2 deadlines NoticeGuard models for South Carolina: what each one counts from, the statute it was read from, and the statute text.
Information, not legal advice. This app reports what the statute says and cites the section it read. It is not legal advice, it does not file anything for you, and it does not tell you what to do.
Verify with the statute or an attorney. Statutes change, and courts reinterpret them. Every deadline in this app comes from a statute read on the date shown next to its citation - that snapshot can go out of date. Missing a mechanics lien deadline can extinguish your claim permanently, so confirm any deadline you are relying on with an attorney licensed in that state before you act on it.
Data verified: statute text retrieved 2026-09-21 (each citation below carries its own date). Rule data from the NoticeGuard app, source commit 22f9300.
Served on the owner (or the person in possession, if the owner cannot be found) and filed with the register of deeds or clerk of court, counted from this claimant's own last day of labor or furnishing.
What it counts from. 90 days after last furnishing (last day on site).
Applies to. Original contractor, Subcontractor, Supplier, Preconstruction service.
S.C. Code Ann. § 29-5-90 (sole operative sentence) Official source · statute text retrieved 2026-09-21
“Such a lien shall be dissolved unless the person desiring to avail himself thereof, within ninety days after he ceases to labor on or furnish labor or materials for such building or structure, serves upon the owner or, in the event the owner cannot be found, upon the person in possession and files in the office of the register of deeds or clerk of court of the county in which the building or structure is situated a statement of a just and true account of the amount due him, with all just credits given, together with a description of the property intended to be covered by the lien sufficiently accurate for identification, with the name of the owner of the property, if known, which certificate shall be subscribed and sworn to by the person claiming the lien or by someone in his behalf and shall be recorded in a book kept for the purpose by the register or clerk who shall be entitled to the same fees therefor as for recording mortgages of equal length.”
If the date is missed (the statute's own terms). The statute's own mechanism: "Such a lien shall be dissolved" unless both service on the owner and filing happen within the ninety days.
Also stated next to this deadline.
Two acts are required within the same 90 days, not just one: serving the statement on the owner (or the person in possession) AND filing it with the register of deeds/clerk of court.
§ 29-5-15(A): a contractor required to be licensed/registered must record proof of that licensure (a license or registration number) on the lien document itself when filed.
Commence suit to enforce the lien
Suit commenced and notice of pendency of action filed, counted from the SAME event as the filing deadline above - this claimant's own last day of labor or furnishing, not from when the lien statement was recorded.
What it counts from. 180 days after last furnishing (last day on site).
Applies to. Original contractor, Subcontractor, Supplier, Preconstruction service.
S.C. Code Ann. § 29-5-120 (A) Official source · statute text retrieved 2026-09-21
“Unless a suit for enforcing the lien is commenced and notice of pendency of the action is filed within six months after the person desiring to avail himself of it ceases to labor on or furnish labor or material for the building or structure, the lien must be dissolved.”
If the date is missed (the statute's own terms). The statute's own mechanism: "the lien must be dissolved" unless both the suit and a filed notice of pendency happen within the six months.
Also stated next to this deadline.
Approximated as 180 calendar days (6 months × 30), the same approximation style used throughout this app. Six calendar months is 181 to 184 days, so this date always lands on or before the statutory one - never after it.
This deadline runs from the same starting event as the filing deadline (last furnishing), not from when the lien statement was recorded - filing near the end of the 90-day window does not extend this separate 180-day clock, since both run independently off the same start date (the same shape Colorado's and North Carolina's enforcement deadlines already proved).
Recording a notice of pendency of action is a real, separate requirement alongside commencing the suit itself, not optional paperwork - the same pattern as Utah's and Arizona's enforcement deadlines.
Weekend and holiday rollover
NoticeGuard does not model a weekend or holiday extension for South Carolina. The dates above are the plain count from the date you enter. Check whether a Saturday, Sunday or holiday changes your date.
What this rule set does not cover
No preliminary/pre-lien notice deadline is modeled - confirmed absent, not merely unmodeled. § 29-5-40 ("Notice to owner before lien attaches when laborer was employed by someone other than owner") states no day count at all; it only conditions whether the lien attaches against a true owner who did not hire the claimant. § 29-5-20(B) (a sub-subcontractor/supplier's notice, by certified/registered mail, to the contractor) has no statutory deadline either - it removes a cap on the lien amount if given before the lien is recorded/enforced, but nothing requires giving it within any stated number of days. Neither is a rule this app can compute a due date for without inventing one the statute does not state.
A prerequisite this app does not verify: § 29-5-15(A) requires a contractor filing a lien to record proof of contractor licensure/registration (a license or registration number) on the lien document itself, where licensure is otherwise required - a document-content requirement, not a deadline, but a real filing precondition this app does not check.
Weekend/holiday rollover is NOT modeled - deliberately, not by oversight. South Carolina repealed its own general time-computation statute (the former § 15-1-20 no longer exists - confirmed by reading Title 15, Chapter 1 directly, which jumps from § 15-1-10 to § 15-1-30). The only surviving computation-of-time rule is Rule 6(a), South Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure - a court rule, not a legislative statute - and no case law was found confirming it extends a Chapter 5 lien-forfeiture deadline specifically. South Carolina courts have repeatedly held mechanics' liens are creatures of statute, strictly construed against the lienor, which cuts against assuming a procedural court rule automatically extends a substantive lien-dissolution deadline. The same honest gap as Idaho's, Arizona's, New York's, Washington's, Nevada's, Colorado's, and North Carolina's missing rollover.
A real drafting inconsistency, named rather than silently reconciled: § 29-5-120(A) (the operative six-month dissolution deadline used here) ties the period to "ceases to labor... or furnish labor or material," while § 29-5-120(B)'s separate 2009-added release-affidavit mechanism describes the same period as running "since the lien was attached." This app uses (A)'s controlling text - last furnishing, not the recording date - for the enforcement deadline below.
The 6-month enforcement period in § 29-5-120(A) is approximated as 180 calendar days, not a literal calendar-month count - the same approximation already made for Arizona's 6-month period elsewhere in this app.
Bonded projects (§ 29-5-440, a 90-day notice-of-nonpayment-by-mail plus a 1-year outer suit deadline) and public/government projects (Title 11) are not modeled. Residential-specific variants, if any exist outside Chapter 5, were not researched - only Chapter 5 itself was read.
Only §§ 29-5-15, 29-5-20, 29-5-40, 29-5-90, and 29-5-120 have been read. The rest of Chapter 5 - including the real-estate-licensee's lien (§ 29-5-21) and the optional Notice of Project Commencement mechanism (§ 29-5-23) - has not been incorporated.
NoticeGuard is an app that turns a job's dates into a countdown for each statutory step, shows the statute text each date was read from, exports a calendar file (.ics) and sends reminders 14, 7 and 1 day before each deadline. It tracks and reminds; it does not file anything for you.