Kershaw County, South Carolina Eviction Risk: Moderate

Kershaw County, South Carolina eviction laws earns an average eviction-risk score of 4.6/10 (Moderate) across its 6 incorporated places, putting it squarely in the middle of the state's risk spectrum. With 28 South Carolina counties scoring higher and 17 scoring lower, landlords and investors here face conditions that are neither unusually hostile nor unusually forgiving. The county's average rent of $940, a rent burden averaging 32.1% of income, and a poverty rate of 16.1% all point to a tenant base that is financially stretched, which means eviction exposure is real but not outsized compared to the state as a whole.

What makes Kershaw County worth studying closely is the intra-county spread. Scores across its cities range from 3.5 to 4.7, a 1.2-point gap that translates to meaningfully different operating environments depending on where exactly a landlord owns property. A portfolio spread across multiple Kershaw cities should be underwritten at the city level, not on the county average alone.

The cities inside Kershaw County

Camden carries the county's highest risk score at 4.7/10. With a population of 8,267, it is the county's second-largest city and the one where vacancy pressure, poverty, and tenant-protection exposure converge most sharply. Lugoff, the largest city in the county at 9,786 residents, sits just below at 4.6/10, essentially matching the county average. East Camden scores 4.5/10 with a population of 4,194. Together, Camden, Lugoff, and East Camden account for the bulk of the county's renter population and present the highest eviction-risk concentration.

Further out, conditions loosen considerably. Bethune scores 4.2/10, while Abney Crossroads and Boykin reach the county's low end at 3.6 and 3.5, respectively. Those smaller communities have correspondingly small populations (208 and 122), so the lower risk reflects limited market depth as much as anything else. Landlords targeting lower-friction markets within the county should weight location carefully against available rental inventory.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord operating in Kershaw County operates under S.C. Code § 27-40 (Residential Landlord and Tenant Act). For nonpayment of rent, the required notice period is just 5 days, one of the shorter windows in the Southeast. A lease-violation notice requires 14 days to cure, and a no-cause end-of-term notice requires 30 days. The full South Carolina eviction process, from notice through judgment, runs 21 to 45 days for uncontested cases and 45 to 100 days if the tenant contests. Understanding South Carolina eviction costs is equally important for underwriting: court filing fees run $110 to $200, sheriff lockout fees add $25 to $100, and attorney fees typically fall in the $500 to $2,500 range, so a contested removal can push total out-of-pocket costs toward the top of that combined range.

South Carolina state law imposes no rent control and requires no just cause for nonresidential-lease terminations, and the state preempts any local government from enacting rent caps. Landlords entering Kershaw County should also review South Carolina tenant protections, particularly the habitability standard under S.C. Code § 27-40-440 and the retaliation prohibition under S.C. Code § 27-40-910, both of which carry real litigation exposure if ignored. The state does not protect source of income as a fair-housing class.

With 22.3% of residents renting and a poverty rate of 16.1%, Kershaw County's renter pool is smaller than in many South Carolina eviction laws markets, but financially vulnerable enough that landlords should model eviction costs and vacancy periods conservatively; the city-level scores in the grid above show where that exposure is most concentrated.