South Carolina · RecordingSouth Carolina deed requirements: two witnesses, the witness affidavit and recording

South Carolina is one of the few states that still requires witnesses on a deed. The statutory form of conveyance carries the fee simple if it is executed in the presence of, and subscribed by, two or more credible witnesses (S.C. Code §27-7-10). Before a deed can be recorded, it must be acknowledged or proved in one of the statutory ways: proved by the affidavit of a subscribing witness taken before an officer competent to administer oaths – called the probate – or, outside the state, before a notary or other listed officer (§30-5-30(A)(1)); acknowledged under the Uniform Recognition of Acknowledgments Act, or by the signer's own affidavit that the signature is theirs and the instrument was executed for its stated purposes (§30-5-30(A)(2)); or signed by the grantor, with the signing acknowledged in the presence of two witnesses before an officer competent to administer oaths (§30-5-30(B)). The register of deeds records conveyances and mortgages in the order they are lodged, within thirty days after lodgment, with the recording dated as of lodgment (§30-5-90).