Dorchester County Certificate of Trust Form (South Carolina)

All Dorchester County specific forms and documents listed below are included in your immediate download package:

Certificate of Trust Form

Dorchester County Certificate of Trust Form

Fill in the blank form formatted to comply with all recording and content requirements.
Included Dorchester County compliant document last validated/updated 6/21/2024

Certificate of Trust Guide

Dorchester County Certificate of Trust Guide

Line by line guide explaining every blank on the form
Included Dorchester County compliant document last validated/updated 10/8/2024

Completed Example of the Certificate of Trust Document

Dorchester County Completed Example of the Certificate of Trust Document

Example of a properly completed form for reference.
Included Dorchester County compliant document last validated/updated 9/9/2024

When using these Certificate of Trust forms, the subject real estate must be physically located in Dorchester County. The executed documents should then be recorded in the following office:

Dorchester County Register of Deeds

201 Johnston St / PO Box 38, Saint George, South Carolina 29477

Hours: 8:30 to 5:00 Monday through Friday

Phone: (843) 563-0181 and 832-0181 for Summerville

Local jurisdictions located in Dorchester County include:

  • Dorchester
  • Grover
  • Harleyville
  • North Charleston
  • Reevesville
  • Ridgeville
  • Saint George
  • Summerville

How long does it take to get my forms?

Forms are available immediately after submitting payment.

How do I get my forms, are they emailed?

Immediately after you submit payment, the Dorchester County forms you order will be available for download directly from your account. You can then download the forms to your computer. If you do not already have an account, one will be created for you as part of the order process, and your login details will be provided to you. If you encounter any issues accessing your forms, please reach out to our support team for assistance. Forms are NOT emailed to you.

What does "validated/updated" mean?

This indicates the most recent date when at least one of the following occurred:

  • Updated: The document was updated or changed to remain compliant.
  • Validated: The document was examined by an attorney or staff, or it was successfully recorded in Dorchester County using our eRecording service.
Are these forms guaranteed to be recordable in Dorchester County?

Yes. Our form blanks are guaranteed to meet or exceed all formatting requirements set forth by Dorchester County including margin requirements, content requirements, font and font size requirements.

Can the Certificate of Trust forms be re-used?

Yes. You can re-use the forms for your personal use. For example, if you have more than one property in Dorchester County that you need to transfer you would only need to order our forms once for all of your properties in Dorchester County.

What are supplemental forms?

Often when a deed is recorded, additional documents are required by South Carolina or Dorchester County. These could be tax related, informational, or even as simple as a coversheet. Supplemental forms are provided for free with your order where available.

What type of files are the forms?

All of our Dorchester County Certificate of Trust forms are PDFs. You will need to have or get Adobe Reader to use our forms. Adobe Reader is free software that most computers already have installed.

Do I need any special software to use these forms?

You will need to have Adobe Reader installed on your computer to use our forms. Adobe Reader is free software that most computers already have installed.

Do I have to enter all of my property information online?

No. The blank forms are downloaded to your computer and you fill them out there, at your convenience.

Can I save the completed form, email it to someone?

Yes, you can save your deed form at any point with your information in it. The forms can also be emailed, blank or complete, as attachments.

Are there any recurring fees involved?

No. Nothing to cancel, no memberships, no recurring fees.

South Carolina Certification of Trust

The certification of trust is codified at S.C. Code 62-7-1013 as part of the South Carolina Trust Code. A certificate of trust presents a summary of the trust to which it pertains, and verifies a trust's existence and the trustee's authority to act on behalf of the trust. A trustee may present the document in lieu of the trust instrument any person who is not a trust beneficiary. This allows the trustee to maintain the privacy of the settlor's estate plans by presenting only necessary information about the trust to parties outside the trust arrangement.

The format of the South Carolina certificate presents the most basic information about the trust first, including the name of the trust and date of execution of the trust instrument, and the name of each settlor and the acting trustee's name and address.

The certificate then presents certified statements, made by the trustees, that all currently serving trustees have executed and acknowledged the instrument, and that the trust "has not been revoked, modified, or amended in any manner that would cause the representations contained in the certification of trust to be incorrect" ( 62-4-1013(7)(c)).

Information about the trust's ability to be revoked, and the identity of any person who may revoke the trust pursuant to the terms of the trust instrument comes next, and information regarding the execution of trust documents follows. For trusts with co-trustees, the certificate shows how many trustees are required to execute trustee powers and enumerates the signature requirements established in the trust.

The certificate also requires the name by which the trust is to hold title to assets, typically by way of the trustee (e.g. "John Doe as Trustee of the Doe Revocable Trust Dated..."). In addition, the certificate presents the exact powers of the trustee to enter the transaction for which the certificate is presented, and may make a reference to the powers set forth in the South Carolina Trust Code.

Persons doing business with trustees have certain protections under the statutes. Recipients of a certification of trust, for example, "may assume without inquiry the existence of the facts contained in the certification" and "may enforce the transaction against the trust property as if the representations contained in the certification were correct" ( 62-4-1013(7)(f),(g)). Recipients may request that a trustee provide copies of excerpts from the trust instrument which designate the trustee and present the trustee's relevant powers, in addition to the certificate. Requesting the entire trust instrument opens them up to liabilities, however ( 62-4-1013(7)(h)).

Where a certification of trust is presented for transactions involving real property, the document should meet standards for recording documents in the State of South Carolina. The certificate must be acknowledged by the acting trustees and witnesses in the presence of a Notary Public before it is recorded in the county where the subject real property is situated.

Consult a lawyer with questions regarding certifications of trust in South Carolina.

(South Carolina COT Package includes form, guidelines, and completed example)

Our Promise

The documents you receive here will meet, or exceed, the Dorchester County recording requirements for formatting. If there's an issue caused by our formatting, we'll make it right and refund your payment.

Save Time and Money

Get your Dorchester County Certificate of Trust form done right the first time with Deeds.com Uniform Conveyancing Blanks. At Deeds.com, we understand that your time and money are valuable resources, and we don't want you to face a penalty fee or rejection imposed by a county recorder for submitting nonstandard documents. We constantly review and update our forms to meet rapidly changing state and county recording requirements for roughly 3,500 counties and local jurisdictions.

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November 10th, 2024

I used the quitclaim deed form, it was easy to fill out, had notarized and was accepted by the county's recorders office. Having a example form made it so much easier to fill out.

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November 8th, 2024

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November 8th, 2024

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August 25th, 2020

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February 23rd, 2019

My legal description exceeds the avaiable space in the one page Exhibit A...any way to add a second page as 'Exhibit A (continued)'?

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It is not required to use the included exhibit page. Simply label your printed legal description as the appropriate exhibit.

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March 17th, 2022

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May 25th, 2022

Very user friendly. Forms professional and acceptable to state applicable to. Appreciate the sample & instructions.

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February 5th, 2021

Your company was great, you all walked me through every step of the process. With the pandemic and the inability to go into the DC Recorder of Deeds office. I look forward to working with you in the future.

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Todd W.

September 3rd, 2020

Communication is hard. The reps need to be empowered and encouraged to call the customers when necessary. They encourage 300 dpi resolution and under 2 MB PDF file, which is not even possible with our scanner. They made a vague comment about a legal description looking abbreviated but did not explain. They refused to call me. They said the county said "Image is light please darken", but the image looked fine to me. Maybe not their fault, but they refused to help work with the county on that for me. I followed their suggestion though and re-scanned at 300 dpi, but they misunderstood me and did not re-submit it right away. Over 48 hours later, it's still not recorded yet. I hope it will be today.

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December 11th, 2019

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