Beaufort County, SC Landscaping Rules: Weed Ordinances (2026)

Section 38-33(1) puts the cutting duty on the owner, agent, occupant or lessee of improved residential or commercial property, requiring overgrowth of grasses, weeds and rank vegetation to be cut as often as necessary to prevent the property from becoming unsightly. Subsection (2) lets the county administrator declare a nuisance where a residential lot, or a nonresidential lot contiguous to a residential lot, becomes substantially overgrown with grass, weeds or rank vegetation such that it poses a potential safety risk to humans or becomes a harborage for vectors.

Subsection (3) restates the cutting, trimming and disposal duty, but carves out a large-lot exception: lots of three acres or more need be cut only 100 feet from contiguous roads and each side property line. Once the county administrator finds a nuisance, subsection (4) requires written notice to the owner, occupant or agent, deliverable personally, by certified mail, or by posting on the premises. Under subsection (5), failure to comply within ten days of that notice being served, mailed or posted is a misdemeanor subject to the penalty in § 38-36.

Subsection (6) then lets the county, or its designated contractor, enter the property after the nuisance has stood uncorrected for 20 days following notice, cut and remove the vegetation, and recover its cost either as a lien on the property or through a civil judgment. "Rank vegetation" is separately defined in § 38-26(12) as dense, uncultivated overgrowth or uncultivated briars, vines or similar growth.