Orangeburg County, SC Code Violation Reporting: How to Report (2026)

Chapter 9's administration and enforcement division spells out exactly how a reported violation gets handled once the code official confirms it. Section 9-24 makes it unlawful for any person, firm, or corporation to be in violation of the community development code, and requires the code official to serve a notice of violation, complaint, or order under § 9-25 before prosecuting. That notice must be in writing, describe the real estate well enough to identify it, state the violation and why the notice issued, give the date of the violation, set a correction order with a reasonable repair deadline, tell the owner about the right to appeal, and disclose the county's right to file a lien.

Section 9-25(c) lets the county serve that notice by personal delivery, by certified or first-class mail to the owner's last known address, or, if mailed notice comes back undelivered, by posting a copy in a conspicuous place on the structure itself. An owner who receives a compliance order cannot sell, transfer, mortgage, or lease the property until the corrections are made or the new owner signs a notarized acknowledgment accepting responsibility for finishing them (§ 9-25(f)). If the owner ignores the notice and does not timely comply, object, or appeal, § 9-24(c) deems the violation a strict-liability misdemeanor and lets the code official sue in equity to force compliance, and any cost the county spends fixing the problem becomes a lien on the property, collected like county taxes (§ 9-24(d)). The code official can also file a lis pendens against the property while the violation is pending (§ 9-25(g)).