How to Get an Annulment in SC: Grounds, Filing, and Hearing

To get an annulment in SC, you file a petition in your county’s Family Court asking a judge to declare that your marriage was never legally valid. You have to prove one of the grounds recognized under South Carolina Code Section 20-1-530, and in most cases you must have stopped living with your spouse as soon as the problem came to light.¹ An annulment is not a divorce. It is a court order saying the marriage never existed in the first place, which is a much higher bar to clear.

Do You Qualify? The Grounds a Court Will Accept

South Carolina’s annulment statutes sit in Title 20, Chapter 1, Article 5 of the state code. Section 20-1-510 gives the Family Court authority to decide whether a marriage is valid, and Section 20-1-530 sets the standard for declaring one void.¹ A judge will consider the following grounds.

Bigamy

If your spouse was still legally married to someone else when the two of you married, your marriage is void. This is one of the easiest grounds to prove because it comes down to paperwork: the prior marriage certificate and the absence of any divorce decree or death certificate for the earlier spouse.

Prohibited Family Relationships

Section 20-1-10 lists the relatives who cannot marry each other in South Carolina: parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, siblings, aunts or uncles with nieces or nephews, and several in-law relationships.² A marriage inside those relationships is void from the start. First cousins are not on the list, so those marriages are not barred.

Underage Marriage

Section 20-1-100 provides that a person under 16 cannot enter a valid marriage, and any such marriage is void from its inception.³

Lack of Mental Capacity

Section 20-1-10 also bars marriages involving a mentally incompetent person.² If one spouse could not understand what a marriage contract meant at the moment of the ceremony, whether from a lasting condition, a temporary impairment, or intoxication, the marriage can be annulled for want of consent.

Fraud

Fraud works as a ground only when the lie went to the core of the marriage itself. South Carolina courts have accepted things like concealing an existing marriage, hiding a serious medical condition, or misrepresenting the ability or willingness to have children. Lies about money, personality, or lifestyle habits do not qualify. You have to show that you actually relied on the false information and that you would not have married had you known the truth.

Duress

A marriage entered under threats of physical harm or serious coercion can be annulled because the person did not freely consent. The pressure has to have been severe enough that the person had no realistic way to refuse.

The Cohabitation Rule Can End Your Case Before It Starts

This is the trap most people don’t see coming. Section 20-1-530 says a court can declare a marriage invalid only if it “has not been consummated by the cohabitation of the parties.”¹ The South Carolina Supreme Court has read that language strictly: once the two of you live together as a married couple after the problem is known, the marriage is binding, even where fraud could otherwise be shown.⁴

In practice, if you discover fraud, duress, or a capacity issue, you need to move out immediately. Staying in the home, even briefly, will likely be treated as ratifying the marriage, and your only remaining option becomes divorce.

The rule works differently for the three “void” grounds: bigamy, prohibited kinship, and underage marriage. Those marriages are invalid from the moment of the ceremony regardless of whether you lived together, so cohabitation does not shut the door.

Where and When to File

South Carolina imposes no residency requirement for annulment, which is different from the divorce rules. File the petition in the county where the ceremony took place or where either spouse currently lives. Section 20-1-510 gives the Family Court authority over any case questioning the validity of a marriage.⁵

There is no statute of limitations. That said, in voidable-marriage cases (fraud, duress, capacity), delay hurts you. The longer you wait, the harder it gets to fight off an argument that you ratified the marriage by continuing to live with your spouse. File as soon as you have the grounds.

Filing the Petition

Prepare the Paperwork

You need a Summons and a Petition for Annulment. Blank forms are on the South Carolina Judicial Branch website.⁶ The petition has to include both spouses’ full legal names and addresses, the date and place of the ceremony, and a detailed factual explanation of why the marriage is invalid. Do not write something generic like “the marriage was based on fraud.” Spell out the specific facts that tie your situation to a recognized ground.

File With the Clerk and Pay the Fee

Submit the paperwork to the Clerk of Court in the Family Court Division of the appropriate county. The filing fee is $150. If you cannot afford it, you can file a Motion and Affidavit to Proceed In Forma Pauperis asking the court to waive the fee. Payment is usually by cash, cashier’s check, or money order, but call the clerk first because policies vary on personal checks and credit cards.

Serve Your Spouse

After filing, you have to formally deliver the summons and petition to your spouse. Under South Carolina Rule 4, service can be made by a sheriff, a deputy, or any adult who is not a party or an attorney in the case.⁷

If your spouse cannot be located after a diligent search, you can serve by publication. Section 15-9-710 specifically lists annulment cases among the actions eligible for that method, which involves publishing notice in a newspaper.⁸ You will need to file an affidavit describing your search before the court will approve it.

The Court Hearing

Annulments require a formal hearing. A Family Court judge will review the evidence and decide whether your proof meets the legal standard. Bring supporting documents that directly prove your ground: birth certificates for underage cases, prior marriage records for bigamy, medical records for capacity, and any documents relevant to a fraud or duress claim. Witnesses who can speak to the circumstances (a relative who saw the coercion, a doctor who can address capacity) strengthen the case.

The burden of proof is on you. In a fraud case, you have to show that the misrepresentation was fundamental to the marriage, that you actually relied on it, and that you stopped living with your spouse as soon as you learned the truth. If the judge is satisfied, they will sign a Decree of Annulment declaring that no valid marriage ever existed. Once the decree is filed with the clerk, both of you are legally single.

What an Annulment Does and Doesn’t Resolve

Children

An annulment does not affect the legal status of children born during the marriage. Under South Carolina law, children of an annulled marriage are considered legitimate as long as at least one parent entered the marriage in good faith, meaning without knowing it was invalid. A legitimate child keeps the right to support from both parents and to inherit from either. The court can address custody, visitation, and child support inside the annulment case, the same way it would in a divorce.

Property and Support

Because the decree says the marriage never existed, South Carolina’s equitable-distribution rules for divorce may not fully apply. The court has limited tools to divide property the two of you acquired while you believed you were married. Where one spouse committed fraud, the judge can order that spouse to provide financial support to the innocent party, but the standard alimony framework used in divorce does not automatically transfer to annulment cases. If you and your spouse accumulated significant shared property or debt, divorce may actually give both of you more predictable protections.

Federal Tax Filings

An annulment is retroactive for federal tax purposes. The IRS treats you as never married, which means any joint returns you filed during the marriage need to be amended on Form 1040-X to reflect single or head of household status. The window to file an amended return and claim any refund is generally three years from the original filing date, or two years from the date you paid the tax, whichever is later.⁹

1
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Section 20-1-530 – Declaration of Invalidity
2
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code Section 20-1-10 – Persons Who May Contract Matrimony
3
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code of Laws Title 20 Chapter 1 – Section 20-1-100
4
Justia. Edm v. Tam, South Carolina Supreme Court 1992
5
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code of Laws Title 20 Chapter 1 – Section 20-1-510
6
South Carolina Judicial Branch. Court Forms
7
South Carolina Judicial Branch. Rule 4
8
South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code of Laws Title 15 Chapter 9 – Section 15-9-710
9
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 501 – Dependents, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information