Housing

Checked as of September 28, 2026.

South Dakota’s legislature meets once a year, convening the second Tuesday of January. The next session runs January 11 to March 11, 2027, with March 15 reserved for vetoes. Tenant law here changes in those nine weeks and almost nowhere else, which is why so many tenant rights pages still describe rules that were repealed. If you are reading this after March 2027 and nobody has updated the date above, treat the specifics as a starting point rather than the current law.

Jump to what you need:

• If you are leaving an abusive situation
• If you got an eviction notice
• If you cannot make rent
• If your landlord will not fix it
• If you are trying to find a place
• If your deposit is being kept
• If the place needs work
• The rules, and where they run out

The rules changed, and the government sucks at keeping us up to date.

South Dakota rewrote its eviction law in 2024. The three days’ notice a landlord used to owe you before filing is gone, repealed outright. Almost every tenant rights article you will find still says otherwise, including the guide published by the South Dakota Attorney General. East River Legal Services wrote up what actually changed.

So this page says what the law actually is right now, and who actually helps. We have put a date at the top because these rules move.

For each place below, we have said what we could confirm and what we could not. Feel free to email us if you have updates or something you want to add.

If you are leaving an abusive situation

You can break a lease early. Tell the landlord in writing that you are leaving because you fear imminent danger to you or to someone in your household, and attach one of these. All three have to be from the last 30 days, counting back from the date of your notice. SDCL 43-32-19.1

• A police report, signed in the last 30 days
• A protection order, issued in the last 30 days
• Documentation from a licensed health care provider who examined you or someone in your household in the last 30 days, and who writes that they have reasonable cause to believe there was abuse

Buuut, this does not wipe out what you already owe. The law cancels the early termination fee and the rent for the month after the one you move out in. The month you actually leave, you still owe. Budget for that, because nobody is going to warn you. SDCL 43-32-19.1

And if you give them a forwarding address when you do this, they are not allowed to hand it to anyone without your say-so. SDCL 43-32-19.2

And a lease cannot be used to evict you for calling police or emergency services about abuse, and being a victim is not itself grounds for eviction. SDCL 43-32-18.1

Who helps you get the paperwork

Solace runs a crisis line 24 hours a day, 1-877-462-7474. Advocates for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking and child abuse, at no cost to you. Office at 2210 S Brown Place, 605-336-1974. seeksolace.care

If you are searching for this yourself, Solace is what the Compass Center, Family Service and Move to Heal became when they merged. The old names still come up, and they still lead to the same people.

For the protection order itself, the forms come from the clerk of courts or from an advocate, and the court has an interactive tool that drafts them. A judge reviews the petition and either grants a temporary order or sets a hearing. An order can run up to five years. ujs.sd.gov protection orders

Buuut, a protection order takes time, and a police report has to be from the last 30 days. If you are leaving tonight and have neither, call Solace first. They do this every day and they will know which door is open to you now.

Getting out of town is its own problem. Leaving town covers the only intercity bus and what nobody will pay for.

If you got an eviction notice

You have five days. Start now.

Five days from being served. SDCL 21-16-7. You do not count the day you were served, and because the window is under eleven days, weekends and legal holidays in the middle do not count either, which usually buys you more calendar time than it sounds like. SDCL 15-6-6(a). Miss it and the landlord can ask for a default judgment and get one without a hearing.

The five days only start when you are actually served, and service has rules. It takes at least two attempts a week apart.

Buuut, the second one can be a paper taped to your door plus a mailed copy. If something appeared on your door, the clock is probably already running.

Filing a written Answer is the single thing that turns a paper default into an actual hearing. It is form UJS-119, it costs $25, and the court can waive that. ujs.sd.gov

Help filling out the paperwork

The court runs a help line for people filing their own forms. They will walk you through the Answer line by line.

Buuut, they can tell you how to fill in a box. They cannot tell you what to argue. That is the difference between form help and legal advice, and they will say so.

1-855-784-0004, or ujssrlhelp@ujs.state.sd.us. Free.

And you can ask to have the $25 fee waived. It is Form UJS-022, a motion a judge decides, not something the clerk hands out, so ask for it by number. Nobody is going to offer.

East River Legal Services

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Free civil legal help, and they have a Housing Retention Specialist specifically. They are the people to call about an eviction in Sioux Falls.

Buuut, call them, do not use the online intake portal. The portal says two to five business days for a response. You have five days total.

And do not just show up. They do not take walk-ins, they publish no office hours, and they want an application in before they will schedule you. Same-day is usually not on offer, which is one more reason to call the minute you are served.

335 N Main Ave, Suite 200
605-336-9230
800-952-3015

Free if your household is under 125% of the federal poverty line. For 2026 that is $19,950 for one person, $27,050 for two, $34,150 for three, and $41,250 for four. In some cases they can go to 200%, so call even if you are over. Seniors and veterans are not income-tested at all. erlservices.org

Dakota Plains Legal Services

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Also free, also does housing.

Buuut, their Sioux Falls office serves Native American clients only. That is on their own service area page, and it applies to this office specifically, not to Dakota Plains everywhere. If you are not Native, East River Legal Services is the legal aid door in Sioux Falls, and this one is not a backup for it. dpls.org areas served

And they cannot take every eligible case, and the level of help you get is their call rather than a box you qualify for.

• Advice only is a conversation.
• Brief service means they investigate or prepare paperwork for you.
• Full representation means a lawyer appears in court as your counsel of record.

Which one you get depends on what that office has capacity for and what they make of your case.

And they say plainly that preparing your paperwork is not a commitment to represent you in court. Do not assume someone is coming with you.

300 N Dakota Ave, Suite 306. 605-301-8060. Monday to Thursday 8am to 4pm, closed Fridays. Free if you are income-eligible under the same federal poverty line guidelines, and age 60 and up qualifies regardless of income. dpls.org

If this is about money you owe

The fastest way out of an eviction for unpaid rent may be paying the rent. The Community Outreach runs an eviction prevention fund, and Minnehaha County covers back rent. Both are further down this page under If you cannot make rent.

Buuut, start that the same day you file the Answer, not instead of it. The county process is not fast, and the five days do not pause while you wait on it.

And we could not confirm whether paying everything you owe after a case is filed stops it. South Dakota law is not clear and most of what turns up online is written for landlords. Make that your first question to East River.

If nobody can take your case

South Dakota Free Legal Answers gets you a written answer from a volunteer attorney. sd.freelegalanswers.org. Free, advice only, no representation.

Buuut, it is not fast enough for a five-day deadline. Use it for a deposit or a repair question, not this one.

The statewide Fair Housing ombudsman will listen, and will mediate directly between you and a landlord. Open to renters and landlords both, and a lower-barrier call if you are not ready to file anything. 877-832-0161. sdhousing.org fair housing

Access to Justice, 1-855-287-3510.

If you cannot make rent

Go to the county first. Nearly every other agency in town requires their written decision, approved or denied, before they will look at you. Salvation Army wants it dated within the last 30 days.

Minnehaha County Human Services

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The required first stop, and they cover rent, deposits, past-due utilities, medications, transportation and burial.

Buuut, the county’s own website does not say this: most of what they give out is a no-interest loan with a lien attached, not a grant. The state resource database states it plainly. Ask before you sign anything what you are agreeing to repay.

What to bring:

• Photo ID
• Social Security cards for everyone in the household
• Two months of pay stubs
• Your lease, showing the rent and deposit
• Your landlord’s contact information
• The eviction or disconnect notice

521 N Main Ave, Suite 201. 605-367-4217. Weekdays 7:30am to 5pm, walk in, first come first served. minnehahacounty.gov

The Community Outreach

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The only place in town covering deposits, first month’s rent, eviction prevention and utilities all in one. Housing help once every 12 months, utilities twice a year.

Buuut, appointments only, and they schedule Mondays and Wednesdays at 8:00am. That means calling at 8:00am, not later that day.

1915 E 8th St, Suite 105 at the Empower Campus. 605-331-3935. Funded by churches, and no religious participation is stated as a condition. thecommunityoutreach.org

Salvation Army

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Emergency rent to keep you where you already live, and up to $250 toward a utility shutoff.

Buuut, rent help is for your current address only. Not deposits, not first month’s rent, not a place you already left. It is a one-time thing, not annual. For utilities you have to pay 10% of the disconnect amount yourself, and their own records say help depends on whether funding is available that month, so ask.

And bring all five, or they will send you home.

• An eviction notice, or a disconnect notice if it is the utilities
• A Minnehaha County notice of action, dated within 30 days of your appointment
• A photo ID
• Social Security cards for everyone in the household
• Proof of income

900 N Cliff Ave. 605-332-2331. Appointments Monday to Friday, 1pm to 3:30pm, and 3:30 is the last one they take. salvationarmyusa.org

St. Vincent de Paul

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Rent and utility help, plus food and prescription vouchers, clothing and furniture.

Buuut, the request form is online only and it opens Sunday at 4:00pm, sometimes again Wednesday at 4:00pm, and it closes when it fills. Their own site says it may take several weeks to get through. Be at a device at 3:55.

And they serve Sioux Falls and Tea only. Not Brandon, not Harrisburg, not Hartford, and their site says so even though other directories claim otherwise.

431 N Cliff Ave. 605-335-5823. svdpsd.org

There is no program for the water bill

The City of Sioux Falls does not run a low-income or hardship program for water and sewer. We looked. Their own FAQ says it plainly: no budget billing, no senior or low income discount.

Buuut, you can ask for a payment arrangement. Call utility billing before the due date and they decide whether you qualify, going on your payment history and the state of the account. You also get a final notice roughly five days before disconnection, so that notice is your cue to call, not your cue to panic. siouxfalls.gov billing FAQ

And if you do get shut off, paying by 5pm on a business day, including the disconnection charge, gets it back on the same day. After 5pm the field crew cannot take payment, so you wait until morning.

Utility billing, 231 N Dakota Ave. 605-367-8131. siouxfalls.gov utilities billing

Ignore anything about COVID rental assistance

South Dakota’s pandemic rental assistance ended years ago, and the state gave back more than $100 million of it unused. The state housing authority’s current site does not mention it at all.

Buuut, the old marketing pages are still live and still say “Apply today,” and search engines still surface them. You will lose days on it.

If your landlord will not fix it

What your landlord actually owes you

The premises have to be fit to live in, common areas in reasonable repair, and the electrical, plumbing and heating in good and safe working order. That duty cannot be signed away in a lease. SDCL 43-32-8

To use it, you have to give notice of the problem and a reasonable time to fix it. In writing, dated, and keep a copy. “I told them” is far less convincing than something written you can show a judge.

What a repair request should say

Date it. Name the problem and the room. Say what it is doing to you, as descriptive as you can get with the issue: cold, water, no working outlet. Ask for a fix and date that too. Keep a copy, and send it by text or email so there is an external timestamp.

And take photos the same day, with something in frame that shows the date. Every remedy on this page starts with proving you gave notice and waited.

Before you withhold rent, read this twice

You can repair something yourself and deduct it from rent. You can move out and stop owing rent. Both are allowed after notice and a reasonable wait. And if the repair would cost more than one month’s rent, there is a third option almost nobody mentions: you can stop paying the landlord and put the rent into a separate bank account instead, after giving written notice saying exactly why. Tell them in writing when you open it. The money sits there until they make the repair, and then it goes to them, or until there is enough in the account to get the work done yourself. SDCL 43-32-9

Buuut, withholding rent is legal only if every one of these is true:

• The repairs cost more than one month’s rent
• You gave written notice saying specifically why you are withholding
• You put the rent in a separate bank account, not your own spending account
• You gave the landlord written proof of that account

Miss any one of them and you are just not paying rent.

And since 2024, not paying rent means your landlord can file immediately, with no notice, and you will have five days to answer.

Call East River Legal Services before the rent is due, not after. 605-336-9230

City code enforcement

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Inspectors contact the owner, and violations escalate through notices and citations.

Property maintenance, which covers heating, plumbing, electrical, windows and doors: 605-978-6900. Environmental health: 605-367-8760. Or report at siouxfalls.gov/report.

Buuut, it runs on the city’s timeline, not yours. Put your complaint in writing and keep a copy, because a good-faith code complaint is also what triggers your protection against retaliation.

If you own and the taxes are the problem

South Dakota freezes the assessed value on a qualifying owner-occupied home, so your taxes stop climbing with the market. You have to be 65 or older, or disabled as the Social Security Act defines it.

Income under $56,595 living alone, under $66,885 for a household. House under $514,500. A South Dakota resident for five years, and in that house at least 200 days last year. Surviving spouses can qualify.

You apply at the county treasurer. The deadline is April 1, which has already passed for this year, so the next one is April 1, 2027. Autumn is when to start finding the paperwork, not March. dor.sd.gov relief programs

And there is a separate sales and property tax refund for the same group, with its own deadline and its own form. Ask the treasurer about both in one visit. 800-829-9188, option 2.

Who will actually help you push

The statewide Fair Housing ombudsman will mediate between you and a landlord. Open to renters and landlords both, no complaint to file. 877-832-0161. It runs out of South Dakota Housing now, not the old Fair Housing South Dakota office. sdhousing.org fair housing

South Dakota Free Legal Answers is a website where you post a civil legal question and a volunteer attorney writes back. It is free, and you answer a few qualifying questions to sign up. Housing and eviction are on their topic list. There is no promised turnaround, and they say so themselves: if you already have a court date, they cannot promise you an answer before it. Good for a repair problem, no good for a five-day clock. sd.freelegalanswers.org

The South Dakota Attorney General takes landlord and tenant complaints. 1-800-300-1986. consumer.sd.gov

Buuut, do not use the Attorney General’s landlord-tenant guide as your source. It still prints the three-day notice that was repealed in 2024. The complaint line is real, the booklet is out of date.

East River Legal Services, 605-336-9230, and the East River Tenants Union, 605-368-1828, are both further down this page.

If you are trying to find a place

The Section 8 waiting list is closed

Sioux Falls Housing closed the Housing Choice Voucher list in September 2025 and has not announced a reopening date. The closure also covers HOPWA, Mod-Rehab and their project-based vouchers. If you are already on a list, keep your address, household, disability status and income current with them.

Buuut, the big national sites say it is open. AffordableHousingOnline, Section8Waitlist.org and others are still echoing a reopening that ended a year ago. You will fill out an application that goes nowhere.

And nobody should ever charge you to apply for Section 8. Federal rule forbids charging applicants, including for the background check. A site asking for money is a scam.

Their closure notice carries no date, so it reads the same whether it went up last year or this morning. We checked it on September 28, 2026. Call and ask rather than trusting any page, including this one.

3900 W 53rd St. 605-332-0704. siouxfallshousing.org

Buildings where the subsidy is attached to the apartment

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These are privately owned and managed, each with its own HUD contract, so their waiting lists are separate from Sioux Falls Housing’s. You apply building by building.

• Tower of David, 320 S 3rd Ave, 605-334-8085. One-bedrooms, 62 and up or a household with a disability. Rent is 30% of your adjusted income. Most utilities covered, but not phone, cable or internet.
• Beadle Plaza, 1000 E 14th St, 605-331-2595. The head of household has to be 62 and up or disabled. Rent is 30% of your adjusted income.
• Spring Hill, 932 S Blaine Ave, 605-339-3748. No age limit and no disability requirement. Accessible units exist, ask which. Sewer, heat, water, electric and garbage covered, you pay cable. No pets.

Buuut, nobody publishes whether these lists are open. There is no central place to check. You’ll need to call each one.

And do not let the Sioux Falls Housing notice confuse you. They closed their own project-based voucher list along with Section 8. That is a different program from the buildings above, which hold their own HUD contracts.

Income-capped apartments

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The rent is capped at a set amount rather than calculated from your income.

Buuut, that means they work if you have steady low income and do not help much if your income is near zero. It is a rent ceiling, not a subsidy.

sdhousingsearch.com is free and statewide, run by South Dakota Housing. It is a map now rather than a search form. Click the magnifying glass, search an address or a city, and each blue pin opens with the property name, the management company and a phone number.

Buuut, there is no filter for accessible units and none for Section 8. It gets you a name and a number. The calling is still yours.

If you are renting with an eviction, bad credit or a record

South Dakota has no law against source of income discrimination. A landlord here can refuse a voucher outright and put it in the ad. Twenty-three states protect against that. This is not one of them.

An eviction filing can sit on a tenant screening report for seven years, whether or not you lost the case. That is federal law, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, not one landlord’s decision. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains it here.

Buuut, you can see that report and you can fight it. If something on it is wrong, dispute it with the screening company and with whoever gave them the information. If your rights under that law were violated, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau takes complaints at 855-411-2372.

And be careful what you search for. Second chance apartments and felon friendly rentals turn up page after page of sites that exist to collect your name, your number and your situation and sell it on. Not one of the ones we checked listed a real Sioux Falls address. Skip them.

Someone to sit down with

Two agencies in Sioux Falls are approved by HUD to do rental housing counseling. That approval is the whole difference between them and the sites above. HUD keeps a searchable list of them.

Sioux Empire Housing Partnership. Tenant and landlord basics, budgeting, credit repair. Individual or in a group, in person or virtual, with evening sessions and some Saturday appointments. They charge no fee for any service they provide.

200 N Phillips Ave, Suite 200. 605-339-0942. siouxempirehousing.org

Lutheran Social Services, Center for Financial Resources. Rental housing counseling, plus credit and debt counseling. Older listings call it Consumer Credit Counseling Service, or CCCS, and some of their own pages still do. They say they serve people of all ages, faiths, races and economic circumstances.

Buuut, they publish no prices, and financial counseling there can carry a fee with a hardship waiver. Ask what it costs when you book.

705 E 41st St, Suite 100. 888-258-2227, which is the number they publish, or 605-330-2700 from HUD’s list. lsssd.org

And neither one gives out rent or deposit money. Education is the resource.

If your deposit is being kept

What the law actually says

A deposit cannot be more than one month’s rent. SDCL 43-32-6.1

Buuut, there is one exception written into the law: you and the landlord can agree to more if special conditions pose a danger to the upkeep of the place. It has to be agreed, not just announced, so if a bigger deposit shows up on a lease you never discussed, that is worth questioning. SDCL 43-32-6.1

Buuut, there is an exception. A landlord can take more if you agreed to it and there is a special condition that puts the place at risk. Pets are the usual reason given. So more than one month is not automatically illegal.

Once you move out, your landlord has twenty-one days to return the deposit or hand you a written statement saying specifically why they are keeping it. The twenty-one days does not start until they have your mailing address. Give it to them in writing when you hand back the keys, and keep a copy, because without it the clock never starts and you can wait months for a deadline that is not running. Within 45 days you can also ask for an itemized accounting of anything they withheld. SDCL 43-32-24

And those twenty-one days do not start when you hand back the keys. The law runs the clock from the end of the tenancy and the day they receive your mailing address. If you never gave them one, it may not have started at all. Give them an address in writing, keep a copy, and note the date. That date is the one that counts.

They can deduct unpaid rent, other money your lease says you owe them, and what it costs to put the place back the way it was. Ordinary wear and tear does not count.

If they do not follow those rules, they forfeit the right to keep any of it.

Buuut, the penalty for bad faith is capped at $200. That is the whole thing. Many states allow double or triple the deposit. South Dakota does not.

How to actually get it back

Start with a written demand. Say how much you paid, when you moved out, that you are requesting the itemized accounting the law entitles you to, and give them a forwarding address. Keep a copy.

And send it so you can prove the day they got it, because that day starts their twenty-one. Certified mail with a return receipt is the strongest. Email or text works too, as long as there is an external timestamp.

Small claims court

You do not need a lawyer. Small claims handles up to $12,000 and is built for people representing themselves. That cap is set by SDCL 15-39-45.1. If the landlord does not contest it, a clerk magistrate can take the evidence and enter judgment without it going further. If they do contest it, it is still small claims, it just goes in front of a judge. SDCL 16-12C-13

And the $200 is worth asking for. Small claims normally cannot award punitive damages at all. The deposit statute is one of a short list of written exceptions, so put it on the form. SDCL 15-39-45

Three forms, not one. UJS-008, the Plaintiff’s Statement of Claim. UJS-232, the Case Filing Statement. UJS-306, the Statement of Military Status. The court has a Guide and File tool that fills them in for you. ujs.sd.gov small claims

Buuut, there is a filing fee that scales with how much you are claiming and how many people have to be served. The court publishes a fee calculator, and the rates went up on July 13, 2025, so check rather than assume.

Stuck on the forms, call the court’s help line at 1-855-784-0004. Free, and they do form help rather than legal advice.

For whether you have a case at all, South Dakota Free Legal Answers is a good fit. sd.freelegalanswers.org

If the place needs work

If the heat is what is broken

Energy Assistance helps pay heating costs for low-income South Dakotans. Renters count, not just owners. It covers heating charges from October 1 to May 15 on gas and electric, or July 1 to April 30 on propane and fuel oil.

Buuut, it takes up to 60 days to process. Apply in the fall, before you are cold, rather than the week the bill comes due.

Apply online or on paper through the Department of Social Services. 800-233-8503. For Deaf and hard of hearing callers, 800-325-0778. Inter-Lakes can help you fill it out. dss.sd.gov

Weatherization

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A free energy audit, then insulation, weather-stripping, sealing, and repair or replacement of a furnace that does not work. Contractor labor and materials covered, no repayment, no lien.

Buuut, it is aimed at owners. The state’s rule is that a renter is eligible only if the landlord gives written permission and makes a contribution. That contribution is 33% of whatever the job ends up costing. Nobody can give you the dollar figure up front, because the auditor does not come out and the work does not go to bid until after you are approved. What the landlord is agreeing to is a share, not a price.

It is slow, several months start to finish, and funds are limited so you may be put on a waiting list. Priority goes to people who are elderly, people with disabilities, and families with children under 19.

The income rule is 200% of the federal poverty line, counted over three months rather than a year. For the 2025-26 heating season that comes to $7,825 for one person and $16,075 for four. These reset every fall and the new season starts October 1, so check with Inter-Lakes if you are near the line. We will update this when the new table posts.

Inter-Lakes Community Action Partnership, 409 N Western Ave. 605-334-2808. interlakescap.com

City home repair

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Plumbing, heating, electrical, roofing, windows and doors, insulation, and accessibility work, including furnace replacement.

Buuut, it is a loan. Zero interest and nothing due until you sell or stop living there, but a mortgage gets recorded against the house until it is paid.

And you have to own and occupy for at least a year, be current on mortgage, taxes and insurance, and be inside city limits. No mobile homes, those have their own program. Income limit is 80% of area median, which is $66,500 for one person and $94,950 for four.

605-367-8180. Apply online through the city portal. siouxfalls.gov

Mobile home repair

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Up to $5,000 per mobile home, for the life of that home. If a previous owner already used it, it is gone. Covers heating, electrical or plumbing emergencies. Structured as a loan that is forgiven once you have lived there a year after the work. The one-year ownership requirement is waived in an emergency.

605-367-8180. siouxfalls.gov

Habitat for Humanity repairs

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They do more than build houses. Weatherization, safety work, exterior painting, grab bars, handrails, non-skid strips in tubs and on stairs. Applications year round.

Buuut, no roofing, siding, foundations or driveways, which is the expensive half. Volunteer labor is free but you pay at least 25% of materials on a sliding scale.

721 E Amidon St. 605-274-6284. siouxfallshabitat.org

Ramps, grab bars, bathroom changes

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Independent Living Choices does home modifications and adaptive equipment for people with disabilities. Free.

And this is the one on this list that does not start by asking whether you own the place. You would still need a landlord’s permission for anything permanently attached, but the money is not ownership-gated.

4107 S Carnegie Circle. 605-362-3550. ilcchoices.org

Habitat ReStore

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Appliances, cabinets, doors, fixtures, building materials and furniture, well under retail. Open to anyone, no income qualification.

Buuut, the stock is whatever got donated, so it is good for appliances and fixtures and unreliable for a specific part in a specific size. Check it first, do not plan a project around it.

721 E Amidon St. 605-330-1950. Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm. siouxfallshabitat.org

Rake the Town

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Volunteers rake and bag your leaves, free. October 31 to November 6 this year. Age 60 and up, or under 60 with a documented disability. Sioux Falls area, including Brandon.

Buuut, their sign-up form says homeowner throughout and does not say whether renters can register. Yard work does not obviously require owning the place, so it is worth asking.

Sign-up was not open yet when we checked, so watch their page. Active Generations, 605-336-6722. Brandon residents register through the Brandon Valley Area Chamber, 605-582-7400. activegenerations.org

The rules, and where they run out

Your landlord has to give notice before coming in

24 hours in writing is presumed reasonable. The notice has to say:

• The date
• A time window during normal business hours
• The reason they are coming
• How you can ask to reschedule

Emergencies are one exception. The other is when giving notice is impracticable, which is a softer word and a wider door. SDCL 43-32-32

Buuut, your lease can agree to different notice methods or different times, so read it before you decide they were out of line. What the lease cannot do is take away the baseline: reasonable notice, at reasonable times.

Ending a month-to-month

Your landlord needs to give you 15 days in writing. SDCL 43-8-8

Buuut, we could not find a statute setting how much notice you have to give going the other way. Most leases say a month. Read yours, and ask East River Legal Services if it matters. The landlord side changed in 2024 and the Attorney General guide has not caught up, so do not use that booklet here either.

And if you are on active military service, or your spouse or minor child is, that fifteen days becomes two months. Two things cancel it: sustained conduct that is disruptive, illegal, destructive or a material breach, and the landlord selling the property or dying and leaving it to their estate. That second one catches people out, because it has nothing to do with anything you did. SDCL 43-8-8

Rent increases

There is no cap on how much your rent can go up. No state law sets one, and South Dakota forbids its own cities from passing one, so Sioux Falls could not adopt rent control if it wanted to. SDCL 6-1-13

The limit that does exist is about timing, not amount. That is in the paragraph below.

On a month-to-month, a landlord has to give 30 days of written notice before an increase, and you can end the tenancy, effective the first day of the next month, by giving notice within 15 days of receiving theirs. SDCL 43-32-13

Retaliation

You are protected for:

• Complaining in good faith to a code office about a violation that materially affects health and safety. Your landlord has to have received written notice that you complained, from you or from the agency.
• Giving your landlord written notice of a condition that needs repair
• Organizing or joining a tenants union

A landlord cannot respond by raising your rent above fair market value, cutting off your electric, gas, water or sewer, or telling you to leave when you have not broken the lease. SDCL 43-32-27

Buuut, if what they did was hand you a notice to vacate, they have a defense when that notice came more than 180 days after whatever you did. That defense covers the notice to vacate only. A retaliatory rent increase or a service cut has no time limit on it.

And not renewing a written lease when it expires is expressly not retaliation. Waiting you out is legal.

If you get locked out

If a landlord unlawfully removes or excludes you, or willfully cuts off your electric, gas, water or another essential service, you get damages equal to two months’ rent plus the return of your deposit and any advance rent. That is on top of whichever of these you pick: an injunction to make them stop, a suit to get possession back, or ending the lease outright. SDCL 43-32-6

Buuut, there is no criminal charge for it in South Dakota. We checked the landlord-tenant chapter and the trespass statutes. So the police are not going to put you back in the unit, and this is a lawsuit rather than a 911 call.

And the landlord does have a statute of their own. They can terminate and reclaim the place if you used it against the lease, or if you did not make repairs you were on the hook for. SDCL 43-32-18. What that statute does not give them is the right to do it themselves. Taking possession over an unwilling tenant runs through a court, and doing it by changing the locks is what makes SDCL 43-32-6 pay out.

Fair housing

Federal law protects race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability and familial status. South Dakota adds creed and ancestry. SDCL 20-13-20

Buuut, parts of the state law do not reach a building with two units or fewer where the owner lives in one of them. A landlord renting out the other half of their own duplex is outside much of it. Dorms and fraternity or sorority houses are out too.

City of Sioux Falls Human Relations, 605-367-8745, within six months. HUD, 1-800-669-9777, within one year. Both are free. hud.gov

Buuut, no fair housing agency is based in South Dakota, so filing with the city is not automatically a HUD complaint. File both.

The nearest one that takes South Dakota cases is High Plains Fair Housing Center in Grand Forks, 701-203-1077 or 1-866-380-2738. They are a HUD grantee and they field about a hundred calls a year from here. Call before you count on them. As of August 2026 they were waiting on a delayed HUD payment and expected to lose half their staff if it did not arrive.

And neither state law nor the city ordinance lists sexual orientation or gender identity. Federally, the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Bostock still stands, but as of September 2026 HUD has stopped investigating sexual orientation and gender identity housing complaints. A HUD complaint is not a plan. Talk to East River Legal Services.

One thing that does help. A landlord can promise more than the law requires, and some do. Sioux Falls Housing publishes a nondiscrimination policy that covers sexual orientation and gender identity, along with ancestry and creed. If they are your landlord, that is a written policy you can hold them to where the statute is silent. siouxfallshousing.org

East River Tenants Union

Tenant organizing across Minnehaha, Lincoln, McCook and Turner counties, open to all renters. 605-368-1828

Buuut, we could not confirm how active they are right now. Their events page has been empty. Worth a call.