Eviction Notice Requirements in South Carolina

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Section § 27-40-10 names the governing chapter the South Carolina Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. The rules below address the notices within that Act, not the later magistrate-court ejectment procedure.

Notice for unpaid rent

If rent is late, "the landlord may terminate the rental agreement provided the landlord has given the tenant written notice of nonpayment and his intention to terminate the rental agreement if the rent is not paid within" five days from the due date (§ 27-40-710(B)). Pay in full within those 5 days and the termination is stopped.

But South Carolina attaches a catch found in almost no other state. The landlord's duty to give that 5-day notice "is satisfied for any lease term after the landlord has given one such notice to the tenant or if the notice is contained in conspicuous language in a written rental agreement." If your lease includes the statute's boilerplate — "IF YOU DO NOT PAY YOUR RENT ON TIME... You will get no other notice as long as you live in this rental unit" — the landlord never has to send a separate late-rent notice again and can move straight to filing for eviction. Most South Carolina leases include exactly this clause, so in practice many tenants get no individual warning at all.

Notice for a lease violation

For a fixable breach that is not about rent, the landlord "may deliver a written notice to the tenant specifying the acts and omissions constituting the breach" and stating that the tenancy "will terminate upon a date not less than fourteen days after receipt of the notice, if the breach is not remedied in fourteen days" (§ 27-40-710(A)). You keep the tenancy if you fix the problem before the stated date, or — for a repair that genuinely can't be finished in two weeks — if you start it within the 14 days and pursue it in good faith. For a health-and-safety breach under § 27-40-720(b), the statute instead allows action as promptly as conditions require in an emergency; only a non-emergency uses the 14-day written-notice period.

Unconditional quit (no cure allowed)

Section 27-40-710(A) gives the ordinary covered breach a 14-day cure period. Health-and-safety noncompliance follows § 27-40-720(b): an emergency may require compliance as promptly as conditions require, while a non-emergency gives 14 days after written notice. Section 27-40-540 violations are addressed in the nonpayment-and-termination subsection, § 27-40-710(B). Abandonment is a separate route: an unexplained absence for 15 days after a rent default is treated as abandonment under § 27-40-730.

Ending a month-to-month tenancy

Either party may end a month-to-month tenancy "by a written notice given to the other at least thirty days before the termination date specified in the notice," and a week-to-week tenancy on at least 7 days' notice (§ 27-40-770(a),(b)). No reason is required.

How the notice must be served

A notice is legally effective when the tenant "receives" it, which the Act defines: "delivered in hand to the tenant or mailed by registered or certified mail" to the address the tenant holds out, or to the last known residence (§ 27-40-240(B)(3)). Mailing that way counts even if the tenant never signs for it — "proof of mailing... constitutes notice without proof of receipt." The nonpayment and lease-violation notices must "specify" the breach, and deadlines are counted using the South Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure (§ 27-40-240(D)).

Tenant's right to cure/reinstate

Your statutory ways to stop the eviction are on the front end: pay within the 5-day nonpayment window, or fix the lease breach within the 14-day cure period (§ 27-40-710). South Carolina's Act gives no separate "pay everything owed at the courthouse" right for nonpayment once the 5 days pass. What it does give is a retaliation defense: a landlord may not "bring[] an action for possession after" the tenant complained to a housing-code agency or complained to the landlord of an Act violation (§ 27-40-910).

What trips people up

The "you will get no other notice" lease clause is the big one. Unlike most states, South Carolina lets a landlord satisfy the entire 5-day-notice requirement in advance by putting the statute's exact language in the lease. If your lease has it, do not wait for a late-rent notice that will never come — the landlord can file for eviction as soon as you are five days late.

Five days is measured from the rent due date, not from any notice. Because the notice can be pre-satisfied in the lease, the real deadline is simply five days after rent was due. Count from the due date.

Curing a repair means starting in time, not necessarily finishing. For a lease-violation notice, a fix that cannot reasonably be completed in 14 days does not doom the tenancy as long as you begin within the 14 days and pursue it in good faith to completion within a reasonable time (§ 27-40-710(A)(2)).

Common questions

My lease says I get no other notice if I'm late — is that legal? Yes. South Carolina's statute expressly lets a landlord meet the 5-day-notice requirement by including that conspicuous language in the lease (§ 27-40-710(B)). It applies for the whole tenancy, including after the original lease term rolls to month-to-month.

Can I stop a nonpayment eviction by paying after the 5 days? Not as a matter of state law. Paying within the 5-day window stops termination; after that, the Act provides no guaranteed pay-and-stay. A landlord may agree to accept late rent, but is not required to.

Can my landlord evict me for no reason? For a month-to-month tenancy, yes — with at least 30 days' written notice (§ 27-40-770). South Carolina has no statewide just-cause requirement.

How much notice to fix a broken lease term other than rent? 14 days (§ 27-40-710(A)). If the repair legitimately needs longer, starting it within the 14 days and finishing in a reasonable time preserves the tenancy.

Statutes and sources

• S.C. Code § 27-40-710 — noncompliance and nonpayment: 14-day cure-or-quit for a lease breach (A); 5-day nonpayment notice and the one-notice / conspicuous-lease-language rule (B). https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t27c040.php (accessed 2026-10-09)
• S.C. Code § 27-40-720(b) — emergency compliance as promptly as conditions require, or 14 days after written notice if not an emergency. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t27c040.php (accessed 2026-10-09)
• S.C. Code § 27-40-770 — periodic tenancy: 30-day month-to-month and 7-day week-to-week termination notice. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t27c040.php (accessed 2026-10-09)
• S.C. Code § 27-40-240 — how a notice is "given" and "received"; personal delivery or registered/certified mail; deadlines computed under the SC Rules of Civil Procedure. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t27c040.php (accessed 2026-10-09)
• S.C. Code § 27-40-910 — retaliatory conduct prohibited; possession action barred after a code complaint or a complaint to the landlord, available as a defense. https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t27c040.php (accessed 2026-10-09)