When They Take The Car Back
S.C. Code 37-5-111 and S.C. Code 37-5-112 — a notice of the right to cure, twenty days, and no entry into a home
A notice of the right to cure. On a consumer credit transaction payable in installments, after a consumer has been in default for ten days for a missed payment, the creditor may give a written notice stating the right to cure, the amount due and the last day to pay it.
Twenty days. After a default that is only a missed payment, the creditor may neither accelerate the balance nor take the collateral until twenty days after that notice is given. Until then, the consumer may cure by paying all unpaid sums then due, without acceleration, plus any unpaid delinquency charges, which restores the agreement as though the default had not happened.
Once a creditor has given that notice, a later default on the same obligation carries no new right to cure. Unless the consumer surrenders the collateral, a creditor may take it without going to court only if it can do so without entering a dwelling used as a current residence and without force or other breach of the peace.
On a sale of goods with a cash price of $1,500 or less, a consumer whose goods are repossessed is not personally liable for the unpaid balance, and no consumer owes a deficiency unless the creditor disposed of the goods in good faith and in a commercially reasonable manner. Whether a particular repossession was lawful is a question for a licensed South Carolina attorney.
Sources for this section (5)
- S.C. Code 37-5-110 — Notice of consumer's right to cure
- S.C. Code 37-5-111 — Cure of default
- S.C. Code 37-5-112 — Creditor's right to take possession after default
- S.C. Code 36-9-609 — Secured party's right to take possession after default
- S.C. Code 37-5-103 — Restrictions on deficiency judgments in consumer credit sales
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.