# ESA Letter in Myrtle Beach, SC: Where the Letter Stops

> South Carolina says in its own code where an ESA letter carries weight and where it does not. For a Myrtle Beach renter, that boundary is the whole story.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/south-carolina-emotional-support-animal/myrtle-beach/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-08-20
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 40,535
- Households renting: 39.5%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): No statutory cap
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Varies by building
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Forty thousand residents, and two homes in five rented

Myrtle Beach sits in Horry County and had 40,535 residents on the Census
Bureau's 2024 estimate, twelfth among South Carolina municipalities. Of its
17,623 occupied homes, 6,960 sit with renters. On the American Community
Survey's 2020–2024 five-year estimates that is a renter share of 39.5 percent,
eleven points clear of the 28.1 percent South Carolina records overall.

Median gross rent is $1,261. That is $81 above the $1,180 state figure and
above every inland city a Horry County renter is likely to be comparing
against (Conway at $866, Florence at $992, Sumter at $1,076), while sitting
far below Charleston's $1,722.

Every one of those numbers counts an *occupied housing unit*. That is worth
noticing, because South Carolina's emotional support animal provisions are
drawn along almost exactly the same line: they do a great deal of work inside
a home and almost none outside one. Two different chapters of the code say so
in two different ways, and the pair of them is the most useful thing a renter
here can carry around.

## The sentence that gives the letter its force

The authority behind an accommodation request is in the South Carolina Fair
Housing Law. Section 31-21-70(G)(2) provides that discrimination includes "a
refusal to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or
services when such accommodations may be necessary to afford the person equal
opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling." A no-animals clause is a policy; a
weight limit is a rule. Handicap discrimination in rental is reached by
§ 31-21-40(6) and (7), its own subdivisions, rather than by the general list
at (1) and (2).

Read the last word of the quoted phrase. The duty runs to the *dwelling*, and
the chapter defines that at § 31-21-30(5) as "any building or structure, or
portion of any building or structure, which is occupied as, or designed or
intended for occupancy as, a residence by one or more families," along with
vacant land offered for building one. Occupied as a residence, or designed and
intended for it. That is the reach of the duty and the reach of your letter.

## Where the state says the letter stops

South Carolina did not leave the other side of the line to inference.
Section 47-3-990 (one sentence long, effective 16 May 2019) reads in full: "Places of public accommodation may establish rules and
regulations related to access to such facilities by nonservice animals,
including emotional support animals."

That is a grant of authority to the business, not a duty owed to you. And the
category is defined rather than left vague. Section 47-3-920(7) says "'Places
of public accommodation' means airports, train stations, bus stations, and
establishments defined in Section 45-9-10."

Follow the cross-reference and the list becomes concrete. Section 45-9-10(B)
enumerates "any inn, hotel, motel, or other establishment which provides
lodging to transient guests"; any restaurant, cafeteria, lunch counter or soda
fountain principally engaged in selling food eaten on the premises; any
hospital or clinic providing overnight accommodations; "any retail or
wholesale establishment"; and "any motion picture house, theater, concert
hall, billiard parlor, saloon, barroom, golf course, sports arena, stadium, or
other place of amusement, exhibition, recreation, or entertainment." An
establishment physically located inside another covered one, holding itself
out as serving its patrons, is covered too. Subsection (C) ties the definition
to "supported by state action," which it defines as the licensing or
permitting of the establishment by the State or a local government.

So the boundary is not a matter of etiquette or of how sympathetic a manager
happens to be. A letter that a leasing office is obliged to weigh under
Title 31 gives a licensed golf course or barroom no obligation at all under
Title 47.

## The lodging line the tenancy act draws

There is a second boundary, in a third chapter, and it answers a different
question. Section 27-40-120 lists the arrangements the Residential Landlord
and Tenant Act does not govern. Subdivision (4) is "transient occupancy in a
hotel, motel, or other accommodations subject to the sales tax on
accommodations as provided by SECTION 12-36-920."

The test in that subdivision is not the shape of the building. It is whether
the occupancy is transient and whether the charge falls under the
accommodations sales tax. The same chapter also declines to govern occupancy
by a condominium owner or a cooperative proprietary lessee under (6),
occupancy by an employee whose right to stay depends on the job under (5),
occupancy primarily for agricultural purposes under (7), and residence at a
charitable or emergency shelter under (9).

For someone paying by the week or the month at a place taxed as
accommodations, that subdivision is the one to look at first, and to ask about
in writing before signing anything.

## Two scope questions that are not one question

Here is the trap, and it is easy to fall into. Section 27-40-120 sets the
scope of the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. It says nothing whatever
about the scope of the Fair Housing Law, which is a separate chapter in a
separate title with its own definitions.

The two chapters do not even use the same word. Chapter 40 governs a "dwelling
unit," defined at § 27-40-210(3) as "a structure or the part of a structure
that is used as a home, residence, or sleeping place by one person who
maintains a household or by two or more persons who maintain a common
household," and including landlord-owned mobile homes. The Fair Housing Law
governs a "dwelling" under § 31-21-30(5), quoted above. Different chapters,
different definitions, decided separately.

Which means a renter with a marginal arrangement has two questions to answer,
not one, and answering the first does not answer the second. If the papers you
have signed sit anywhere near the line, the counting is worth a lawyer's
half-hour rather than a guess.

## What sitting inside the tenancy act is worth

The reason the first question matters at all is that Chapter 40 carries
protections that do not follow you out of it. Section 27-40-410 requires that
any deduction from a deposit "must be itemized by the landlord in a written
notice to the tenant together with the amount due, if any, within thirty days
after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession and demand by the
tenant, whichever is later," and gives a tenant whose deposit is not returned
with that notice "three times the amount wrongfully withheld and reasonable
attorney's fees." The subsection conditions that remedy on the tenant supplying a
forwarding address in writing, so hand one over on the way out.

Section 27-40-130(a) then puts the circuit courts and the magistrate courts of
the State in concurrent jurisdiction over conduct governed by the chapter. A
transient occupancy under § 27-40-120(4) reaches none of that.

## Who answers in Horry County

**Waccamaw Economic Opportunity Council** runs Community Services Block Grant
programmes for Georgetown, Horry and Williamsburg counties, including a
Housing Support Program that assists with rent and security deposits and a
GEAP programme covering eviction notices, home fires and relocation.
**South Carolina 211** describes itself as free, local, confidential and
running 24/7/365; reach it on 2-1-1 or 866.892.9211, or text your ZIP code
to 211-211. The **South Carolina Bar** publishes public legal-help material
with a Landlords and Tenants section and a searchable member directory, and
the **South Carolina
Judicial Branch** publishes court forms, self-help resources and magistrate
court information county by county. None of these writes letters.

## What the letter itself has to establish

Inside the dwelling, South Carolina has already said what the document must
do. Section 31-21-70(N)(2) provides that documentation "shall be deemed
sufficient if it establishes that an individual has a disability and that the
animal in question will provide some type of disability-related assistance or
emotional support." Two findings, and no third.

Both are clinical judgements, and reaching either takes a licensed
professional who has actually examined you. A clinician you already see
costs least; against that, count the wait for a slot and the conversation
about a document they may never have produced before. A community mental
health centre is the next option, and its intake is designed around
continuing treatment, so the lead time is usually longer still.

Route three is an evaluation booked for this one purpose: a brief screening
with a South Carolina-licensed professional, who issues a letter only if what
they find supports it. That is the standard § 31-21-70(N)(2) writes down: the
one that governs your home in Myrtle Beach, and stops at its door.

## What Myrtle Beach landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot refuse a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where it may be necessary to give a person with a handicap an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling: S.C. Code Ann. § 31-21-70(G)(2), and 24 C.F.R. § 100.204(a) federally.
- Cannot treat a no-pets policy as the end of the conversation. A no-pets policy is a rule, and rules are what § 31-21-70(G)(2) requires be adjusted where an accommodation may be necessary.
- Cannot dismiss documentation that establishes a disability and a disability-related need. Under § 31-21-70(N)(2) such documentation "shall be deemed sufficient", the statute settles the question rather than leaving it to the landlord's taste.
- Cannot demand that the animal be registered, certified, or wearing a vest. South Carolina's own 2019 Act recorded in its preamble that no vest, marking or documentation is required for an animal to qualify, and that such things are not "a reliable indication" of anything.
- Cannot charge pet rent, a pet deposit or a pet fee for an approved assistance animal, because the accommodation is a change to a rule rather than permission to keep a pet.
- Cannot threaten a tenant with § 47-3-980 for making a housing request. That section penalises misrepresenting an animal as a service animal, expressly "does not constitute a criminal offense," and does not describe an emotional-support accommodation request under Title 31.
- Cannot coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with a tenant for exercising a right under the Fair Housing Law. § 31-21-80, with the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act's own § 27-40-910 alongside it.

**Can:**
- May ask the two questions § 31-21-70(N)(1) sets out: whether the person seeking to live with the animal has a disability that substantially limits a major life activity, and whether they have a disability-related need for the animal.
- May request documentation verifying the answers to those two questions, § 31-21-70(N)(2). What it may not do is keep asking after documentation that meets the statutory standard has arrived.
- May decline where the specific animal would be a direct threat to the health or safety of others or would cause substantial physical damage to the property of others. 24 C.F.R. § 100.202(d), assessed on that animal's actual conduct and history rather than its breed or weight. Note the authority: South Carolina's own threat clause at § 31-21-70(E) is written only against § 31-21-40(1) and (2), the two subdivisions that omit handicap, so it does not by its terms answer an assistance-animal request.
- May set the security deposit at any amount, because South Carolina caps none, but must itemise every deduction in writing within thirty days under § 27-40-410, on pain of treble damages.
- May fall outside §§ 31-21-40 and 31-21-60 entirely if the building holds no more than four families and the owner actually lives in one of them, § 31-21-70(A). The federal Fair Housing Act still applies on its own terms.

## How to get an ESA letter in Myrtle Beach

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Myrtle Beach. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front. (About 5 minutes: free)
2. **Connect with a licensed professional**, You are matched with a provider licensed for South Carolina clients who reviews your situation in a telehealth evaluation. (Telehealth evaluation)
3. **Complete your evaluation**, The professional evaluates whether an emotional support animal alleviates symptoms of a condition recognized in the DSM-5. Honest evaluations, not everyone qualifies. (Most of Our Applicants Qualify)
4. **Receive your signed letter**, Your letter arrives on the professional's letterhead with their license number: the documentation South Carolina landlords may lawfully request. (Typically within days of approval)
5. **Send it to your landlord**, Submit the letter with a short reasonable-accommodation request. Pet fees, pet deposits, and breed limits no longer apply to your animal in Myrtle Beach. (Protection under FHA + state law)

## Conditions that can qualify for an ESA

No fixed government list exists. A licensed professional evaluates whether an animal alleviates symptoms of a DSM-5-recognized condition, commonly:

- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Major depressive disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Panic disorder
- Social anxiety disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Bipolar disorder
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Phobias with housing impact
- Chronic stress affecting daily function

## Housing help in Myrtle Beach

- [Waccamaw Economic Opportunity Council](https://weoc.org/) (community services)
- [South Carolina 211](https://www.sc211.org/) (community services)
- [South Carolina Bar](https://www.scbar.org/) (legal aid)
- [South Carolina Judicial Branch](https://sccourts.org/) (state agency)

## Frequently asked questions

### Will my ESA letter get my animal into a Myrtle Beach hotel, restaurant or attraction?

No, and South Carolina put the answer in the statute rather than leaving it to a manager's mood. Section 47-3-990 provides that "[p]laces of public accommodation may establish rules and regulations related to access to such facilities by nonservice animals, including emotional support animals." The category is then defined, not left loose: § 47-3-920(7) reads "'Places of public accommodation' means airports, train stations, bus stations, and establishments defined in Section 45-9-10." That cross-referenced section lists "any inn, hotel, motel, or other establishment which provides lodging to transient guests," restaurants and lunch counters, hospitals and clinics providing overnight accommodations, "any retail or wholesale establishment," and any "motion picture house, theater, concert hall, billiard parlor, saloon, barroom, golf course, sports arena, stadium, or other place of amusement." A business inside one of those, serving its patrons, is covered too. Your letter is a housing document; none of that list owes it anything.

### I am renting week to week at a place that charges accommodations tax. Does the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act cover me?

Possibly not, and this is the one South Carolina line worth checking before you sign. Section 27-40-120 lists the arrangements the chapter does not govern, and subdivision (4) is "transient occupancy in a hotel, motel, or other accommodations subject to the sales tax on accommodations as provided by SECTION 12-36-920." Notice what the test is and is not. It is not the age or the shape of the building; it is whether the occupancy is transient and whether the charge falls under that accommodations tax. Neighbouring subdivisions take out occupancy by a condominium owner or a cooperative proprietary lessee under (6), occupancy by an employee whose right to stay depends on the job under (5), and residence at a charitable or emergency shelter under (9). Ask the operator in writing which category they are billing you under, and keep the answer.

### If the tenancy act does not cover my arrangement, does that mean the Fair Housing Law does not either?

It does not follow, and treating it as though it does is the commonest mistake in this corner of South Carolina law. Section 27-40-120 sets the scope of one chapter: the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, in Title 27. The Fair Housing Law is a different chapter in a different title, with its own definitions and its own scope, and nothing in § 27-40-120 speaks to it. The chapters do not even share a term. Title 27 governs a "dwelling unit," defined at § 27-40-210(3) as "a structure or the part of a structure that is used as a home, residence, or sleeping place" by someone maintaining a household. Title 31 governs a "dwelling," defined at § 31-21-30(5) as a building or portion of one "occupied as, or designed or intended for occupancy as, a residence by one or more families." Two questions, answered separately. If your arrangement sits near the line, that is a question for a lawyer, not for a leasing agent.

### What does the Fair Housing Law actually require of a Myrtle Beach landlord?

That a covered landlord adjust a rule where the adjustment may be necessary. Section 31-21-70(G)(2) makes discrimination include "a refusal to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services when such accommodations may be necessary to afford the person equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling." A no-animals clause is a policy; a weight ceiling is a rule; both are the kind of thing the subsection reaches. The underlying prohibition on handicap discrimination in rental sits in § 31-21-40(6) and (7): its own subdivisions, not the general list at (1) and (2), which is why a landlord skimming the first paragraph will not find it. "Handicap" is defined at § 31-21-30(7) and does not require the impairment to be visible to anyone.

### Is pet rent or a pet fee chargeable on an approved ESA in Myrtle Beach?

It should not be. Section 31-21-70(G)(2) obliges the landlord to adjust a rule; the fee schedule bolted onto that rule was drafted for pets, and an assistance animal approved as an accommodation does not travel with it. Worth knowing what South Carolina leaves unregulated on the other side: the word "animal" does not appear in the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act at all, so there is no statutory pet-rent limit, and no statute caps a security deposit either. What Chapter 40 does police is the money coming back, and only for arrangements the chapter governs. Section 27-40-410 requires every deduction to be itemised in a written notice within thirty days of termination and delivery of possession, and gives a tenant "three times the amount wrongfully withheld and reasonable attorney's fees" when a landlord does not comply. A transient occupancy excluded by § 27-40-120(4) reaches none of that.

### Airports are named in the statute. Does my letter help me flying out of Myrtle Beach?

Not under South Carolina law, and this is the clearest illustration of where the line runs. Section 47-3-920(7) names airports, train stations and bus stations first in its definition of "[p]laces of public accommodation," and § 47-3-990 then permits places of public accommodation to set their own rules for access by nonservice animals, emotional support animals included. Note also how the code separates the categories: § 47-3-920(4) limits a service animal to a dog or a miniature horse trained to do work or perform tasks, § 47-3-920(4)(b) says that "the provision of emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship" is not work or a task, and § 47-3-920(6) defines an emotional support animal separately as "an animal intended to provide companionship and reassurance." Whatever an individual carrier's own policy says, the state statute gives your letter no purchase at a terminal.

### Who can help in Horry County if a Myrtle Beach landlord refuses?

Myrtle Beach sits in Horry County, and the Waccamaw Economic Opportunity Council runs Community Services Block Grant programmes across Georgetown, Horry and Williamsburg counties. Its Housing Support Program assists with rent and security deposits for households that can show sustainability, and its GEAP programme covers eviction notices, home fires and relocation. For everything from rental assistance to finding a clinician, South Carolina 211 describes itself as free, local, confidential and available 24/7/365 statewide, reachable on 2-1-1 or 866.892.9211, or by texting a ZIP code to 211-211. The South Carolina Bar publishes public legal-help material including a Landlords and Tenants section, alongside a searchable member directory. If the dispute reaches a courtroom, § 27-40-130(a) puts the circuit courts and magistrate courts in concurrent jurisdiction over conduct governed by the tenancy act, and the South Carolina Judicial Branch publishes forms, self-help resources and magistrate court information county by county. None of these organisations writes ESA letters.

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Get evaluated by a licensed provider: https://my.supportanimal.com/qualify?sa_source=blog&sa_medium=blog&sa_campaign=esa-guides&sa_content=markdown&ref=blog&sa_term=south-carolina-emotional-support-animal%2Fmyrtle-beach