Additional South Carolina Statutes and Topics
Seven state items spread across seven named subjects: the Consumer Protection Code, the homestead exemption, the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, the Vacation Rental Act and Time Sharing Plan Act, residential property condition disclosure, the SC Fair Housing Law, and the smoke detector law.
Vacation Rentals and Time Sharing
The Vacation Rental Act is Article 2 of Title 27, Chapter 50, beginning at Section 27-50-210, and governs short-term rentals of residential property — the business that dominates the coastal and resort markets. It requires a written vacation rental management agreement and addresses what happens when a property subject to one is sold. Vacation time-sharing plans are regulated separately under Title 27, Chapter 32, with their own disclosures and a statutory rescission right, and Section 40-57-135(A)(3) obliges a broker-in-charge to keep supervised licensees from violating that Act.
Residential Landlord and Tenant Act
Title 27, Chapter 40 fixes the rights and duties of residential landlords and tenants, including security deposits, habitability and notices. Deposits held by a firm are trust funds: Section 40-57-136(C)(2) keeps them in the trust account until the tenancy ends, then requires disbursement per the contract and a full accounting to landlord or tenant. Treating a deposit as commission is conversion, which Section 40-57-30(12) calls a breach of trust and a crime.
Property Condition Disclosure, Smoke Detectors and Homestead
Under Section 27-50-50(A) the owner must deliver the commission's residential property condition disclosure statement before the contract is signed by purchaser and owner, or as the contract otherwise provides; failing to do so does not void the agreement, create a title defect, or justify delaying closing. Section 5-25-1340 requires a seller of a covered rental dwelling to give the purchaser at closing an affidavit that smoke detectors are installed and functioning, which relieves the seller of later liability for their performance. Section 12-37-250 exempts the first fifty thousand dollars of a dwelling place's fair market value from county, municipal, school and special assessment property taxes for an owner who has lived in the State a year and is sixty-five, totally and permanently disabled, or legally blind, on written application to the county auditor before July sixteenth.
SC Fair Housing Law
The South Carolina Fair Housing Law in Title 31, Chapter 21 prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing by protected class, paralleling the federal Fair Housing Act. Licensees must comply in advertising, showing and negotiating, and may not steer buyers toward or away from neighborhoods on that basis; Section 40-57-350(B)(6) requires the firm's written office policy to address compliance with state and federal fair housing law.
State-specific details
State exam facts
- State regulator
- South Carolina Real Estate Commission (LLR)
- Exam vendor
- PSI
- Prelicensing education
- 150 hours total (90 associate + 60 broker Unit III A/B)
- Passing score
- 60 of 80 points national; 36 of 50 state
Who regulates real estate brokers in South Carolina?
The South Carolina Real Estate Commission, within the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (LLR), licenses brokers and associates. (2024 Act No. 204 replaced the term "salesperson" with "associate" throughout Title 40, Chapter 57.) The Commission contracts with PSI to deliver the exams.
What experience do I need before the South Carolina broker exam?
Under S.C. Code § 40-57-320(A)(2)(a), a broker applicant takes 60 hours of approved instruction — the 30-hour Unit III A Broker Management and 30-hour Unit III B Brokerage Principles courses — and must have five years of active associate licensure within the past seven years, on top of the 90 associate hours. An applicant holding a juris doctor, a law degree, or a real estate baccalaureate or master's degree qualifies instead under subitem (b) without the experience requirement.
How is the South Carolina broker exam structured?
PSI delivers a 75-item national portion scored to 80 points (120 minutes) and a 50-item South Carolina state portion worth 50 points (80 minutes). Passing is published as points correct, not a percentage: 60 of 80 on the national portion and 36 of 50 on the state portion, and you must pass both.
Sources: https://llr.sc.gov/re/, https://test-takers.psiexams.com/api/content/bulletin/440, https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t40c057.php
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