How to Evict a Tenant in South Carolina: Laws, Process, and Timeline
South Carolina Eviction Timeline 2026: One 5-Day Window, Not Two Stacked Ones
The Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, S.C. Code §§ 27-40-10 through 27-40-940, governs eviction statewide, and the magistrate-court ejectment procedure sits in Chapter 37 of the same title. This page covers the lawsuit itself: notice, the Rule to Vacate, the hearing, the writ. Deposits, repair remedies, and entry rules are on our South Carolina landlord-tenant law guide.
Grounds and Notice Periods
One number worth correcting before anything else: there’s no separate statutory “grace period” stacked in front of the non-payment notice. § 27-40-310(c) makes rent payable without demand or notice at the agreed time; it doesn’t create an additional waiting period before the clock in § 27-40-710 even starts. The 5 days in § 27-40-710(B) is the whole window — rent has to sit unpaid for 5 days after the due date before the landlord can terminate, not 5 days of grace followed by a separate 5-day notice.
| Ground | Notice Period | Statute | Curable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-payment of rent | 5 days from the due date | § 27-40-710(B) | Yes — pay in full within the window |
| Lease violation | 14 days to cure after written notice | § 27-40-710(A) | Yes — repair by the stated date; a fix that can’t finish inside 14 days still counts if it starts on time and moves forward in good faith |
| Illegal activity on the premises (§ 27-40-540) | Written notice under the same subsection as non-payment | § 27-40-710(B) | The subsection’s cure language speaks only of paying rent; it sets out no cure step for illegal activity |
| No-cause, month-to-month | 30 days before the termination date in the notice | § 27-40-770(b) | N/A |
| No-cause, week-to-week | 7 days before the termination date in the notice | § 27-40-770(a) | N/A |
A second correction: a landlord doesn’t have to send a fresh non-payment notice every time rent runs late during the same lease. Give the standard 5-day notice once, or have the statute’s own boilerplate warning language already written into the lease, and that satisfies the requirement for the rest of the lease term — and, where the lease carries that boilerplate, for a month-to-month tenancy that follows it.
The Court Process
- File. Once the applicable notice has run, the landlord applies to a magistrate with jurisdiction, who issues a written Rule requiring the tenant to vacate or to show cause, within 10 days after service, why they shouldn’t be ejected (§ 27-37-20).
- Serve. The Rule is served the same way as a summons. If two attempts at least 48 hours apart fail, it can be posted on the premises and mailed through the magistrate’s clerk; service by that route isn’t complete until 10 days after mailing (§ 27-37-30).
- Hearing — only if the tenant asks for one. A tenant who doesn’t appear and show cause within those 10 days gets no hearing: the magistrate issues a warrant of ejectment (§ 27-37-40). A tenant who appears and contests gets a hearing “forthwith,” with a jury if either side demands one (§ 27-37-60). A tenant planning a retaliation defense must tell the landlord in writing within 10 days after service of the Rule (§ 27-40-910(f)).
- Judgment and writ. After a verdict for the landlord, the magistrate issues the writ of ejectment within 5 days (§ 27-37-100). Either side can appeal to circuit court within 30 days after written notice of the judgment, or from the judgment itself if it was announced with the party present (§ 18-7-20). Filing the appeal alone doesn’t stop the ejectment. One route is an appeal bond in an amount the magistrate fixes, covering the landlord’s costs and damages (§ 27-37-130). The other is the statutory undertaking to keep paying the rent the magistrate set as it comes due; any magistrate, clerk, or circuit court judge must order a stay on it (§ 27-40-800(b)). The undertaking is Chapter 40’s form of the same stay bond — its statutory form is titled “Bond to Stay Execution on Appeal to Circuit Court” (§ 27-40-800(c)) — and Chapter 37 gives way to Chapter 40 only where the two are inconsistent (§ 27-40-920). So whichever one the tenant uses, if it isn’t filed within 5 days after service of the notice of appeal, the magistrate dismisses the appeal (§ 27-37-130). If either side disputes the payment amount or due date in the undertaking, it can move the circuit court to modify the terms, and no ejectment may be executed pending that hearing as long as the tenant has complied with the undertaking (§ 27-40-800(d)). If a payment under the undertaking is more than 5 days late, the stay dissolves upon application of the landlord, the possession appeal is dismissed, and the clerk issues a warrant of ejectment (§ 27-40-800(c), (e)).
- Execution. The constable or deputy sheriff presents the writ and gives the occupants 24 hours to leave voluntarily; if the unit appears occupied and no one answers, the writ is posted and the same 24 hours runs from posting. Only a deputy sheriff, not a constable, may then force entry (§ 27-37-160).
What This Costs
Confirm the current filing and service fees with the magistrate court clerk before filing.
What a Landlord Cannot Do
§ 27-40-760 bars a landlord from taking the unit back “by action or otherwise” — expressly including willfully cutting essential services — except after abandonment, surrender, termination, or as the chapter allows; a tenant locked out or cut off can recover possession or end the lease plus three months’ rent or twice actual damages, whichever is greater (§ 27-40-660). § 27-40-910 covers a different kind of pressure — an above-market rent hike, a cut in essential services, or a possession suit aimed at punishing a code complaint to a government agency or a complaint to the landlord about a chapter violation counts as retaliation. The statute sets no day-count window for it. A landlord found to have retaliated is liable for up to three months’ rent or treble actual damages, whichever is greater, plus attorney’s fees (§ 27-40-910(h)); the same formula runs the other way against a tenant who raises the defense in bad faith (§ 27-40-910(b)). The one rent carve-out belongs to bigger operators — a landlord renting more than four adjoining units can raise rent without a presumption of retaliation if the increase applies uniformly to all tenants or stays within fair-market value.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there really a 5-day grace period before the 5-day non-payment notice in South Carolina? No — that’s a doubling that doesn’t exist in the statute. § 27-40-710(B)’s 5 days is the entire window: rent has to sit unpaid for 5 days after the due date before the landlord can even terminate. There’s no separate grace period tacked on in front of it.
Does a South Carolina landlord have to send a new notice every time rent is late during the same lease? No. One 5-day notice given during the lease term — or the statute’s boilerplate warning language already written into the lease — covers the rest of that lease term. A later late payment doesn’t reset the requirement.
Can a South Carolina tenant appeal an eviction ruling, and does it stop the process? The appeal goes to circuit court within 30 days, but it only halts the ejectment if the tenant posts an appeal bond or signs the undertaking to pay the rent the magistrate set as it falls due. A bond or undertaking not filed within 5 days after service of the notice of appeal gets the appeal itself dismissed (§ 27-37-130; § 27-40-920). Miss a payment by more than 5 days and, on the landlord’s application, the stay dissolves and the possession appeal is dismissed.