What South Carolina requires of a seller

Unless your transfer is one of the excluded kinds below, SC Code § 27-50-40 requires you to furnish the purchaser with a written disclosure statement, on the form promulgated by the South Carolina Real Estate Commission. The Commission has to post that form for free download on its website, so it is not something an agent supplies as a favour.

The statute says it must cover, at a minimum:

Two things follow that people miss. Under § 27-50-50(A) it has to reach the purchaser before the contract is signedby both of you, or as otherwise agreed in the contract itself. And under § 27-50-60, if you later discover the statement has become materially inaccurate — you found something, or something happened — you must promptly deliver a corrected statement or make reasonable repairs before closing. It is not a form you sign once and forget.

This one surprises both sides of the table, and I would rather you heard it from me than from someone using it as leverage.

§ 27-50-50(B) states that failing to provide the disclosure form does not void the agreement, does not create a defect in title, and is nota valid reason for any party — including the closing attorney or the lender — to delay or otherwise interfere with closing.

That is not the same as saying it does not matter. § 27-50-50(C) keeps the licensee subject to the Commission’s regulations and says the article does not limit any other remedy available to the purchaser under law. And § 27-50-70(A) puts a duty on me rather than on you: a listing agent must inform each owner in writingof these obligations. An agent who does that is not liable for an owner’s refusal or failure to provide the statement; an agent who skips it has no such protection.

Worth knowing in the other direction too: § 27-50-80 says none of this limits the purchaser’s own obligation to inspect, and that a licensee has no duty to inspect the property. Disclosure is not a substitute for an inspection and was never meant to be.

§ 27-50-90 is short and worth reading in full if it touches your situation. An owner is not requiredto disclose that a property may be or is “psychologically affected”, and no cause of action arises against an owner for failing to disclose:

that a death occurred on the property, or the manner of it; that an occupant was infected with a virus or other disease which medical evidence has determined is highly unlikely to be transmitted through occupying a dwelling; or public information from the sex offender registry.

There is one firm limit, in subsection (C): none of that protects an owner who makes intentional misrepresentations in response to a direct inquiry from a purchaser about psychological effects or stigmas. Staying silent is protected. Being asked and answering falsely is not, and the distinction is the whole section.

A great many owners here are not South Carolina residents, and this is the rule that produces the unpleasant surprise at closing.

Under SC Code § 12-8-580, a buyer purchasing real property from a nonresident seller must withhold tax at closing and remit it. What gets withheld turns on one piece of paper.

If you give the buyer the affidavit described in subsection (E), stating the amount of gain, withholding is a percentage equal to the maximum individual income tax rate applied to the gain— five percent for a nonresident corporation or other entity. If you do not provide it, the same percentage is applied to the entire amount realized on the sale, which on a long-held property is a dramatically larger number. Withholding is capped at the net proceeds otherwise payable to you.

The statute also provides that a sale does not include tax-exempt or tax-deferred transactions other than installment sales, and excludes a transaction to the extent gain on the sale of a principal residence is excluded under the Internal Revenue Code.

Note what the statute does notdo: it never names a percentage. It says “a percentage equal to the maximum individual tax rate”, because that rate is set elsewhere and changes — South Carolina rewrote its individual income tax brackets for 2026. So this page does not name one either. Confirm the current rate and the affidavit with the SC Department of Revenue or your accountant, in the year you sell.

§ 12-24-10 imposes a recording fee for the privilege of recording a deed: one dollar and eighty-five cents for each five hundred dollars, or fractional part of five hundred dollars, of the realty’s value.

And § 12-24-20(A) answers the question people actually ask: the fee is the liability of the grantor— the seller — with the grantee secondarily liable. Certain deeds sit outside the chapter, including a deed of distribution transferring property to the distributee of a decedent’s estate.

Unlike the millage behind an annual tax bill, this rate is fixed in the statute rather than reset each year by the county, which is why there is a number on this page and none on the property tax guide.