South Carolina HOA Short-Term Rentals

Quick-Reference Table

Last verified: July 17, 2026

Section 1: Overview — Can an HOA restrict short-term rentals in South Carolina?

Yes. A South Carolina condominium restricts short-term rentals through its recorded master deed and declaration under the Horizontal Property Act, and a planned community does so through its recorded covenants under the Homeowners Association Act, with recording central to whether any restriction can be enforced. South Carolina governs the two community types under two separate, non-UCIOA statutes: condominiums under the South Carolina Horizontal Property Act (S.C. Code § 27-31-10 et seq.),¹ a traditional horizontal property regime statute, and planned communities under the South Carolina Homeowners Association Act (S.C. Code § 27-30-110 et seq.),² a comparatively light 2018 disclosure-and-recording statute that is not a full governance code. The recording requirement is the operational feature that distinguishes South Carolina: under the Homeowners Association Act, governing documents and amendments must be recorded with the county clerk of court, Register of Mesne Conveyance, or register of deeds to be enforceable, so a rental restriction that is not properly recorded cannot be enforced against owners.³ This matters because the state's short-term rental activity concentrates in coastal markets where properties commonly sit inside HOA-governed or condominium-governed communities, including the Grand Strand and Hilton Head Island, and because Charleston separately regulates short-term rentals strictly at the local level.⁹ Contested rental disputes proceed through the Circuit Court (the Court of Common Pleas), or a magistrate court for certain monetary disputes under the Homeowners Association Act,⁵ with appeal to the South Carolina Court of Appeals and discretionary review by the Supreme Court of South Carolina. The sections that follow set out the statutory framework, the recording requirement, the tax and local-regulation layer, and recent legislative and judicial activity.

Section 2: The legal framework for HOA short-term rental restrictions

2A. The two non-UCIOA statutes

South Carolina uses two distinct statutes, and neither is based on the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. Condominiums are governed by the South Carolina Horizontal Property Act (S.C. Code § 27-31-10 et seq.), a traditional condominium statute originating in the 1960s.¹ A horizontal property regime is created when an owner records a master deed or lease that sets out the particulars required by § 27-31-100, and the regime is then administered through recorded bylaws. The Act addresses the mechanics of condominium ownership, common elements, assessments, and the lien for unpaid assessments, but it does not set substantive rental rules; those arise from the recorded master deed, declaration, and bylaws.

Planned communities are governed by the South Carolina Homeowners Association Act (S.C. Code § 27-30-110 et seq.), enacted in 2018.² Its scope should not be overstated. It is a disclosure-and-recording statute rather than a comprehensive governance code on the scale of California's Davis-Stirling Act or Florida's Chapter 720. Its operative provisions require recording of governing documents to make them enforceable, require notice before certain budget or assessment increases, apply specified nonprofit-corporation access-to-records provisions to unincorporated associations, and give magistrate courts concurrent jurisdiction over monetary disputes that meet the jurisdictional limit.⁵ A companion article directs the Department of Consumer Affairs to collect and report homeowners association complaint data; that agency is expressly prohibited from promulgating regulations, issuing governance guidelines, or arbitrating disputes, so it is a reporting body, not an HOA regulator.⁶

Because neither statute is UCIOA-based, South Carolina occupies a middle position. It is not purely CC&R-primary, because the Homeowners Association Act supplies a statutory framework for planned communities, but it is not a comprehensive-code state either. The practical consequence for rentals is consistent across both community types: the authority to restrict short-term rentals arises from the recorded declaration, covenants, master deed, and bylaws, and neither statute independently grants or limits that authority.

2B. The recording requirement, restricting rentals, amendments, and grandfathering

The recording requirement is central and should be verified in every South Carolina engagement. Under S.C. Code § 27-30-130(A)(1), a homeowners association's governing documents must be recorded in the county clerk of court's, Register of Mesne Conveyance, or register of deeds office to be enforceable.³ Governing documents are defined to include the declaration, master deeds, bylaws, and any amendments.⁴ Rules and regulations and their amendments carry a separate recording obligation: they must be recorded by January 10 of the year following adoption to remain enforceable.³ The operational takeaway is direct. A rental restriction, whether it appears in the declaration or in a board-adopted rule, is enforceable only if it has been recorded in the manner the statute requires; an unrecorded restriction is vulnerable to challenge.

Adopting or strengthening a rental restriction is done by amending the recorded governing documents under the applicable statute and the documents' own amendment clause, and then recording the amendment. Neither statute sets a statutory percentage for the amendment vote, so the threshold is whatever the recorded document specifies. South Carolina courts construe amendment clauses strictly; where an amendment provision is ambiguous about whether it reaches a particular change, courts resolve the ambiguity against the restriction.¹¹

Because neither statute is UCIOA-based, neither contains the 2008 UCIOA rental owner-protection provision, and no Florida-style or California-style statutory grandfathering shield should be imported. Grandfathering runs instead through the applicable statute, the recorded documents, and South Carolina common law. That common law disfavors restraints on the free use of land: a restrictive covenant must be clear, explicit, and unambiguous to be enforced, and all doubts are resolved in favor of free use.¹¹ Where recorded documents plainly bind an owner who took title subject to them, however, South Carolina courts have enforced rental restrictions.

In the coastal markets the recorded documents frequently control. On Hilton Head Island and along the Grand Strand, large master-planned communities, property owners associations, and oceanfront condominium regimes commonly set their own rental rules, and those recorded rules, not any special statute, determine whether a short-term rental is permitted. Some communities prohibit short-term rentals outright while others allow them subject to registration; the answer turns on the specific recorded documents for the specific community.

2C. State law, tax, and the local layer

South Carolina does not appear to preempt local short-term rental regulation, and the state has no comprehensive statewide short-term rental statute.⁹ Regulation is primarily local and contested. Charleston bans whole-house short-term rentals by non-resident owners, requires owner occupancy in residential categories, caps occupancy at four adults regardless of home size, does not grandfather illegal short-term rentals, and enforces permit, business-license, occupancy, and tax conditions through dedicated staff, with fines that can reach $1,000 per day; it is among the more restrictive cities in the Southeast.⁹ Other coastal jurisdictions regulate as well, including the Town of Hilton Head Island, which adopted its short-term rental ordinance in May 2022, along with Myrtle Beach and Horry County, Isle of Palms, and Folly Beach. Sullivan's Island has prohibited rentals under 30 days since 2002, subject to a handful of grandfathered properties, and is the only South Carolina municipality with a complete ban on short-term rentals.

Short-term lodging is taxed at the state and local levels. Under S.C. Code § 12-36-920(A), the state imposes a 7% sales tax on accommodations furnished to transients, which applies to stays of fewer than 90 continuous days and becomes exempt on the 91st day.⁷ Counties and municipalities may impose up to an additional 3% local accommodations tax, and coastal jurisdictions frequently add local hospitality fees.⁸ Registration for a retail license with the Department of Revenue is generally required, though narrow exemptions exist for very limited rental activity.

The distinction that matters for associations is this: local regulation and the accommodations tax govern the relationship between the owner and the government. They neither grant nor remove association authority. An owner who holds a valid Charleston permit and remits every applicable tax may still violate the recorded covenants of the community, and conversely an owner whose association permits short-term rentals may still be operating illegally under local ordinance if no local permit was obtained. Compliance in South Carolina therefore requires clearing two separate layers, the recorded governing documents and the local ordinance, and satisfying one says nothing about the other.

Section 3: Operational mechanics and enforcement

A. Adopting a valid restriction (the tools)

The most common mechanism is a use or leasing restriction recorded in the governing documents. Because South Carolina sets no statewide statutory minimum lease term for associations, a community that wants to bar transient use defines "short-term" itself, typically by setting a minimum lease term (for example, a minimum of 30 or 90 days, or a longer period such as the six-month minimum used in some Hilton Head Island communities) in the recorded declaration or covenants. The precise wording controls the outcome. South Carolina courts will not read a rental prohibition into a covenant that merely limits property to "residential purposes," and a covenant that is reasonably susceptible to more than one interpretation is construed in favor of the owner's free use.¹¹ Drafting must be clear, explicit, and unambiguous.

Rental caps, such as a limit on the percentage or number of units that may be leased at one time, are not addressed by either statute; whether a community may impose one depends entirely on its recorded documents and the authority those documents grant the board. Registration requirements, owner-information and local-contact requirements, and lease-filing obligations may likewise be imposed internally, provided they rest on recorded authority. Under § 27-30-130, a board-adopted rule of this kind must be recorded by January 10 of the following year to remain enforceable.³

B. Enforcement and the court structure

Neither statute prescribes a specific notice-and-hearing procedure before an association fines an owner for a short-term rental violation, so the required process is governed by the recorded documents and, for incorporated associations, the South Carolina Nonprofit Corporation Act. Boards should follow the documents' notice and opportunity-to-be-heard provisions closely, because a fine imposed without recorded authority or without the process the documents require is exposed to challenge.

The remedies available to an association are fines if authorized and recorded, injunctive relief, and the assessment lien. An action to enforce a restrictive covenant by injunction is an action in equity. Condominium associations have a statutory lien for unpaid assessments under § 27-31-210;¹⁰ planned-community associations rely on the lien and collection authority in their recorded documents. A contested enforcement action is brought in the Circuit Court (the Court of Common Pleas), which has general civil jurisdiction, or in a magistrate court for certain monetary disputes under the Homeowners Association Act, where § 27-30-160 grants magistrate courts concurrent jurisdiction over monetary disputes that meet the § 22-3-10 limit of $7,500.⁵ Appeals run to the South Carolina Court of Appeals and then, by discretionary review, to the Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Association enforcement and local-government enforcement operate independently. A city or county can cite or fine an owner for operating without a local permit while the association separately pursues a covenant violation, and a favorable outcome in one forum does not resolve the other.

Section 4: Recent legislative and judicial activity

A. Recent bills (past 24 months)

B. Recent rulings (past 36 months)

For context on how South Carolina courts read rental-specific covenants, the leading modern example remains Community Services Associates, Inc. v. Wall (S.C. Ct. App. Dec. 6, 2017), Appellate Case No. 2015-001795, in which the Court of Appeals held that a Sea Pines Plantation covenant did not clearly prohibit a Hilton Head owner from renting a whole home while occupying the guest suite, and construed the ambiguity in favor of free use.¹¹

C. Active debates and litigation

S. 442 remains pending in the 2025-2026 session and keeps the state-versus-local balance over short-term rentals unresolved. Separately, three out-of-state owners in the Hilton Head Plantation community sued their property owners association in the Beaufort County Court of Common Pleas (suit filed December 19) after the community voted in March to ban short-term rentals, a dispute that tests an association's authority to adopt a rental ban by amendment where the community's Class "A" covenants already bar rentals of less than six months.

Section 5: National positioning and related coverage

South Carolina sits between the two dominant models. It has a traditional condominium statute (the Horizontal Property Act) and a light, disclosure-and-recording planned-community statute (the Homeowners Association Act), so it is neither purely CC&R-primary nor a comprehensive-code state, and its recording requirement is the feature that most distinguishes it in practice. Unlike Florida and Arizona, it does not appear to preempt local short-term rental regulation, and unlike California (Civil Code § 4741) and Arizona (A.R.S. § 33-1806.01), it does not limit HOA rental authority through a single statutory provision. Local ordinances and the state accommodations tax restrain local governments and owners, not associations, and clearing one layer says nothing about the other. For a multi-state operator entering South Carolina, the practical implication is that rental authority is driven by the recorded governing documents, enforceability depends on proper recording, and the largest exposure lies in the very large HOA-governed and condominium-governed coastal markets where recorded rules, local permits, and taxes all apply at once.

HOA Weekly's South Carolina Short-Term Rentals coverage updates quarterly as the General Assembly, the South Carolina Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of South Carolina, and local governments act. Federal frameworks, including the FHA, the ADA, the FDCPA, the SCRA, and OTARD, also apply to South Carolina associations regardless of the state framework.

1. S.C. Code § 27-31-10 et seq., South Carolina Horizontal Property Act ↩
2. S.C. Code § 27-30-110 et seq., South Carolina Homeowners Association Act (2018 Act No. 245, eff. May 17, 2018) ↩
3. S.C. Code § 27-30-130, Enforceability of governing documents; recording requirements; rules, regulations, and amendments ↩
4. S.C. Code § 27-30-120, Definitions (governing documents means declaration, master deeds, or bylaws, or any amendments) ↩
5. S.C. Code § 27-30-160, Jurisdiction of magistrates court (concurrent jurisdiction over monetary disputes meeting the § 22-3-10 limit of $7,500) ↩
6. S.C. Code § 27-30-310 et seq., Department of Consumer Affairs Services for Homeowners and Homeowners Associations (agency prohibited from promulgating regulations or arbitrating disputes) ↩
7. S.C. Dept. of Revenue, Accommodations Tax; S.C. Code § 12-36-920(A) (7% sales tax on accommodations; exempt after 90 continuous days) ↩
8. S.C. Dept. of Revenue, Accommodations Tax (local governments may impose up to an additional 3% local accommodations tax under § 6-1-530) ↩
9. City of Charleston, Short Term Rental Ordinance (owner-occupancy, four-adult occupancy cap, no grandfathering of illegal STRs) ↩
10. S.C. Code § 27-31-210, Lien for unpaid assessments (Horizontal Property Act) ↩
11. Community Services Associates, Inc. v. Wall, Appellate Case No. 2015-001795 (S.C. Ct. App. Dec. 6, 2017) (covenants disfavored; ambiguity resolved in favor of free use of property) ↩
12. Pacaso, Inc. v. Town of Sullivan's Island, 2026-UP-078 (S.C. Ct. App. Feb. 18, 2026) (unpublished) ↩
13. Hoffman v. Saad Holdings, LLC, Op. No. 6138 (S.C. Ct. App., filed Feb. 18, 2026; substituted opinion refiled Mar. 25, 2026) ↩
14. S. 442, Short Term Rentals, 2025-2026 Session (adding S.C. Code § 6-1-195) ↩
15. H. 3447, Homeowners Association Authority, 2025-2026 Session (amending § 27-30-130; adding § 29-3-810) ↩