Selling an Inherited House in Charleston County

If the person who died lived in Charleston County, this is your page.

That is the rule that decides everything. The estate is opened in the county where the person lived, not where the house is. If your father lived in Mount Pleasant and owned a rental in Goose Creek, the estate is handled in Charleston County. If he lived in Moncks Corner and owned a condo downtown, it is handled in Berkeley County.

The guides on this site were written for families in Berkeley County and Dorchester County. The South Carolina probate process is the same in every county. The forms are the same, the deadlines are the same, and the rules about who can sell are the same. What changes is the court you deal with and a few local things about the houses themselves. Both are covered below. The Mills Team sells estate homes in Charleston County too.

Which county are you in?

These places are in Charleston County: Charleston (downtown, West Ashley, James Island, Johns Island) · Mount Pleasant · North Charleston (most of it) · Folly Beach · Sullivan’s Island · Isle of Palms · Kiawah Island · Seabrook Island · Hollywood · Ravenel · Meggett · Rockville · McClellanville · Awendaw · Lincolnville

Unincorporated parts of West Ashley, Johns Island, Wadmalaw Island and Edisto Island are Charleston County as well.

Four places catch people out:

Daniel Island and Cainhoy. They are inside the City of Charleston, but they sit in Berkeley County. A Daniel Island estate is opened in Moncks Corner, not on Broad Street. Go to the Berkeley County page →
North Charleston. The city spreads across three counties. Most of it is Charleston County. The northern part, past U.S. 78 and Ladson Road toward Summerville, falls in Berkeley County or Dorchester County.
Ladson. Ladson is not a town. It is a mailing address that spans Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties. Check the parcel, not the address.
Summerville. Most of Summerville is in Dorchester County, part is in Berkeley County, and a small edge touches Charleston County. Lincolnville uses a Summerville mailing address but is a Charleston County town. Read the Summerville page →

How to check, for certain

Look the address up on the county website. Charleston County’s property records search and GIS parcel viewer are at charlestoncounty.gov/property-info.php. If the parcel comes up there, the house is in Charleston County. If it does not, try Berkeley or Dorchester.
Read the last property tax bill. The county that sent the bill is the county the house is in.
Read the death certificate. It lists the county where the person lived. That is the county for the estate, even if the house is somewhere else.
Call the court. The Estate Division clerks answer this question every day. The number is below.

Remember, the house tells you where the property tax goes. The person’s home address tells you where the estate goes. Those can be two different counties. More on picking the right court →

Your court

Charleston County Probate Court, Estate Division

Historic Courthouse, 84 Broad Street, 3rd Floor, Charleston, SC 29401. Phone: (843) 958-5030. Fax: (843) 958-5044. Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Estates are handled at 84 Broad. The court’s other divisions (marriage licenses, guardianships, commitments) are around the corner at the Judicial Center, 100 Broad Street, Suite 469, phone (843) 958-5180. If you call the wrong number they will point you to the right one. There is no North Charleston or satellite office for estates as of this writing.

Before you go downtown:

Book a time. The court lets you schedule an estate appointment online from its Estate Division page. Use it. A booked visit means a clerk is waiting for you and can check your papers on the spot.
The person with the highest priority to serve should go. If the person who died was married, that is the spouse. If not, usually the children. Anyone with equal or higher priority who does not want the job signs a short renunciation form. Bring those signed.
Bring the originals. The original will if there is one, an original death certificate, the completed Form 300ES (the application to open the estate), and the names, addresses and birth years of the heirs.
Expect two fees at the counter. The first is the court’s filing fee, set by state law on the value of the probate estate: $25 for estates under $5,000, rising to $95 at $60,000, then $95 plus 0.15% of the value between $100,000 and $600,000, plus 0.25% of anything above $600,000. For an estate with a $500,000 house and little else, that works out to about $695. The second fee pays for the creditor notice in the newspaper, $40 to $120 depending on the paper you pick. The court places that ad for you.
Two checks, or a card. If you pay by check, the court asks for two separate checks, one for each fee. Cash and credit cards are also taken. Cards carry a processing fee.
If there is no will, ask about bond. The court may require a fiduciary bond for the personal representative. It can be waived when the personal property is small and all the heirs sign off.
There is a drop box. Documents can be left in the drop boxes outside the offices at 84 Broad and 100 Broad. The court also runs an e-filing system (EZ-Filing) that most probate attorneys use.
Plan for downtown parking. Ask the clerk about the nearest garage when you book, and give yourself extra time to get from the car to the third floor.

Call first. Fees, hours and requirements change. One phone call beats a second trip downtown and a second parking ticket.

What’s different about Charleston County estates

Downtown, the house may answer to the Board of Architectural Review

Inside the City of Charleston’s historic districts, most changes you can see from the street go through the Board of Architectural Review (BAR). That includes new construction, additions, exterior alterations, and any demolition of a building 50 years or older south of Mount Pleasant Street. Small things like paint, repairs and signs are usually handled by staff without a board meeting.

For an estate this matters in two ways. First, do not let anyone tear off a porch, replace windows or take down an outbuilding to “get it ready” without checking. Unpermitted work becomes the buyer’s problem, and then the seller’s. Second, buyers of historic houses price in the review process. A house that has been kept up and has clean permit history is worth more than one with surprises. The BAR staff can be reached at (843) 724-3781.

Many of these houses are also simply old. Expect buyers to ask about wiring, plumbing, termite bonds, lead paint and the condition of the foundation. None of this is a reason to rebuild before selling. It is a reason to know what you have before you price it.

On the islands and in West Ashley, the flood zone sets the insurance bill

Much of Charleston County sits in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area. Zones AE and VE are high-risk zones. Zone X is outside the high-risk area. If a house is in AE or VE and the buyer has a normal mortgage, the lender will require flood insurance. That premium is part of what the buyer can afford to pay for the house.

So find out the zone early. You can look up any address on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, and the City of Charleston will issue a Flood Hazard Information Letter on request. If the person who died had a flood policy, find it. If the house has an elevation certificate, find that too. Both help a buyer get a real quote instead of a guess.

Flooding also shows up in the house itself. Water in the crawlspace, a garage that has taken on water, a raised house with a ground-floor enclosure. Buyers on James Island, Johns Island, West Ashley and the beaches ask about all of it. An honest answer up front keeps the deal together.

Mount Pleasant and downtown condos: regime fees and HOA paperwork

A large share of the estates the Mills Team sees in Charleston County are condos and townhomes, many of them in Mount Pleasant. A condo comes with a regime (the condominium association) and often a separate homeowners association, and the estate has to keep paying both while it owns the unit. Unpaid regime fees become a lien on the unit and get settled at closing, so keep them current.

Before you list, get the association’s current budget, the reserve study if there is one, the master insurance policy, any pending special assessment, and the rental rules. Buyers and lenders will ask for all of these. The personal representative can request them once the court has issued the appointment papers. If the unit was rented out, tell the assessor. A rented unit is taxed at the 6% rate, and a vacant unit usually is too, because the 4% rate requires an owner who lives there.

Higher values mean the tax details matter more

Charleston County has some of the most valuable homes in the state. That makes two rules worth understanding.

The step-up in basis. When you inherit a house, your cost basis for capital gains tax is generally the fair market value on the date of death, not what the person paid years ago. A downtown house bought for $90,000 in 1985 and worth $1.4 million today gets a new basis of $1.4 million. If the estate sells for about that, the taxable gain is close to zero. This is why a documented date-of-death value matters. More on taxes when you sell →

The 4% and 6% assessment ratios. South Carolina taxes an owner-occupied legal residence at 4% of its value and everything else at 6%. The 4% rate is not automatic. The owner had to apply for it, and it belongs to a person who lives in the house. Once the owner has died and nobody who owns the house lives in it, the house generally no longer qualifies. State law expects the assessor to be told within six months when a property stops qualifying, and the penalty for staying quiet is steep. Call the Charleston County Assessor at (843) 958-4100 and ask how the current tax year will be handled. On a high-value house the difference between 4% and 6% is thousands of dollars a year, so plan for it in the estate’s budget.

The usual path here

Figure out if the house even needs probate. Pull the deed and look at how the names are written. A house held jointly with a surviving spouse, or held in a trust, may not go through the court at all. How →
Open the estate at 84 Broad Street if the person lived in Charleston County. The court names a personal representative. In most cases nobody sees a judge.
Find out whether the will lets you sell. If the will gives a power of sale, the personal representative can sign a contract. If it does not, or there is no will, there is a court step first. Who can sell →
File the inventory. It is due within 90 days of the appointment and it lists the house at its date-of-death value. Get that value in writing. Why it matters →
Let the creditor period run. Creditors have eight months from the first newspaper notice to file a claim. You can list and even close before it ends, but the money usually stays in the estate until it does. Full timeline →
Do the housework while the paperwork moves. Cleanout, yard, insurance, flood zone lookup, HOA documents, estimates. None of this needs court permission. The first 30 days →
Sell when you have the authority.

Not sure which court? Start here →

Two things to do this week

Call the insurance company. Most homeowner policies cut off coverage once a house sits empty, often after 30 or 60 days. Nobody warns you. Tell them the owner died and the house is vacant, and ask what they need. If there is a separate flood policy, ask about that one too.

Leave the power on. A Lowcountry house without air conditioning grows mold quickly, and a closed-up house near the water grows it faster. The bill you would save is a fraction of the cost to fix.

Everything for your first 30 days →

Local help

Jim Mills, CPRES, CRS, SRES, ABR, GRI, has sold Lowcountry real estate since 1999. The Mills Team has closed more than 2,000 properties, and about 94% of the team’s business comes from referrals.

CPRES stands for Certified Probate Real Estate Specialist. Jim completed the CPRES program through MTI Education in September 2026. It is formal training in how a home is sold out of an estate: who has the authority to sell, what the probate court needs before a closing, how to document a date-of-death value, and how to work alongside the family’s attorney. View Jim’s CPRES certificate (PDF).

For a Charleston County estate, that means someone who knows that a 1920s single house south of Broad, a raised house on James Island and a Mount Pleasant townhome are three different sales with three different sets of buyers, and prices each one accordingly.

What Jim does for estate families:

Tells you where you stand before you spend anything
Prepares a documented date-of-death value
Pulls the flood zone, permit history and HOA documents before the house is priced
Handles cleanout, contractors and property upkeep, especially if you are out of state
Refers you to probate attorneys, appraisers and CPAs who do this regularly
Does not push you to list. If holding, renting or a cash sale is the better answer for your family, he will say so

Call or text Jim: 843-830-3800 The Mills Team, NextHome The Agency Group, 112 West Doty Ave, Suite C, Summerville, SC 29483

No charge and no obligation to ask questions. Most families who call are not ready to sell yet.

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

Please read this part. Jim Mills is a licensed South Carolina real estate agent (License #98112). He is not an attorney, an accountant, or a tax advisor, and nothing on this page is legal or tax advice. Probate rules change, and every family’s situation is different. Court hours, fees, and requirements change too. Confirm them directly with the Charleston County Probate Court before you go. Please talk to a South Carolina probate attorney and a tax professional before you make decisions. Jim is glad to refer you to attorneys who handle these cases every week. CPRES and SRES are real estate training designations. They are not law licenses.

Sources for this page: Charleston County Probate Court, office locations, phone numbers and hours and Estate Division, overview of probating an estate; Charleston County Probate Court fee schedule and S.C. Code §8-21-770; S.C. Code §62-3-201 (venue), §62-3-706 (inventory), §62-3-711 (power of sale), §62-3-801 (notice to creditors); S.C. Judicial Branch, Probate Court; Charleston County, municipalities; S.C. Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office, Berkeley and Charleston County boundary in North Charleston and S.C. Code §4-3-100; City of Charleston, Daniel Island and Cainhoy annexation; Charleston County Assessor, legal residence (4%) FAQ and tax exemptions; S.C. Code §12-43-220(c); IRS Publication 551, Basis of Assets, inherited property; City of Charleston, Board of Architectural Review; City of Charleston, Know Your Flood Zone; FEMA Flood Map Service Center; S.C. Code Title 27, Chapter 31 (Horizontal Property Act) and Chapter 30 (Homeowners Association Act). Full list with links: Resources. Last reviewed September 2026.