For years, I’ve sat across from property owners in the same painful moment: someone has moved into a home they own, a rental between tenants, an inherited house, a flip that isn’t finished, and that someone has no lease, no permission, and no intention of leaving. And the answer I had to give them was almost always the same. Be patient. This is going to take a while.
That answer just changed.
On June 30, 2026, Governor McMaster signed a new law that gives South Carolina property owners something we’ve never had before: a fast, court-backed path to remove people who are unlawfully occupying a residential property. It passed unanimously in both chambers, with both parties, which seldom happens. That tells you how badly this gap needed to be closed.
As a landlord-tenant attorney who works in this area of law every day, and as a real estate broker and property manager who actually holds the keys, let me explain what South Carolina’s new law does, what it means for your rights, and the one mistake that can turn this powerful tool against you.
What The Old Process Felt Like
Before this law, if a true squatter, not a tenant, not a guest, just a stranger who broke in and stayed, took over your property, you were often forced down the same road as a full eviction. Notices. A filing. A hearing that could get continued. Weeks, sometimes months, while someone who never had any right to be there lived in your investment, ran up your utilities, and sometimes did real damage on the way out.
That was the frustration. The law treated a trespasser almost like a tenant, and honored a “right” that person never earned.
What The New Law Actually Does
The new law creates Article 3 of Chapter 37, Title 27 of the South Carolina Code, formally titled “Ejectment of Unlawful Occupants of a Residential Dwelling.” It builds a separate, expedited track that lives alongside the normal eviction process, not in place of it.
Here’s how it works, step by step:
1. You file a verified petition with the court, not the sheriff. The owner (or an authorized representative for those managing property for others) files a verified petition with the clerk of court or chief magistrate in the county where the property sits. Filing fees track what you’d pay to file in the court of common pleas.
2. The court can issue an ex parte order immediately. This is the heart of it. If your petition shows good cause, the court is directed to immediately issue an ex parte order to remove the unlawful occupant. Ex parte means the court can act without first holding a full hearing with the other side; the speed is the point.
3. A hearing follows within 24 hours. Due process isn’t skipped; it’s compressed. The court holds a hearing on the petition within twenty-four hours of filing, unless good cause for a short delay is shown. That’s a dramatic acceleration from the old timeline.
4. The sheriff or constable enforces the order. Once the court grants the order, the authorized enforcement official, the county sheriff or a constable, carries it out and removes the occupant. You still don’t touch it yourself. You never should. But now law enforcement is acting on a court order that can come within a day.
5. The court can do more than just remove. The order can include protective terms, barring the occupant from returning, from contacting you, from disturbing the property. After the hearing, the court can permanently exclude the occupant and order them to pay for repairs, service costs, and court costs.
The Part Has Real Teeth
The new law didn’t just speed up removal. It put criminal consequences behind unlawful occupation for the first time. Under the enacted framework, a person who violates the court’s order faces felony exposure, up to three years’ imprisonment or a fine, or both, and unlawfully occupying a residential dwelling now carries its own criminal-mischief offense. Reporting also indicates penalties reaching those who inflict significant property damage or who use fraudulent documents to fake a right to stay.
For years, the calculus favored the person who broke in. This law flips it.
Now the honest part, because you hired an attorney, not a headline
Here is where I earn my keep. This law is powerful precisely because it is narrow, and using it on the wrong person is a serious mistake.
This expedited process is only for true unlawful occupants. It is not available, and using it would expose you to liability, if the person is any of the following:
- A current or former tenant under any agreement with you, written or verbal;
- Someone you (or a prior owner) permitted to be there, such as a guest, an invitee, a handshake arrangement;
- An immediate family member of the owner;
- An occupant where there’s pending litigation between you and them over the property; or
- An occupant of a property that has been leased within the last three consecutive months.
If any of those describe your situation, this is the wrong tool, and reaching for it can backfire badly. A person removed without just cause can bring a civil action for restored possession, statutory damages, and court costs. And nothing in this law lets you shortcut the South Carolina Residential Landlord and Tenant Act for anyone who is actually a tenant. Self-help, changing locks, cutting utilities, hauling belongings to the curb, is still illegal and still turns you into the defendant.
The distinction between a squatter and a holdover tenant is not academic. It is the entire ballgame. Get it right, and you have the fastest remedy South Carolina has ever offered property owners. Get it wrong, and you’ve handed the other side a lawsuit.
How Matejka Law Can Help You Navigate the New Law
If you own, invest in, or manage residential property in South Carolina, this is a genuine expansion of your rights. The days of a stranger being able to hijack your property and run out the clock are, functionally, over, provided the process is used correctly. That last clause is where an experienced landlord-tenant attorney is worth every dollar.
At Matejka Law, we’re already preparing verified petitions under this new law and building the intake process that screens, before anything gets filed, whether a situation is a true unlawful-occupant matter or a landlord-tenant matter that belongs on the traditional track. That screening is the difference between a 24-hour resolution and a costly misstep.
If you’re facing an unlawful occupant right now, or you simply want to be ready before it ever happens, let’s talk.
Nataliya Matejka is a South Carolina attorney and licensed real estate broker whose practice focuses on landlord-tenant law, real estate, and property management. This article is for general educational purposes and reflects the law as enacted in 2026; it is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Statutory section numbers and specific provisions should be confirmed against the final codified text before you rely on them. For advice on your specific situation, contact Matejka Law, LLC.
