Orangeburg County, SC Accessory Structures: ADU Rental Restrictions (2026)

22 of the county's Zoning Ordinance (Appendix A) opens by defining an accessory dwelling unit as any building or portion of a building, including part of the principal building, used as a dwelling unit and additional to the principal building's own residential use. The very next sentence draws a hard line: accessory dwelling units may not be rented as residential units. That prohibition sits ahead of the section's numbered structural requirements, so it applies to every ADU the ordinance otherwise allows, whether attached to the house, built as a second story within a detached garage, or freestanding on the lot.

The rule means an ADU cannot be marketed or leased to a tenant unconnected to the household living in the principal dwelling; the county treats that use as effectively converting the property into a duplex-style rental, which Table 1 and the district's use list do not authorize as an ADU. 22(b), which limits an ADU to being accessory to a single-family, owner-occupied dwelling, so an investor who does not occupy the principal house cannot rely on the ADU exception at all. Enforcement runs through the Zoning Administrator and Community Development, the office that issues the building permit and Certificate of Occupancy an ADU needs before it can be legally occupied.