Marlboro County, South Carolina Eviction Risk: Low

Marlboro County, South Carolina scores 2.9/10 on eviction risk, placing it in the Moderate tier, but that number sits closer to the top of the state distribution than the label alone suggests. With only 8 of 46 South Carolina counties carrying higher risk scores, Marlboro lands in the higher-risk third of the state, ranking 9th of 46. For landlords operating here, that means elevated caution is warranted: a poverty rate of 24.4% and an average rent burden of 35% combine to put meaningful financial pressure on tenants, which feeds through to eviction exposure.

The county's rental market is small but dense with renters. Across a total population of 12,372, 47.9% of households rent, and average rent runs just $631 per month. These figures tell a story of thin margins on both sides of the lease, which tends to compress the window between a tenant's financial stumble and a landlord's court filing. Investors evaluating this market should factor that dynamic into underwriting, particularly for larger unit concentrations in the county seat.

Marlboro County spreads across 7 cities, with individual risk scores ranging from 3.9 to 5.4/10, a spread that matters for anyone selecting specific submarkets.

The cities inside Marlboro County

The county's highest-risk locations are Bennettsville and McColl, both scoring 5.4/10. Bennettsville, the county seat and largest city at 7,751 residents, drives most of the county's rental volume and represents the bulk of eviction court activity. McColl, with a population of 2,200, matches that risk score despite its smaller size. Clio comes in just below at 2.9/10 with 840 residents. These three cities represent where risk is most concentrated, and landlords holding properties in any of them should treat the county average as a floor, not a ceiling.

On the lower end of the county's range, Wallace scores 4.3/10, Blenheim scores 4.1/10, Cash scores 4/10, and Tatum scores 3.9/10. The gap between Tatum at 3.9 and Bennettsville at 5.4 is meaningful for a county of this size, reinforcing that eviction risk is genuinely hyper-local here. A landlord with properties in Tatum or Cash is operating in a measurably different environment than one concentrated in Bennettsville, even though those towns sit within the same county line.

State-level laws that apply here

South Carolina state law governs every Marlboro County tenancy under S.C. Code § 27-40 (Residential Landlord and Tenant Act). Notice requirements are relatively landlord-friendly by national standards: non-payment of rent triggers a 5-day notice, a lease violation with the right to cure requires 14 days, and a no-cause end-of-term termination requires 30 days. South Carolina imposes no just-cause eviction requirement and no rent control, and state law preempts any local jurisdiction from imposing its own rent cap, giving county landlords full pricing flexibility. Anyone unfamiliar with the South Carolina eviction process should note that even an uncontested case typically runs 21 to 45 days, while a contested filing can stretch to 45 to 100 days.

On costs, the South Carolina eviction costs landlords face include a court filing fee of $110 to $200, a sheriff lockout fee of $25 to $100, and attorney fees that commonly run $500 to $2,500 depending on case complexity. Landlords must give 24 hours advance notice before entering an occupied unit under S.C. Code § 27-40. There is no source-of-income protection under state law, which preserves screening flexibility.

With nearly 47.9% of Marlboro County households renting and a poverty rate of 24.4%, the financial fragility of the tenant base is real, making city-level scores in the grid above the most actionable data point for landlords deciding where to concentrate or avoid exposure.