Back Taxes, HOA Liens, and Code Violations

A house doesn’t stop costing money when its owner dies. Bills keep coming, and some of them attach to the property itself.

 

The good news: almost all of this gets paid out of the sale at closing. You usually don’t have to come up with cash out of pocket.

 

The bad news: one of these has a deadline that can cost you the house entirely.

 

Start here: order a title search

Before you plan anything, find out what’s actually recorded against the property.

 

A title search shows every mortgage, lien, and judgment on record. A real estate attorney or title company can pull one, usually for a modest fee.

 

Do this early. Not the week before closing. A surprise lien found at closing can blow up a sale. The same lien found in month two is just a line item you plan around.

 

This is the single cheapest thing you can do to avoid an expensive problem.

 

Property taxes: two separate issues

Issue 1 — The bill is about to go up

South Carolina taxes homes at two different rates:

 

• 4% if the owner lives there as their legal residence
• 6% for everything else

 

When the owner dies, and no one lives in the house as their legal residence, the property is reclassified to 6%.

 

That is a substantial increase. Between the higher ratio and the loss of the school-operating tax relief that comes with the 4% rate, the annual bill for a non-owner-occupied house in South Carolina can more than double.

 

What to do: call the county assessor and find out what the bill will be going forward. Don’t budget off last year’s number. It may be badly wrong.

 

If an heir genuinely moves in and makes it their legal residence, they may be able to apply for the 4% rate — but that’s their own application, with their own requirements. Ask the assessor.

 

• Berkeley County Assessor — search on berkeleycountysc.gov
• Dorchester County Assessor — search on dorchestercountysc.gov

Issue 2 — If taxes are already behind

This deadline could cost you the property. Take it seriously.

 

How South Carolina handles delinquent property taxes:

 

Taxes are due between September 30 and January 15. If they go unpaid, penalties stack up fast — roughly 3% after mid-January, another 7% in early February, and another 5% in mid-March. By late March, a delinquent bill carries about 15% in penalties.

 

If it stays unpaid, the county sends a delinquent notice, advertises the property for three consecutive weeks, and sells it at public auction.

 

Then the redemption clock starts.

 

• You have 12 months from the date of the tax sale to redeem the property — that is, buy it back.
• To redeem, you pay the taxes, penalties, assessments, and costs, plus interest on the bid amount.
• The interest climbs by quarter: roughly 3% in months 1–3, 6% in months 4–6, 9% in months 7–9, and 12% in months 10–12.
• Redeeming earlier costs less. Waiting costs more.

 

If no one redeems within those 12 months, the buyer gets a tax deed. After a further 12 months, that deed becomes very difficult to challenge.

 

If the house was sold at a tax sale, get an attorney immediately. Not next month. This is one of the few genuinely urgent items in an estate, and the sooner you act, the less it costs.

 

HOA dues and liens

If the house is in a neighborhood with a homeowners association, the dues keep coming.

 

Unpaid dues can become a lien on the property. In South Carolina, associations generally have to give the owner written notice before recording a lien, and the lien is recorded with the county Register of Deeds.

 

Can an HOA foreclose? In South Carolina, an association may foreclose on an assessment lien through the courts, depending on what the community’s governing documents provide. South Carolina uses judicial foreclosure — it goes through a court, not a private sale.

 

One useful thing to know: South Carolina does not have what’s called a “super lien.” An HOA’s lien is generally subordinate to a first mortgage. That matters if there’s a mortgage on the house.

 

What to do:

 

1. Find the HOA’s management company and tell them the owner died
2. Ask for a written payoff — total dues, late fees, interest, and costs
3. Ask whether a lien has been recorded
4. Keep the dues current going forward, from the estate account
5. Get the HOA’s estoppel or closing letter early — you’ll need it to close, and some associations are slow

 

Also check the covenants. Some communities restrict rentals or have rules about how long a property can sit vacant. Worth knowing before you plan.

 

Code violations

Empty houses collect these. Grass too tall, junk in the yard, a derelict vehicle, an unsecured structure.

 

Towns and counties usually send warnings first, then fines. Unpaid fines can become a lien on the property.

 

The fix is easy and cheap: keep the yard cut and the property tidy. Compared to accumulating fines and a code enforcement file, lawn service is nothing.

 

If violations already exist, call the town or county code office, find out exactly what’s cited, and fix it. Most departments are reasonable with families dealing with an estate — but only if you talk to them.

 

Berkeley and Dorchester County both have code enforcement, and the towns within them (Summerville, Goose Creek, Moncks Corner, Hanahan) have their own as well. Call the right one.

 

Other things a title search might turn up

Judgments. If someone sued the deceased and won, that judgment may attach to the property. It gets paid at closing.

 

Mechanics’ liens. A contractor who wasn’t paid can record a lien. Common in houses where work was done near the end of someone’s life.

 

Medicaid estate recovery. If the person received Medicaid for nursing home or long-term care, the state may have a claim against the estate. Read about this separately →

 

An unprobated earlier estate. Sometimes the title search shows that a previous owner died and nothing was ever properly filed. Now there are two estates to sort out. This is common with family land, and it takes real legal work. More on that →

 

A mortgage nobody knew about. Including a reverse mortgage. If that turns up, read this today — it has a hard deadline.

 

How this gets paid

Almost always: at closing, out of the sale proceeds.

 

The closing attorney orders payoffs for every lien, pays them from the sale money, and the balance goes to the estate. You generally don’t write a check for any of it.

 

That’s why an early title search matters so much. Every lien found early is a number in your plan. Every late lien is a crisis.

 

What to do, in order

1. Order a title search. Do this now.
2. Call both county offices — the assessor for what the bill will be, and the treasurer or delinquent tax office for whether anything is owed.
3. Ask specifically whether the property has been to a tax sale. If yes, attorney today.
4. Call the HOA and get a written payoff.
5. Keep the yard cut and the property secure.
6. Give everything to your probate attorney and ask about the order in which estate debts get paid.
7. Don’t pay anything out of your own pocket without asking first.

 

The reassuring part

Most estates have one or two of these, and they’re routine. A lien is usually a number, and numbers get handled at closing.

 

The one to genuinely worry about is the tax sale, because that clock runs whether anyone is watching or not.

 

Ask the county whether the property has been to a tax sale. It takes one phone call.

 

Sorting out liens on a Berkeley or Dorchester County property? Call or text Jim Mills, CRS, SRES, ABR, GRI, at 843-830-3800. He’ll tell you what the house is worth so you can see whether it covers what’s owed, and he can point you to attorneys and title companies who handle these matters.

 

← Back to Selling a House After Someone Dies — the full guide.

 

Jim Mills is a licensed South Carolina real estate agent (License #98112) with The Mills Team, NextHome The Agency Group. He is not an attorney, tax advisor, or title examiner, and this page contains general information, not legal or tax advice. Tax rates, penalty schedules, redemption periods, and HOA rules change, and HOA authority varies by community and is governed by each community’s own documents. Confirm with the county and talk to a South Carolina probate attorney.

 

Sources: S.C. Code §12-43-220 (assessment ratios); S.C. Code Title 12, Chapter 51 (delinquent tax collection), including §12-51-40, §12-51-55, §12-51-90, and §12-51-130; S.C. Homeowners Association Act, S.C. Code §27-30-110 et seq.; Berkeley and Dorchester County assessor and tax offices. Links: Resources