South Carolina Eviction Process: Notice Periods, Timeline, and Costs

S.C. Code § 27-40-710(B) lets a landlord terminate when rent is unpaid and the tenant fails to pay within five days of the due date, provided written notice of nonpayment has been given. Count five days from the date the rent came due. South Carolina is unusual in allowing that notice obligation to be satisfied in advance: it is met for the rest of the lease term once you have given one such notice, or if conspicuous language in the written rental agreement warns the tenant that failure to pay within five days can start an eviction. If you rely on the lease language, it must actually be conspicuous.

Under S.C. Code § 27-40-710(A), for a material breach of the lease or a health-and-safety violation you deliver written notice specifying the acts or omissions and stating that the rental agreement terminates on a date not less than 14 days after receipt if the breach is not remedied within 14 days. Conduct that cannot be cured, and drug-related activity under § 27-40-540, is handled separately and does not carry the same cure right.

S.C. Code § 27-40-770 lets either party end a month-to-month tenancy with written notice given at least 30 days before the termination date stated in the notice; a week-to-week tenancy takes 7 days. South Carolina has no just-cause requirement, so no reason has to be given.

Evictions are filed as an Application for Ejectment in the magistrate's court for the county where the property is located. The Rule to Show Cause filing fee is commonly around $40 with roughly $10 more for the writ of ejectment, though counties vary and service costs are extra.

After you apply for ejectment, the magistrate issues a Rule to Vacate or Show Cause requiring the tenant either to leave immediately or to show cause before the magistrate within 10 days after the rule is served. If the tenant does nothing within those 10 days, the magistrate can issue a writ of ejectment without a hearing.

Uncontested cases usually take three to five weeks: a five-day nonpayment window, the application, a 10-day show-cause period, then a writ of ejectment issued within five days of judgment and a 24-hour window to vacate after the writ is posted. A tenant who requests a hearing, or a defective notice that has to be re-served, adds time.

Locking a tenant out, cutting off essential services, or removing belongings without a writ is unlawful in South Carolina. Under S.C. Code § 27-40-660, a tenant unlawfully removed or excluded, or whose essential services are willfully interrupted, may recover possession or terminate the rental agreement and in either case recover an amount equal to three months' periodic rent or twice the actual damages sustained, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney fees. Only a constable or sheriff executing the writ of ejectment may remove the tenant.

No change to South Carolina's notice periods in 2024-2026. Several bills in the 2025-2026 session — including proposals to change when an eviction may be carried out under § 27-37-10, to fix the writ of ejectment at five days, and to allow expungement or removal of eviction records — have been introduced but check current status before relying on any of them.

The pre-satisfied notice rule in § 27-40-710(B) is where South Carolina landlords get overconfident. Magistrates differ on whether particular lease language is truly conspicuous, so serving an actual written five-day notice each time costs nothing and removes the argument. The other frequent problem is treating the Rule to Show Cause as the end of the case: if the tenant responds within 10 days the magistrate sets a hearing, and you need the lease, ledger and notice ready. Individuals may represent themselves in magistrate's court; an LLC or corporation that owns the property generally needs an attorney. Note that the 14-day cure notice and the 5-day rent notice are different animals — do not use one for the other.

• S.C. Code § 27-40-710
• S.C. Code § 27-40-770
• S.C. Code § 27-37-10