forwarding address is typically treated as a condition precedent, so the clock never starts until the tenant supplies it. Deductions are limited to unpaid rent, damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, unpaid utilities, and lease-specified charges. The teeth are in the same statute – a landlord who wrongfully withholds, or fails to itemize within the window, can owe up to three times the amount wrongfully withheld plus the tenant’s attorney’s fees, with bad faith presumed after the deadline. Deposit disputes are heard in South Carolina’s small claims court.

Read the full South Carolina security deposit laws guide for permitted deductions, the wear-and-tear line, and the move-out timeline.

South Carolina is not a just-cause state – a landlord may decline to renew a lease for almost any lawful reason. To evict for nonpayment, the landlord must first serve a written notice to vacate giving the tenant at least five days to pay or move out, unless the lease specifies a different period, under S.C. Code section 27-37. If the tenant stays, the landlord files a case in the Magistrate Court for the county where the property sits; a hearing is typically set ten to thirty days after filing, and the tenant has a response window of about ten days. Self-help evictions – changing locks, removing belongings, or shutting off utilities – are illegal and expose the landlord to actual damages and statutory penalties. Only a sheriff or constable acting on a writ of possession may physically remove a tenant.

Read the full South Carolina eviction notice laws guide for the filing steps, the hearing timeline, and the writ of possession.

South Carolina does set a fixed entry rule: under section 27-40-530 the landlord must give at least twenty-four hours’ notice before entering an occupied unit for a non-emergency purpose and may enter only at reasonable times. That statute works alongside the tenant’s common-law right to quiet enjoyment, so entry must also serve a legitimate purpose – inspection, repair, showing the unit, or delivering a required notice – executed professionally. In practice, normal business hours run roughly eight in the morning to six in the evening. Genuine emergencies such as fire, flooding, a gas leak, or a security breach permit immediate entry without notice. A landlord who repeatedly enters without proper notice can face damages of one hundred dollars per violation plus a quiet-enjoyment claim, and a serious pattern can support lease termination. Spelling out the entry procedure in the lease is the single best way to avoid a dispute.

Read the full South Carolina landlord entry laws guide for the permitted-entry reasons and how to write a compliant notice.

South Carolina has no rent control. State law bars cities and towns from adopting their own rent-control ordinances, so there is no legal cap on how much a landlord may raise the rent – the limits are about timing, notice, and motive rather than the dollar amount. During a fixed-term lease the rent is locked at the agreed figure unless the lease contains an escalation clause; a mid-term increase without that clause is not enforceable. For a month-to-month tenancy, the landlord must give at least thirty days’ written notice stating the new rent and its effective date. The motive limits are real: state law bars a rent increase within six months after a tenant files a complaint, requests repairs, or joins a tenant organization, and an increase that singles out a tenant because of a protected characteristic is separately unlawful housing discrimination.

Read the full South Carolina rent increase laws guide for the notice mechanics and the retaliation window.

S.C. Code section 27-40-310 governs residential late fees. There is no fixed dollar cap, but the fee must be stated in a written lease and represent a reasonable estimate of the landlord’s costs rather than a penalty, and it can be charged only after rent is actually past due. In practice, reasonable late fees run about five to ten percent of the monthly rent, and courts generally treat fees in that range as presumptively reasonable while striking down anything that operates as a penalty. The industry-standard grace period is five days, though a lease can set its own. A returned-check or NSF fee is likewise enforceable only when the lease sets it, typically around thirty dollars, and NSF and late fees can be charged together if both are in the lease. Unpaid late fees can be pursued in small claims court, which in South Carolina handles claims up to seven thousand five hundred dollars.

Read the full South Carolina late fee laws guide for the reasonableness test and grace-period practice.

Under section 27-40-440 of the South Carolina Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, a landlord must comply with applicable building and housing codes, make all repairs needed to keep the unit fit and habitable, maintain common areas, keep the electrical, plumbing, heating, and cooling systems in safe working order, and supply running water and heat. The tenant triggers remedies by giving written notice – certified mail with return receipt is best – that specifies the defect. Under section 27-40-610, if a material breach affecting health and safety is not cured within fourteen days, the tenant may terminate the lease and recover actual damages. For a loss of an essential service, section 27-40-630 lets the tenant procure the service and deduct the reasonable cost, or recover reduced-rental-value damages plus attorney’s fees. Retaliation against a tenant who asserts these rights is barred by section 27-40-910.

Read the full South Carolina habitability laws guide for the repair-request procedure and the tenant’s remedies.

South Carolina recognizes several protected reasons a tenant may end a fixed-term lease early. The strongest is federal: under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a servicemember who enters active duty or receives permanent-change-of-station or long-deployment orders may terminate on written notice with a copy of the orders, and the lease ends thirty days after the next rent due date. New for 2026, section 27-40-350 (Act 184 of 2026, effective May 18, 2026) lets a documented domestic-violence victim terminate on written notice within sixty days of a qualifying incident, effective at least thirty days later, with no penalty. A tenant may also leave for an uncured material habitability defect under section 27-40-610. For a tenant who simply leaves, section 27-40-730 imposes a duty on the landlord to make reasonable efforts to re-rent, so the departing tenant owes only the vacancy gap, not the entire remaining term – though a bona fide liquidated-damages clause is enforceable under section 27-40-330.

Read the full South Carolina breaking lease laws guide for each statutory ground and the duty to mitigate.

Ending a South Carolina tenancy depends on its type. A month-to-month tenancy is terminated by written notice of at least thirty days under section 27-40-770, from either party, and a week-to-week tenancy on seven days’ notice. A fixed-term lease generally runs to its end date and ends automatically then, with no separate statutory notice required – though many leases add a thirty- to sixty-day non-renewal clause. South Carolina does not require just cause to decline to renew a lease, provided the non-renewal is neither discriminatory nor retaliatory, and automatic-renewal clauses are enforceable when the lease discloses them clearly. A tenant who stays past the lease end date becomes a holdover – treated as a tenant at sufferance – and the landlord must pursue possession through the Magistrate Court rather than self-help. When any tenancy ends, the deposit rules of section 27-40-410 still apply to the move-out.

Read the full South Carolina lease termination laws guide for notice by tenancy type and holdover rules.

For an actual pet, South Carolina imposes no separate statutory cap on pet deposits, pet fees, or pet rent, so a landlord may charge a reasonable amount if the lease provides for it, and private landlords may impose breed or weight restrictions on ordinary pets. Assistance animals are treated completely differently. Under the federal Fair Housing Act – reinforced by the South Carolina Fair Housing Law, S.C. Code section 31-21-10 et seq. – a service animal or emotional support animal is not a pet, so a landlord may not charge any pet deposit, fee, or rent, and may not apply a breed or weight restriction or a no-pet policy to it. When the disability or the animal’s role is not obvious, the landlord may request reliable documentation from a licensed professional, but may not demand a diagnosis, certification, or registration. The tenant remains liable for any actual damage the animal causes. South Carolina has no statute criminalizing misrepresentation of an assistance animal, so landlords rely on compliant verification instead.

Read the full South Carolina pet and ESA laws guide for accommodation requests and documentation limits.

South Carolina leaves most of tenant screening to the landlord, so the binding rules are largely federal. With the applicant’s written consent, a landlord may pull a consumer report covering credit, rental history, income, and criminal convictions – the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a permissible purpose and consent first, and reports generally reach back seven years. South Carolina does not cap application or screening fees, but they should be reasonable, disclosed before collection, and charged consistently. If a denial, a higher deposit, or a co-signer requirement rests in any part on a consumer report, the FCRA requires a pre-adverse and then an adverse action notice naming the reporting agency; a willful violation exposes the landlord to up to one thousand dollars per violation plus attorney’s fees. Blanket criminal-record bans are risky under HUD’s 2016 individualized-assessment guidance. Source of income is not a protected class in South Carolina, so a landlord may decline Housing Choice Vouchers, and fair-housing complaints go to the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission or HUD.

Read the full South Carolina tenant screening laws guide for the FCRA steps and the fair-housing baseline.