(1) Except as otherwise provided in § 36-2A-306, a creditor of a lessee takes subject to the lease contract.

(2) Except as otherwise provided in subsections (3) and (4) and in §§ 36-2A-306 and 36-2A-308, a creditor of a lessor takes subject to the lease contract unless:

Terms Used In South Carolina Code 36-2A-307

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Goods: means all things that are movable at the time of identification to the lease contract, or are fixtures (§ 36-2A-309), but the term does not include money, documents, instruments, accounts, chattel paper, general intangibles, or minerals or the like, including oil and gas, before extraction. See South Carolina Code 36-2A-103
  • Lease: means a transfer of the right to possession and use of goods for a term in return for consideration, but a sale, including a sale on approval or a sale or return, or retention or creation of a security interest is not a lease. See South Carolina Code 36-2A-103
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • Lease contract: means the total legal obligation that results from the lease agreement as affected by this chapter and any other applicable rules of law. See South Carolina Code 36-2A-103
  • Leasehold interest: means the interest of the lessor or the lessee under a lease contract. See South Carolina Code 36-2A-103
  • Lessee: means a person who acquires the right to possession and use of goods under a lease. See South Carolina Code 36-2A-103
  • Lessor: means a person who transfers the right to possession and use of goods under a lease. See South Carolina Code 36-2A-103

(a) the creditor holds a lien that attached to the goods before the lease contract became enforceable,

(b) the creditor holds a security interest in the goods and the lessee did not give value and receive delivery of the goods without knowledge of the security interest; or

(c) the creditor holds a security interest in the goods which was perfected (§ 36-9-303) before the lease contract became enforceable.

(3) A lessee in the ordinary course of business takes the leasehold interest free of a security interest in the goods created by the lessor even though the security interest is perfected (§ 36-9-303) and the lessee knows of its existence.

(4) A lessee other than a lessee in the ordinary course of business takes the leasehold interest free of a security interest to the extent that it secures future advances made after the secured party acquires knowledge of the lease or more than forty-five days after the lease contract becomes enforceable, whichever first occurs, unless the future advances are made pursuant to a commitment entered into without knowledge of the lease and before the expiration of the forty-five-day period.