Charleston County

Operating rules

Primary residence

conditional

Min stay (nights)

—

Max nights / year

72

Max occupancy

No single countywide numeric occupancy cap is published in Article 6.8's application materials. Maximum sleeping capacity is fixed per-permit: the application requires the owner to declare maximum number of bedrooms rented short-term, maximum number of occupants, per-bedroom occupancy, and any non-bedroom sleeping areas (sleeper sofas, daybeds, lofts, dens). Parking is the binding practical constraint: 'required parking is 1 space per permitted bedroom plus the required parking for the applicable use.' International Building Code sprinkler requirements are triggered at 11 or more occupants and/or 6 or more rooms (including non-bedrooms) used for sleeping.

Zoning-restricted

Yes

Cap on licenses

—

Grandfathering: The ZLDR contains 'Sec. 6.8.5 Amortization of Nonconforming STRPs', which governs nonconforming short-term rental properties. At original adoption the county provided a compliance window rather than open-ended grandfathering: 'Upon Adoption of the Ordinance on July 24, 2018, all Short-Term Rental Properties currently in operation will have 30 calendar days to submit applications to comply with the provisions of the Short-Term Rental Ordinance, and an additional 90 calendar days to obtain all required Zoning Permits.' The full text of Sec. 6.8.5 could not be retrieved (see verification_notes) — the specific amortization period for existing nonconforming STRPs is NOT quote-confirmed here.

Zoning: Strict zoning-district whitelist by permit type. Limited Home Rental (owner-occupied, ≤72 days/yr): RM, AG-15, AG-10, AG-8, AGR, RR-3, S-3, R-4, M-8, M-12, MHS. Extended Home Rental (owner- or non-owner-occupied, >72 to ≤144 days/yr): only S-3, R-4, M-8, M-12, MHS — and only via Site Plan Approval plus a discretionary Special Exception granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals. Commercial Guest House: only OR, OG, CN, CR, CT, CC commercial districts, via Site Plan Review Approval. STRs are not permitted in districts outside these lists. These county rules apply ONLY to unincorporated Charleston County; incorporated municipalities within the county (City of Charleston, North Charleston, Mount Pleasant, Folly Beach, Isle of Palms, Kiawah Island, Seabrook Island, Sullivan's Island, etc.) run their own separate, generally stricter STR regimes.

• Individual rental terms may not exceed 29 consecutive days for any STR type — a rental of 30+ consecutive days is not a short-term rental and falls outside Article 6.8 (and outside the county's 2% accommodations fee, which applies to accommodations 'occupied less than thirty-day duration').
• There is no minimum-stay requirement; the 29-day figure is a MAXIMUM per rental term, not a minimum.
• The 72-day annual cap is the by-right residential limit (Limited Home Rental). Exceeding 72 days requires an Extended Home Rental permit (max 144 days/yr) which needs a discretionary BZA Special Exception. Commercial Guest House (commercial districts only) has no stated annual day cap — only the 29-days-or-less per-interval limit.
• primary_residence_required is 'conditional': owner-occupancy IS required for the by-right Limited Home Rental path (proved via voting address or driver's license), but non-owner-occupied investment properties ARE permitted as Extended Home Rentals in five districts subject to Special Exception approval. So the county is not a strict primary-residence-only jurisdiction.
• Rentals to family members are excluded from the STR definition entirely.
• Short-term rental use may change the property's tax assessment ratio: 'Tax Assessments of the property may change due to its partial use as a Short-Term Rental Property.' In South Carolina this can move a property off the 4% owner-occupied legal-residence assessment ratio — a material cost consideration.
• Restrictive covenants / HOA rules can independently prohibit STR use; the county requires an affidavit under S.C. Code § 6-29-1145 and will not issue a permit where it has actual notice of a conflicting covenant.
• Applications are filed through the county's self-service portal at https://eplweb.charlestoncounty.gov/energov_prod/selfservice; STR questions go to ShortTermRental@CharlestonCounty.org.

Enforcement

Active enforcement

yes

Fines

—

Notes

Article 6.8 of the ZLDR contains a dedicated enforcement subsection — 'Sec. 6.8.4 Enforcement and Violations' — and the county's own 7/2026 application packet expressly directs applicants to it for 'enforcement and penalties'. However, the specific monetary fine amounts and penalty mechanics in Sec. 6.8.4 could NOT be retrieved from a primary source: the county's ZLDR is published through the enCode Plus viewer, which renders section body text only via client-side JavaScript, and no server-rendered, print, or PDF export endpoint exposing the Article 6.8 body text was reachable. fines_summary is therefore left null rather than guessed. Broader violation/penalty provisions also live in ZLDR 'CHAPTER 11 │ VIOLATIONS, PENALTIES AND ENFORCEMENT'. Quote-anchored enforcement facts that ARE confirmed: (a) county zoning staff may conduct site visits; (b) annual renewal requires affirmative demonstration of continued compliance with all current Article 6.8 requirements; (c) an unrenewed zoning permit lapses by operation of the ordinance regardless of whether the owner received notice; (d) a business license paid after April 30 incurs a 5% per month penalty; (e) advertising must carry the zoning permit and business license numbers, which makes unpermitted listings self-identifying and easy for the county to detect on platforms. SEPARATELY AND NOT PRIMARY-SOURCED: regional press (Post and Courier; Live 5 News, Feb 10-13, 2026) reported that ~196 properties in unincorporated Charleston County were operating as STRs without a permit in 2025, and that County Council was moving an Article 6.8 amendment — second reading in early Feb 2026, third/final reading expected Feb 24, 2026 — that would let the Zoning and Planning Director deny STR permit applications for up to two years for properties caught operating without a permit (existing law reportedly allowed denial of renewals for up to one year and had no provision covering wholly unpermitted operators). This amendment's adoption and final text were NOT verified against a primary county source and must not be relied on as law — flagged for review.