When The Landlord Will Not Fix It
S.C. Code 27-40-440 and S.C. Code 27-40-610 — fit and habitable, and a fourteen day notice
- Complying with building and housing codes materially affecting health and safety.
- Making all repairs and doing whatever is reasonably necessary to keep the premises fit and habitable.
- Keeping common areas reasonably safe, and reasonably clean where there are more than four units.
- Making available running water, reasonable hot water at all times and reasonable heat, unless the tenant controls their source.
- Keeping electrical, gas, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilating, air conditioning and other facilities and appliances supplied by the landlord in reasonably good and safe working order.
Those are the landlord's duties under the maintenance section. Appliances in the unit are presumed supplied by the landlord unless the agreement excludes them, and none needed for essential services may be excluded.
A fourteen day notice. For a material noncompliance with the agreement, or one with the maintenance section materially affecting health and safety, the tenant may give written notice specifying the breach and that the agreement will end on a date at least fourteen days after the landlord receives it unless remedied within fourteen days. It does not end if the landlord adequately remedies it in time.
Where the landlord negligently or wilfully fails to provide essential services, the tenant may give written notice and either procure reasonable amounts of them and deduct the actual and reasonable cost from the rent, or recover damages for the reduced rental value and attorney's fees. That section is not a license to make repairs and deduct their cost from the rent.
The tenant may also recover actual damages and get an injunction in magistrate's or circuit court without posting bond, with attorney's fees where the noncompliance is wilful. None of this applies to a condition the tenant, a family member or a guest caused. Whether a particular condition qualifies is a question for a licensed South Carolina attorney.
Sources for this section (3)
- S.C. Code 27-40-440 — Landlord to maintain premises
- S.C. Code 27-40-610 — Noncompliance by landlord in general
- S.C. Code 27-40-630 — Wrongful failure to provide essential services
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed South Carolina attorney.