Probate, notice to creditors

2025-2026 Bill 4511: Probate, notice to creditors - South Carolina Legislature Online

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026
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This Bill
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Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter
H. 4511
STATUS INFORMATION
General Bill
Sponsors: Rep. Wetmore
Document Path: LC-0237HDB25.docx
Introduced in the House on May 6, 2025
Introduced in the Senate on February 11, 2026
Last Amended on February 10, 2026

Currently residing in the Senate Committee on
Judiciary
Summary: Probate, notice to creditors
HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

Date

Body

Action Description with journal page number

5/6/2025

House

Introduced and read first time (
House Journal-page 227
)

5/6/2025

House

Referred to Committee on
Judiciary
(
House Journal-page 227
)

2/5/2026

House

Committee report: Favorable with amendment
Judiciary
(
House Journal-page 6
)

2/10/2026

House

Amended (
House Journal-page 26
)

2/10/2026

House

Read second time (
House Journal-page 26
)

2/10/2026

House

Roll call Yeas-114 Nays-0 (
House Journal-page 28
)

2/11/2026

House

Read third time and sent to Senate (
House Journal-page 14
)

2/11/2026

Senate

Introduced and read first time (
Senate Journal-page 10
)

2/11/2026

Senate

Referred to Committee on
Judiciary
(
Senate Journal-page 10
)

View the latest
legislative information
at the website
VERSIONS OF THIS BILL
05/06/2025
02/05/2026
02/10/2026

Indicates Matter Stricken

Indicates New Matter

Amended

February 10, 2026

H. 4511

Introduced
by Rep. Wetmore

S. Printed 2/10/26--H.

Read the first time May 6, 2025

________

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY AMENDING
SECTION
15-9-720
, RELATING TO SERVICE ON UNKNOWN PARTIES BY PUBLICATION FOR
CERTAIN REAL PROPERTY ACTIONS, SO AS TO ALLOW SERVICE BY PUBLICATION TO BE
PUBLISHED IN EITHER THE PRINT OR ONLINE VERSION OF A NEWSPAPER OF GENERAL
CIRCULATION IN THE APPROPRIATE COUNTY; AND BY AMENDING SECTION
62-3-801
,
RELATING TO NOTICE TO CREDITORS, SO AS TO ALLOW PUBLICATION ONLINE ON A
CENTRALIZED WEBSITE FOR THE SOUTH CAROLINA PROBATE COURT OR IN A NEWSPAPER OF
GENERAL CIRCULATION IN THE APPROPRIATE COUNTY.

Amend Title To Conform

B
e it enacted by the
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

S
ECTION 1.
S
ection
15-9-720
of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

S
ection
15-9-720
.
(
A) For the purposes of
this section, "court" means a court, judge, clerk of court, master-in-equity,
special referee, or judge of probate of competent jurisdiction in the county
where the action is pending.

(
B)
(
1) A court shall grant an order
allowing a party with an interest in or lien on a parcel of real property
subject to a partition action, mortgage foreclosure action, or other action
affecting the property's title to serve by publication any unknown party
or known party, whose address cannot be ascertained,
to
the action and who has an interest in or lien on the real property, any such
legal notice as will accomplish the underlying purposes set forth in this
section, if the:

(
a)

identity or
residence of the
unknown

party cannot, with a reasonably diligent effort, be ascertained by the
plaintiff; and

(
b)
plaintiff presents an affidavit to the court stating he
or
she
has been unable to ascertain the
identity or
residence
of the
unknown
party after making a reasonably
diligent effort.

(
2)
A court order allowing a party to serve
an unknown
the
party by publication must require the party serving
by publication to publish the service once a week for three
successive
weeks in
a
either the print or online version of a
newspaper of
general circulation in the county where the property is situated. Service by
publication under this section is equal to personal service on the
unknown
party.

(
C) A
party may accomplish service by publication pursuant to this section for
multiple units in a single horizontal property regime by consolidating the
services into a single service that identifies each apartment included in the
action based on the apartment's description in the master deed. This
consolidated service must comply with the other requirements of this section
and other applicable statutes, including the requirement that publication must
take place once a week for three weeks in
a
either the print or online version of a
newspaper of
general circulation in the county where the property is situated.

S
ECTION 2.
S
ection
62-3-801
of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

S
ection
62-3-801
.
(a)
(
A)
Unless notice has
already been given under this section, a personal representative upon his
or her
appointment must publish a notice to creditors
once a week for three successive weeks in
the print
version of a newspaper and online version, if available, at no additional
charge to the personal representative, of
a newspaper of general
circulation in the county
where the estate is being
probated,
announcing his
or her
appointment
and address and notifying creditors of the estate to present their claims
within
the earlier of
eight months after the date
of the first publication of the notice
or one year of date
of death
or be forever barred.
Online notices shall
also be placed on a statewide website, at no additional charge to the personal
representative, that is established and maintained as a joint venture of the
majority of South Carolina newspapers as a repository for such notices and the
notice will remain on the repository website for at least as long as it appears
in the newspaper. A personal representative may supplement this notice
requirement in the counties in which the county probate court provides online
notice by maintaining on its county website a publicly accessible and
searchable list of decedents' estates and names of personal representatives
whereby creditors may find an estate in which to file a claim.

(b)
(
B)

If the probate court in the
county where the estate is filed facilitates the publication of notice to
creditors in an online or print format, the probate court may charge the cost
of the publication, which may be paid from the decedent's estate. No fee may
otherwise be assessed by the probate court for online or print publication.

(
C) County probate courts providing
such online notice may allow creditors to file claims online and assess a
reasonable fee approved by its county government for such filings.

(
D)
A personal representative
may give written notice by mail or other delivery to any creditor, notifying
the creditor to present his claim within one year of the decedent's death, or
within sixty days from the mailing or other delivery of such notice, whichever
is earlier, or be forever barred. Written notice is the notice described in
(a)
(A)
above or a similar
notice.

(c)
(
E)
The personal representative is not liable to any
creditor or to any successor of the decedent for giving or failing to give
notice under this section.

(d)
(
F)
Notwithstanding subsections
(a)
(A)
and
(b)
(B)
, notice to creditors under this section is not
required if a personal representative is not appointed to administer the
decedent's estate during the one year period following the death of the
decedent.

(
G)
(
1) The probate court in the county
where the estate is filed may, in its discretion, assess a reasonable one-time
fee for online publication under this section which may be paid from the
decedent's estate. No fee may otherwise be assessed for online publication.

(
2) All fees assessed under item (1)
from all county probate courts must be used toward the cost of constructing and
maintaining the centralized online platform that services all counties. Fees
for publication in a newspaper of general circulation must continue to meet the
requirements of Section
15-29-80
.

(
H) The centralized website for the
South Carolina Probate Court must be organized by county and searchable within
each county by the names of either the decedent or the personal representative.
Once a creditor has located an estate, the online platform must display
instructions on where and how to file a claim with the appropriate county
probate court along with contact information for additional assistance.

S
ECTION 3. This act takes effect upon approval
by the Governor.

----XX----

This web page was last updated on February 10, 2026 at 5:11 PM