Happy New Year! Although it has just begun, the new year has already proven to be quite dynamic as far as the Real Estate World in South Carolina is concerned. The dawning of this new year has also brought about changes to two South Carolina real estate laws with huge implications for South Carolina Real Estate.

The first change is one that many will be able to see in areas with large numbers of heirs’ properties. Many areas of SC have extremely high percentages of landowners who lack a clear title and claim to the land for which they have thought they owned for many years. Much of this stems from the postbellum period following the Civil War when the South was all but redrawn. During this time, many African-American peoples passed land down from generation to generation without a written will due to a justified distrust of the government and those who would have been preparing the paperwork for it to become legally binding.

As a result, often in coastal areas, situations could (and did) arise where one portion of a large property could be bought, a sale forced (and upheld), and a person who had no original claim to the property walked away with a huge payday. The new law, named the Clementa C. Pinckney Uniform Partition of Heirs’ Property Act after the slain senator in the June 2015 shooting at Charleston’s Emanuel A.M.E. Church, allows remaining owners of a portion of a claim to buy out the interests of other heirs or any outside persons prior to any sale of the land (Avery Wilks). Market price is also now assured by an outside appraiser to further assure that these situations are not taken advantage of.

A second change to South Carolina Real Estate laws now allows an agent to legally act on behalf of a buyer client as well as a seller client within the same transaction. The laws previously governing this point were severely outdated and this update brings South Carolina back up to pace with where our business evolution has brought us. This change also hopes to lessen the chances of another crisis similar to the one in 2007-2009, by requiring more training to obtain a Real Estate Broker’s License or Salesperson’s License.

Get more information from this article on TheState.com by Avery G. Wilks.