South Carolina Mobile Home Park Rent Control: 2026 Guide

Is mobile home lot rent controlled in South Carolina?

No. South Carolina does not cap or otherwise control the rent you charge for a manufactured (mobile) home lot. There is no statewide rent-control law, no percentage ceiling on increases, and no local government in the state is allowed to impose one.

South Carolina does regulate the manufactured-home-park relationship through a dedicated statute, the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act (S.C. Code §27-47-10 et seq.). But that act governs process and fair dealing, not price. The single rent-related rule that matters day to day is a notice rule: you must give a resident at least 30 days' advance notice before a new rental rate takes effect (§27-47-420). The amount of the increase is left to your lease and the market.

No statewide rent cap or percentage limit

Search the code and you will not find a number. Neither the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act (Chapter 47), the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (Chapter 40), nor Chapter 39 puts any dollar or percentage limit on a rent or lot-rent increase.

Section 27-47-420 is the only lot-rent provision, and it speaks only to timing: 'a resident must be given notice by the owner at least thirty days in advance of the effective date of a new rental rate.' It says nothing about how much. Practically, that means the size of a lot-rent increase in South Carolina is governed by your lease terms and market conditions, not by statute.

Local rent control is prohibited statewide

South Carolina cities and counties cannot create rent control even if they wanted to. Since 1985, S.C. Code §27-39-60 has stated: 'No county or municipal corporation may enact, maintain, or enforce any ordinance or resolution which would regulate in any way the amount of rent to be charged for privately owned, single family, or multiple unit residential, or commercial rental property.'

The only carve-out is for property a government itself owns or subsidizes by agreement. For your privately owned park, no municipal or county rent-control ordinance can bind you. This preemption is well settled and long-standing, so you do not need to track a patchwork of local caps the way you would in states like California or Oregon.

How the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act covers lot rent

The Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act applies squarely to your situation: a 'manufactured home park' is land where 'lots or spaces are offered for rent or lease for the placement of manufactured homes,' and a 'resident' is someone who 'owns a manufactured home and rents or leases a lot' in that park (§27-47-210). So when the resident owns the home and rents only the pad, Chapter 47 controls.

On rent, the act's requirement is procedural. Under §27-47-420 you owe at least 30 days' advance notice of a new rental rate, and under §27-47-510 the resident then has 30 days to say whether they will continue the tenancy at the new rate. The act does not limit the increase amount.

One clarification: the general Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (Chapter 40) does not exclude mobile homes in its exclusion list at §27-40-120 — but manufactured-home park lot tenancies are handled by the dedicated Chapter 47. For a plain month-to-month arrangement, the general 30-day termination default in §27-40-770 also runs on 30 days' written notice, which lines up with the MHP Act's notice cadence.

Rent-increase rules at a glance in South Carolina

• Statewide cap
  None. No South Carolina statute limits the dollar amount or percentage of a lot-rent increase.
• Local rent control
  Prohibited. §27-39-60 bars any county or municipality from regulating the amount of rent on privately owned property.
• Notice before a new rate
  At least 30 days' advance notice of a new rental rate is required in a manufactured home park (§27-47-420).
• Resident's response window
  After a rate notice, the resident has 30 days to state whether they will continue the tenancy (§27-47-510).
• Month-to-month termination
  Either side may end a month-to-month tenancy on 30 days' written notice under the general act (§27-40-770); the MHP Act governs park-specific grounds and notices.
• Frequency of increases
  Not capped by statute. Frequency and amount are set by your lease, subject to the 30-day notice and the act's good-faith and anti-retaliation provisions.

Operator best practices in South Carolina

• Always paper the 30-day rate notice
  Deliver written notice of any new rental rate at least 30 days before it takes effect (§27-47-420), and keep proof of delivery — the amount may be uncapped, but the notice is mandatory.
• Put increase terms in the lease
  Because the amount is governed by contract, spell out increase timing and method in the rental agreement so both the size and cadence of increases are enforceable.
• Do not rely on any local ceiling
  There are none — §27-39-60 preempts local rent control statewide — but never adopt a policy assuming a city cap exists or is coming.
• Apply increases evenly and in good faith
  Chapter 47 carries good-faith and anti-retaliation obligations; uniform, documented increases reduce the risk that a raise is challenged as retaliatory or discriminatory.
• Track the resident's response window
  After your rate notice, log the resident's 30-day election under §27-47-510 so continuation of the tenancy at the new rate is clean and documented.
• Build a relationship with a South Carolina MHP attorney
  The Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act is periodically amended and its termination and eviction rules are technical; keep counsel who can confirm current statutory text before you act on rate changes or nonrenewals.