A South Carolina rental application is essential for property owners looking to rent their property. It enables landlords to gather crucial information, such as eviction history, rental history, and financial details, from each applicant before entering into a lease agreement.
Laws
- Application Fee – Non-refundable.
- Fee Limits – No limits.
- Security Deposit – Landlords are not limited on how much they can charge.
Application Fee
- No Limit: There is no limit to the maximum application fee that a landlord can charge. However, property managers and owners should charge a reasonable amount to cover the costs of processing the application and avoid charging exorbitant fees. Otherwise, they may have difficulty finding someone to rent the property.
Fair Housing Protections
South Carolina law provides the following fair housing protections: [1]
- Landlords can’t refuse to rent a dwelling, negotiate terms, or discriminate in the terms of a rental based on a tenant’s color, race, religion, sex, national origin, or familial status.
- Landlords can’t publish any advertisement implying or stating a preference or discrimination based on color, race, religion, sex, handicap, national origin, or familial status.
- Landlords can’t misrepresent a dwelling’s availability based on the tenant’s color, race, religion, sex, handicap, national origin, or familial status.
- No party can use color, race, religion, sex, handicap, national origin, or familial status to influence someone to rent a property.
- Landlords can’t discriminate against a tenant and can’t refuse to provide services or facilities because of a handicap affecting them or someone they intend to live with.
Security Deposit Limits
- Maximum Limit: State law does not put a cap or maximum on a security deposit that a landlord can charge. However, cities and counties can impose their caps on security deposits.
- Transparency in Calculating Security Deposits: If a landlord has a property with more than four connecting units, they must divulge their system for calculating the deposit amounts if tenants have different deposit amounts. [2]
- Return of Security Deposit: At the end of the lease, landlords must return the security deposit within 30 days but can deduct any accrued rent and damages to the property caused by the tenant. The landlord must itemize any deductions taken from the security deposit and send them to the tenant. [3]
Pet Deposits
There are no limits on how much a landlord can charge for a pet deposit.
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