South Carolina prompt payment rules
How fast does an owner or contractor have to pay me on a South Carolina construction job?
The owner owes the undisputed amount within 21 days
When a contractor has performed in accordance with the contract, the owner must pay the undisputed amount of any pay request within 21 days of receiving it, by first class mail or delivery.
The word doing the work is undisputed. An owner can withhold on listed grounds while a genuine dispute is live, but cannot sit on the whole request over a defect in one corner of the job. The withheld part is the part with the argument attached to it.
Performance means performing in accordance with the contract, which is why the pay request should reference the schedule, the completed milestones and the retainage agreed in the construction documents. How to write payment terms covers the wording of the request itself.
21 daysA South Carolina owner must pay a contractor the undisputed amount of a pay request within 21 days of receipt, based on work completed or service provided under the contract. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 29, Chapter 6, retrieved 2026-09-29
The contractor must pass payment down within 7 days
The money a contractor receives is not a loan to float the next job. Within 7 days of receiving each periodic or final payment, the contractor must pay each subcontractor the full amount received for that subcontractor's work and materials.
The same rule repeats down the chain. Each subcontractor pays its subcontractors within 7 days of receipt. The clock is a pass-through, so a sub two levels down is two 7-day windows from the owner's payment, not an open-ended wait.
A subcontractor who watches a contractor collect and hold should say this section out loud in the demand letter, because it is one of the rare payment deadlines in South Carolina law that applies without a line of contract text backing it.
7 daysA South Carolina contractor must pay each subcontractor within 7 days of receiving each periodic or final payment, and each subcontractor must likewise pay its own subcontractors within 7 days. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 29, Chapter 6, retrieved 2026-09-29
Pay-when-paid does not hold in South Carolina
The clause every sub fears, "you get paid when I get paid", is not enforceable here. The subcontractors' and suppliers' payment protection section of the chapter states the rule directly.
Performance by a construction subcontractor in accordance with its contract entitles it to payment from the party it contracted with. Payment by the owner to the contractor, or by the contractor to another subcontractor or supplier, is not a condition precedent for payment to the construction subcontractor. Any agreement to the contrary is not enforceable.
That is a sub's answer to the holding letter. It does not conjure money out of an empty general contractor, which is what the lien and the bond are for, but it does convert "we are all waiting on the owner" from a wall into a breach.
A performing construction subcontractor is entitled to payment from the party it contracted with, payment upstream is not a condition precedent, and contrary agreements are not enforceable. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 29, Chapter 6, retrieved 2026-09-29
Public jobs over $50,000 must carry a payment bond
When a governmental body contracts to improve real property for a sum in excess of $50,000, the owner of the property must require the contractor to provide a labor and material payment bond in the full amount of the contract.
The bond must be secured by cash or issued by a surety company licensed in the state with an "A" minimum rating. For contracts under $100,000, the governmental body may permit a "B+" rated bond where it justifies that use in writing.
For a sub or supplier on a public job, the bond is the collection target, because there is no lien on public property to file. The suit-on-bond route exists in the lien chapter too, and the deadline discipline is the same as any lien. The lien deadlines page is where the clocks are collected.
$50,000When a governmental body contracts to improve real property for over $50,000, the owner must require a labor and material payment bond in the full contract amount, in cash or from an A-rated surety. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 29, Chapter 6, retrieved 2026-09-29
The grounds an owner may withhold on, honestly
The chapter lists the withholding grounds: unsatisfactory job progress, defective construction not remedied, disputed work, third party claims filed or reasonably evidenced, failure of a contractor or sub to make timely payments for labor, equipment and materials, damage to the owner, contractor or another subcontractor, reasonable evidence the contract cannot be finished for the unpaid balance, or a reasonable amount for retainage.
None of that lets an owner park the whole check over a snag in one line item. The withholding should map to the ground, and the undisputed balance keeps its own 21-day clock.
The chapter also leaves payment frequency as the construction documents set it, and leaves lender terms alone. What it adds is the floor under the undisputed money, not a ceiling on the paperwork.
The prompt payment chapter allows withholding for unsatisfactory progress, defective construction not remedied, disputed work, third party claims, damage, or a reasonable amount for retainage. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 29, Chapter 6, retrieved 2026-09-29
Homes and owner-financed private work sit outside it
The chapter does not reach everything with a hammer in it. It does not apply to residential homebuilders, to residential improvements of sixteen or fewer units, or to private persons or entities whose specific improvements are not financed by a nonowner.
The reader of that list is the small contractor with the most to lose from assuming it. A custom-home job or a homeowner's privately funded addition may be entirely outside these clocks, so the contract's own payment dates are the ones that count.
That is a reason to write real due dates into residential contracts rather than importing them by assumption. Deposits and down payments covers the prepayment side of the same jobs.
16 unitsThe prompt payment chapter does not apply to residential homebuilders, residential improvements of sixteen or fewer units, or private owners whose improvements are not financed by a nonowner. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 29, Chapter 6, retrieved 2026-09-29
When the 21 days run out, the lien clock is the next one
A pay request past its deadline is still a collectable debt, and on construction the collection tool with teeth is the lien. The sworn statement of account must be served and filed within 90 days after you cease to furnish labor or materials.
The interest on a delayed payment runs at one percent a month from the due date, where the statutory notice was made part of the request, so the demand letter that follows a blown 21-day window should carry that arithmetic.
If the delay is upstream of you, remember the condition-precedent rule above before accepting the explanation. How to file a mechanics' lien is the full procedure from notice to suit.
90 daysA South Carolina mechanics' lien is dissolved unless the sworn statement of account is served and filed within 90 days after the claimant ceases to furnish labor or materials. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 29, Chapter 5, retrieved 2026-09-29
Questions
Can an owner just ignore a pay request for 30 days?
Not the undisputed part. The statute entitles a performing contractor to the undisputed amount within 21 days of the owner receiving the pay request. The owner can withhold on the listed grounds, mapped to the actual dispute, but the undisputed balance keeps its clock.
Does the 7-day rule apply to a sub-subcontractor too?
Yes. Each subcontractor that receives a periodic or final payment must pay its own subcontractors within 7 days of receipt, so the pass-through repeats down the chain.
What if the contract says payment is due on completion of the whole project?
The chapter leaves payment frequency as the construction documents set it, so the contract's schedule governs when requests fall due. What the statute adds is the 21-day response on undisputed amounts once a request is properly made, and the interest that follows a late one.