Resources: Every Number, Form, and Website You’ll Need

This is the reference page. No explanations of probate here — just the places to go, and a short note on what each one is actually for.

 

Bookmark it. You’ll come back.

 

Please confirm addresses, hours, and fees by phone before making a trip. These change.

 

The courts

Berkeley County Probate Court

300-B California Avenue, Moncks Corner, SC 29461 Phone: (843) 719-4519 · St. Stephen office: (843) 567-3136 ext. 4519 Fax: (843) 719-4527 Hours: Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Web: berkeleycountysc.gov/dept/probate/

 

What it’s for: Opening the estate if the person lived in Berkeley County. Getting appointed personal representative. Filing the inventory, the petition to sell real estate, and the final accounting.

 

What to know: This office has posted that it does not accept credit cards — bring cash or check. The informal appointment application fee has been posted at $25. The person with the highest priority to serve should attend the appointment.

 

Covers: Moncks Corner, Goose Creek, Hanahan, Cane Bay, Nexton, Sangaree, Carnes Crossroads, St. Stephen, Bonneau, Cross, Huger, and the Berkeley County portions of Summerville and Ladson.

 

Dorchester County Probate Court

Dorchester County Courthouse, 5200 E. Jim Bilton Blvd., St. George, SC 29477 Phone: (843) 563-0160 · also listed: (843) 563-0105, (843) 832-0105 Hours: Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., excluding holidays Web: dorchestercountysc.gov/government/courts-judicial-services/probate-court

 

What it’s for: Same functions as above, if the person lived in Dorchester County.

 

What to know: The courthouse is in St. George, which is a real drive from Summerville. Filing fees are on a sliding scale based on estate value — ask what your bracket costs before you go. You’ll pass through security. Parking is free at the government complex.

 

Don’t confuse it with: Dorchester County Family Court, which is in Summerville at the Troy Knight Judicial Complex. Different court, different business.

 

Covers: St. George, Ridgeville, Jedburg, Harleyville, Reevesville, Grover, and the Dorchester County portions of Summerville and Ladson.

 

Selling in a specific area?

Berkeley County · Summerville · Goose Creek · Moncks Corner

Which court do I use?

The estate goes to the county where the person lived when they died — not where the house is.

 

Summerville sits in more than one county, so a Summerville address doesn’t tell you the answer. Full explanation →

 

Looking up records

South Carolina Probate Court Records Search

southcarolinaprobate.net/search

 

What it’s for: Finding out whether an estate has already been opened, getting the case number, and buying copies of what’s been filed.

 

How to use it: Choose the county, then search by the last name of the person who died or by case number.

 

Limits: Documents viewed online carry a watermark; purchased copies are clean. Not every county’s older records are loaded. In Dorchester County, if the person died before 2004 and you can’t find the file, email estatedivision@dorchestercountysc.gov.

 

Note: Records involving mental health, guardianship, and conservatorship are confidential and not available for public review.

 

County Register of Deeds

Berkeley County Register of Deeds — 223 N. Live Oak Drive, Moncks Corner, SC 29461 · (843) 719-4084 Dorchester County Register of Deeds — St. George

 

What it’s for: Pulling the deed — the document that shows exactly how the property is owned. This is the single most useful piece of paper when you’re figuring out whether probate is even required.

 

Why you need it: The exact wording on the ownership line determines whether the house passes automatically to a co-owner or has to go through the court. How to read it →

 

Also here: Mortgages, liens, and judgments recorded against the property.

 

County Assessor / Tax Office

Berkeley County and Dorchester County — search from the main county government sites.

 

What it’s for: Three things:

 

1. Confirming which county a property is actually in (critical in Summerville)
2. Checking whether property taxes are current
3. Finding out whether the property’s tax classification changed now that nobody lives there — in South Carolina this can raise the annual bill significantly once the owner-occupied rate no longer applies

 

Forms

South Carolina uses standard statewide probate forms. Your county probate court has them, and the South Carolina Judicial Branch publishes them at sccourts.org.

 

The ones that matter when there’s a house:

 

Form	Name	What it’s for
300ES	Application / Petition for Informal Appointment	Getting yourself named personal representative
350ES	Inventory and Appraisement	Listing what the person owned, including the house. Generally due within 90 days of appointment
400ES	Deed of Distribution	Transfers the house out of the estate to the heirs — used when the family will sell it themselves, or keep it
420ES	Affidavit for Collection of Personal Property (Small Estate)	The shortcut for small estates. Cannot be used for real estate
430ES	Petition for Sale of Real Estate	Asking the court’s permission to sell, when the will doesn’t give power of sale
410ES / 412ES	Proposal for Distribution / Petition for Settlement	Wrapping up and closing the estate
361ES	Accounting	Showing the court where the money went

 

Form numbers and requirements change. Get current forms from your county probate court or from sccourts.org, not from a third-party site.

 

If there are debts against the house

• The mortgage is still there — now what? Federal law protects a relative who inherits.
• Reverse mortgage after a death — the one true deadline in most estates.
• Medicaid estate recovery — when the state has a claim.
• Back taxes, HOA liens, and code violations — including the tax sale clock.

 

Legal help

South Carolina Bar Lawyer Referral Service

scbar.org

 

What it’s for: Finding a licensed South Carolina attorney if you don’t have one. The referral service connects you with a lawyer in your area for a modest initial consultation fee.

 

What to ask for: A probate attorney, and specifically one who handles estates with real property. Not every probate attorney regularly deals with selling houses out of an estate, and that experience matters.

 

South Carolina Legal Services

Statewide legal aid for people who qualify based on income.

 

What it’s for: Free or low-cost civil legal help, including some estate and heirs property matters. If your family can’t afford an attorney, start here.

 

Heirs property help

If a family property has been passed down for generations without anybody probating it, you may have heirs property — one parcel with dozens of legal owners, many of whom don’t know they own it.

 

South Carolina has attorneys and nonprofit organizations that focus specifically on untangling these. The Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation, based in the Charleston area, is the best-known organization working on this issue in the Lowcountry.

 

Why it matters: Heirs property is very hard to sell, borrow against, or insure, and families have lost land this way. The problem compounds every year you wait. More →

 

Tax resources

IRS Publication 559 — Survivors, Executors, and Administrators

irs.gov/publications/p559

 

What it’s for: The IRS’s own guide for people settling an estate. Covers the final income tax return, estate income tax, and the basis of inherited property.

 

Read the basis section. It’s the one that explains why you probably owe far less than you fear. Plain-English version →

IRS Publication 551 — Basis of Assets

Search “IRS Publication 551.”

 

What it’s for: The detailed rules on how basis is calculated, including the step-up for inherited property.

South Carolina Department of Revenue

dor.sc.gov

 

What it’s for: State tax questions. The useful headline: South Carolina does not have a state estate tax or a state inheritance tax.

A CPA

Not a website — a person. Talk to one before you sell, not after. Most of the expensive tax mistakes in estate sales are timing mistakes, and timing mistakes can’t be fixed in April.

 

The law itself

You don’t need to read these. But if you want to see the actual rules, or hand a citation to someone:

South Carolina Probate Code, Title 62

scstatehouse.gov/code/t62c003.php (Article 3 — Probate of Wills and Administration)

 

The sections that come up most in a house sale:

 

• §62-3-101 — Title to real estate passes to heirs at death, but the estate still has to be administered
• §62-3-201 — Which county the estate is opened in (based on where the person lived)
• §62-3-203 — Who has priority to be appointed personal representative
• §62-3-711(b) — A personal representative generally cannot sell real estate unless the will authorizes it or the court procedure is followed
• §62-3-1301 and following — The procedure for selling estate land through the court
• §62-3-907 / §62-3-908 — Deed of distribution
• §62-3-1201 — The small estate affidavit
• §62-2-101 through §62-2-114 — Who inherits when there’s no will

 

Vital records

South Carolina Vital Records (SC DPH)

What it’s for: Ordering certified death certificates.

 

How many to get: Six to ten. Every institution wants its own certified copy and photocopies usually won’t do. The funeral home can typically order them for you, and doing it once is far easier than reordering later.

 

Practical help with the house

Estate sale companies and senior move managers

What they’re for: Emptying a house full of a lifetime of belongings, sorting what’s valuable, running a sale, and hauling the rest.

 

When to use one: When you live out of state, when the family can’t agree on the cleanout, or when the job is simply too big. It costs money. For a lot of families it is money well spent.

Licensed appraisers

What they’re for: A date-of-death appraisal — what the house was worth on the day the person died. This is a retrospective appraisal, and appraisers do them routinely.

 

Why you need one: It documents your tax basis. Without it you’re guessing at the most important number in the whole calculation. Why this matters →

Home inspectors

What they’re for: A pre-listing inspection, so you learn what a buyer’s inspector will find before you’re under contract. Especially valuable in estate sales, where nobody in the family knows the house’s history.

Real estate attorneys

In South Carolina, an attorney supervises the real estate closing. This is not optional here the way it is in some states. Your closing attorney and your probate attorney may or may not be the same person — ask.

 

The Mills Team

Jim Mills, CRS, SRES, ABR, GRI Team Lead · The Mills Team — NextHome The Agency Group SC Real Estate License #98112

 

Direct: 843-830-3800 Office: 112 West Doty Ave, Suite C, Summerville, SC 29483 millsteamre.com

 

Designations: CRS (Certified Residential Specialist) · SRES (Seniors Real Estate Specialist) · ABR (Accredited Buyer’s Representative) · GRI (Graduate, REALTOR® Institute)

 

What Jim does for estate families:

 

• Tells you where you stand before you spend anything
• Prepares documented date-of-death valuations
• Coordinates cleanout, contractors, and property upkeep — especially for out-of-state heirs
• Refers you to probate attorneys, appraisers, and CPAs who handle these regularly
• Sells the house when the time comes

 

What Jim does not do: give legal or tax advice. He’ll tell you when a question belongs to an attorney or a CPA, and connect you with one.

 

One last thing

If you only bookmark two items on this page, make them the probate court for your county and a probate attorney.

 

Everything else can wait. Those two can’t.

 

← 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, a CPA, or a tax advisor, and nothing on this page is legal or tax advice. Addresses, phone numbers, hours, fees, form numbers, and web addresses were accurate as of the last review date and do change — always confirm directly with the office before relying on them. Listing an organization here is not an endorsement of it.