Charleston, SC Accessory Structures: ADU Owner Occupancy (2026)

Sec. 54-214(g) requires every ADU approval in Charleston to be backed by a recorded Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions, and the first condition in that covenant is the owner-occupancy test. Sec. 54-214(g)(1) states that either the principal dwelling unit or the ADU must be owner-occupied and serve as the primary dwelling unit for the owner of the lot, and that if neither dwelling unit is owner-occupied, the ADU may not be rented separately from the principal dwelling unit. In practice this means an absentee owner who does not live in either unit cannot run the ADU as an independent rental while renting out or vacating the main house; the two units have to be leased or occupied together in that scenario.

An owner who does live in the principal home, or who lives in the ADU itself, satisfies the test and can rent the other unit out separately as an ordinary long-term rental. The requirement is recorded against the property before Planning and the Office of Corporation Counsel will approve a certificate of occupancy for the ADU, under Sec. 54-214(a) and (b), so the condition runs with the land and binds future owners, not just the applicant who built the ADU. It sits alongside the other DCR terms in Sec.

54-214(g), including the ban on subleasing and short-term rental use of either unit, the two-adult occupancy cap on the ADU, and the prohibition on converting the property into a horizontal property regime.