Getting paid in South Carolina
How do I collect payment when a South Carolina customer will not pay?
What this site covers, and why the trade changes the answer
Getting paid in South Carolina is a different job for different trades. The law hands some trades a hammer the others never get.
An electrician or a landscaper can file a lien on the property they worked. A mover, a food truck, a cleaner or a salon cannot lien anything, so their protection has to be built into the terms before the work starts. This site covers both paths, and every page says which trades it applies to.
Every figure here comes from the South Carolina Code of Laws, the state's courts, or a federal rule where one applies. Nothing is a rate card someone invented.
The invoice — terms that hold up when payment is late
The cheapest collections are the ones the invoice wins before they start.
How to write payment terms sets the due date, the interest clause and the details a South Carolina magistrate will want to see. What you can charge when a customer pays late covers the 8.75 percent legal rate, judgment interest, and the one-percent-a-month rule on construction. Deposits and down payments covers what you may keep, trade by trade, and what to do when a check bounces covers the ten-day notice and the treble-damages letter.
The rules that decide when they have to pay you
Some payment deadlines are written into law, not into your contract.
South Carolina's prompt payment rules for construction set the 21-day clock an owner owes you and the 7-day clock a contractor owes a sub. What an interstate mover can collect at delivery covers the federal 110 percent ceiling and the arbitration a mover must offer. Both pages quote the statutes they rely on.
The lien — the strongest tool, and the shortest clock
A lien makes the property itself stand behind the invoice. Not every trade gets one.
Which trades have a lien in South Carolina is the page to read first: it maps electricians, landscapers, movers, food trucks, cleaners and salons onto the lien statute. How to file a mechanics' lien is the full procedure, and the deadlines that govern a lien covers the 90-day filing window and the six-month suit deadline.
Court — the magistrate's route to a judgment
South Carolina gives small businesses a court that moves faster than most.
How to take an unpaid invoice to magistrate's court covers the $7,500 limit, the $25 filing assessment, service, judgment and execution. What it costs to chase a payment prices each rung of the ladder before you climb it, and the past-due checklist is the day-by-day order of moves for the week an invoice goes bad.
Who should get paid — you or the company
A company name on the invoice changes who owns the payment and who enforces the judgment.
Whether an LLC changes how you get paid covers the $110 filing, invoicing in the company's name, and what a judgment reaches. Formation services for a South Carolina LLC lists each service's own published prices next to the file-it-yourself route, with no scoring.
What can I charge, and what can I keep?
- Writing invoice payment terms in South Carolina — The due dates, interest clauses and naming details that make a South Carolina invoice collectable, from the legal interest rate to the notice on it.
- Late fees and interest in South Carolina — What a South Carolina business may charge on a late payment: the 8.75% legal rate, judgment interest at prime plus four, and 1% a month on construction.
- Deposits and down payments by trade — Deposits for South Carolina trades and services: the mover's estimate ceiling, a food truck's event deposit, a cleaner's cancellation terms.
- Bounced checks in South Carolina — Recovering a bounced check in South Carolina: the $30 service charge, the ten-day notice, the 30-day treble-damages demand and the 180-day warrant.
How do I lien the job that went unpaid?
- Which trades get a lien in South Carolina — Which South Carolina trades can lien a property and which cannot: electricians and landscapers in, movers, food trucks, cleaners and salons out.
- Filing a mechanics' lien in South Carolina — The South Carolina mechanics' lien procedure: the notice, the sworn statement, the 90-day filing, the license number and the six-month suit deadline.
- South Carolina mechanics' lien deadlines — Every date on a South Carolina mechanics' lien: 90 days to serve and file the statement, six months to sue, and the clocks that feed both.
When do they actually have to pay me?
- South Carolina prompt payment rules — South Carolina prompt payment on construction jobs: owners owe contractors in 21 days, contractors owe subs in 7, and pay-when-paid does not hold.
- What a mover can collect at delivery — Federal rules for interstate household goods movers: the 110 percent delivery ceiling, the 15 percent impracticable-operations cap, and arbitration.
How do I take it to court?
- Magistrate's court for unpaid invoices — Filing an unpaid South Carolina invoice in magistrate's court: the $7,500 limit, the $25 assessment, the judgment transcript and execution.
- What chasing a payment costs in South Carolina — The cost of each rung on the South Carolina collections ladder: the $25 assessment, lien recording fees, and the attorney's fee a lien action recovers.
- The past-due invoice checklist — A day-by-day South Carolina order of moves for a past-due invoice: the reminder, the interest clock, the lien window and the magistrate's filing.
Who should get paid, me or my company?
- Should the business or you get paid? — How a South Carolina LLC changes the collection side of a trades business: who owns the invoice, who holds the judgment, and what the $110 filing buys.
- Formation services for a South Carolina LLC — Each formation service's own published prices for a South Carolina LLC, next to the $110 file-it-yourself route, with what renews after the first year.
Questions
Why does the trade matter so much for collecting payment?
Because the lien follows the work, not the worker. South Carolina's lien statute reaches labor and materials that went into real estate, so an electrician can lien a house and a landscaper can lien a yard. A mover, a cleaner, a food truck or a salon did not improve real estate, so their protection lives in the invoice terms, the deposit and the courts instead.
Which page should I read first?
If the work is done and the invoice is already late, start with the past-due checklist. If you are setting up a new customer, start with how to write payment terms. If you are owed money on a construction job, the lien pages are the ones with a clock on them.
Does this site recommend a collection agency or a service?
No. The one page that names providers is the formation services comparison, which lists each service's own published prices and the state's file-it-yourself route. It does not score them, and no page here ranks anyone.
Is any of this usable outside South Carolina?
The federal mover rules apply to interstate household goods moves anywhere. Everything else is South Carolina law. Payment terms and deposit rules are contract law everywhere, but the deadlines, interest rates and court limits on this site are this state's.