Georgetown County, South Carolina Eviction Risk: Very Low

Georgetown County, South Carolina eviction laws earns an average eviction-risk score of 2.4/10 (Moderate), placing it at rank 31 of 46 South Carolina counties, where rank 1 is the highest-risk. That means 30 counties carry more landlord risk than Georgetown County, and only 15 are friendlier still, putting the county comfortably in the lower-risk third of the state. For landlords weighing a coastal or inland South Carolina market, that positioning translates to manageable operating conditions, but the county-wide average papers over meaningful variation across its 8 incorporated places.

Scores inside Georgetown County span from 3.3 to 5.1, a 1.8-point range that is wide enough to make city selection matter as much as county selection. The average renter share sits at 20% of households, with an average rent of $1,403 and an average rent burden of 33% of renter income. That burden figure is a practical reminder: tenants paying roughly a third of income on rent have limited cushion when their finances tighten, which is the upstream driver of eviction-risk scores across the board.

The cities inside Georgetown County

The highest-risk market in the county is Andrews, scoring 5.1/10 with a population of 3,485. That score reflects the combination of local economic pressure and a smaller rental pool that amplifies any single vacancy or non-payment event. The city of Georgetown scores 4.7/10 (population 8,565) and is the county seat, making it the largest single source of landlord exposure by volume. Litchfield Beach comes in at 2.4/10 across a population of 9,044, squarely at the county average, while the county's largest community by population, Murrells Inlet (10,044 residents), scores 4.2/10, meaningfully below the average and one of the more stable rental environments in the county.

The lowest-risk markets are the smaller coastal and rural communities. Dunbar scores 3.3/10 (population 577), DeBordieu Colony scores 3.4/10 (population 627), and Pawleys Island scores 3.9/10 (population 170). These communities carry fewer renters by volume, but their lower scores reflect genuine differences in tenant financial stability and local market dynamics. Risk inside Georgetown County is hyper-local: a landlord operating in Andrews faces a fundamentally different profile than one holding units in Murrells Inlet a few miles away.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord in Georgetown County operates under the South Carolina Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (S.C. Code § 27-40). For non-payment of rent, the required notice period is 5 days. A lease-violation cure notice requires 14 days, and a no-cause end-of-term notice requires 30 days. The South Carolina eviction process, once a notice period expires and a case is filed, takes 21 to 45 days uncontested and 45 to 100 days if the tenant contests. South Carolina eviction costs break down as follows: a court filing fee of $110 to $200, a sheriff lockout fee of $25 to $100, and attorney fees typically running $500 to $2,500. That puts total out-of-pocket cost in a contested case well above $2,500 before lost rent is counted.

South Carolina does not require just cause to end a tenancy, and state law preempts any local rent-control ordinance, meaning no city in Georgetown County can impose caps independently. South Carolina security deposit limits and South Carolina tenant protections are otherwise set statewide, so no Georgetown County municipality can impose stricter local rules than state law allows. Landlords should note that source of income is not a protected class under state law, though federal fair housing rules still apply through the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission.

Georgetown County's average poverty rate of 12% and renter share of 20% keep the overall risk profile in check relative to higher-stress South Carolina eviction laws markets, but conditions vary sharply by city, so the grid above is the most actionable starting point for any landlord or investor evaluating specific submarkets within the county.