Sumter County, SC Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)

The Unfit Dwelling Ordinance in Chapter 22, Article VII sets the county's baseline habitability standard for any dwelling, defined broadly in Sec. 22-126 to include mobile homes and any building used or intended for human habitation along with its outbuildings. Sec. 22-129 authorizes the public officer, appointed by the County Administrator, to determine a dwelling unfit for human habitation when he finds conditions dangerous or injurious to the health, safety or morals of the occupants, neighboring dwellings, or other county residents. The section lists three non-exclusive categories of qualifying defects: conditions that increase the hazard of fire, accidents or other calamities; a lack of adequate ventilation, light or sanitary facilities; and dilapidation, disrepair, structural defects, and uncleanliness.

A finding under this section is not automatic. It follows a complaint or the officer's own investigation under Sec. 22-130, a hearing at which the owner and any party in interest, which can include a tenant, may appear and testify, and a written order requiring repair or, where repair is not reasonably affordable relative to the home's value, removal. Sec. 22-134 makes clear this standard does not limit the county's separate general nuisance-abatement powers. Because "owner" under Sec. 22-126 reaches both the property owner and, for a mobile home not owned by the landowner, the mobile home's titled owner, a rental habitability complaint against a mobile home lot can draw in both parties.