South Carolina · Construction-defect rights
Here is what you have, and here is how to keep it.
South Carolina gives you eight years from completion. Unusually, that deadline does not protect a builder who committed fraud, gross negligence or recklessness, or who concealed the claim - so a serious case may survive past eight years. You must give notice and a chance to cure before suing.
What you have
The deadline does not protect a builder who concealed the problem.
In South Carolina, a claim of fraud, concealment or serious misconduct is not cut off by the ordinary construction deadline (S.C. Code § 15-3-670(A)).
THE DEADLINE DOES NOT PROTECT A BUILDER WHO COMMITTED FRAUD, GROSS NEGLIGENCE OR RECKLESSNESS. S.C. Code s.15-3-670(A) removes the eight-year bar for any of those, or for a builder who concealed the problem. Otherwise you have eight years from substantial completion.
The deadline
8 years to bring a construction-defect claim
S.C. Code § 15-3-640
8 years from SUBSTANTIAL COMPLETION of the improvement (S.C. Code § 15-3-640). BROAD FRAUD/MISCONDUCT CARVE-OUT: § 15-3-670(A) provides the § 15-3-640 repose "are not available as a defense to a person guilty of fraud, gross negligence, or recklessness" in furnishing materials, developing, designing, supervising or constructing the improvement, "or to a person who conceals any such cause of action." South Carolina's carve-out is unusually wide — it reaches gross negligence and recklessness, not only fraud/concealment.
“No actions to recover damages based upon or arising out of the defective or unsafe condition of an improvement to real property may be brought more than eight years after substantial completion of the improvement.”
Before you sue: Notice and opportunity to cure required before filing a residential defect action. (S.C. Code s.40-59-840)
What to do now
Write it down the day you notice it. Photograph it with something for scale. Note the date, the room, and what you saw. If it gets worse, photograph it again - a sequence is far stronger than one picture. Keep every message with the builder. You are not starting a fight; you are keeping the option open. South Carolina requires written notice to the builder before you sue: see "Before you sue" on this page for the exact rule. Describe each defect in reasonable detail; a record made at the time is what most people are missing later.
The same defect, a different answer next door
The construction-defect deadline is a state-by-state accident of geography. The identical crack in the identical house can be dead in one state and live in another.