South Carolina landlord entry laws
How much notice your landlord owes you before coming in, when they may enter without it, and what South Carolina law lets you do about it.
Notice required
24 hours
At least twenty-four hours' notice before entry.
S.C. Code § 27-40-530
When they may enter
8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. for services the tenant requested; 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for regularly scheduled periodic services.
When they may enter without notice
Entry at any time in an emergency — and South Carolina expressly counts prospective weather likely to endanger the property as an emergency.
What you can do about a violation
Where the landlord KNOWINGLY makes an unlawful entry, repeated lawful entry in an unreasonable manner, or repeated demands for entry that unreasonably harass the tenant, the tenant may obtain injunctive relief without posting bond, or terminate — and in either case recover actual damages and reasonable attorney's fees.
S.C. Code § 27-40-780(b)
Before you rely on this
South Carolina law depends on facts only you can confirm. Check these first.
Did the landlord know the entries were improper?
South Carolina is the only state read that requires the landlord to have acted 'knowingly'. A single accident is unlikely to qualify; a pattern continuing after you objected in writing plainly does.
What to do right now
Object in writing first. In South Carolina that written objection is what makes everything afterwards knowing.
Put it in writing
We'll write a letter citing S.C. Code § 27-40-530, listing each entry with its date and time, and stating what the statute provides. Free to generate and download.
Write my South Carolina entry letterOther South Carolina tenant rights
Landlords who get one of these wrong often get another wrong too.
How this page was checked
- Read from the source. Every deadline, cap and penalty here was taken from South Carolina's published text — the statute, session law or administrative code itself.
- No legal-information websites. Commercial summaries were used only to find a provision, never as authority for it. An automated check fails our build if any state we serve cites a secondary source.
- Locked against drift. The verified figures are pinned by regression tests, so a later edit cannot quietly change a deadline or a penalty.
- Last verified August 21, 2026. Laws change — confirm the current text before relying on it.
General information, not legal advice. We are not a law firm.
Compare all 51 jurisdictions — notice periods range from 12 hours to 72, and thirteen states have no rule at all.