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JBSA News
NEWS | March 7, 2016

Relief act helps with financial, legal obligations

Air Force Recruiting Service Staff Judge Advocate

The Service Members Civil Relief Act was passed to provide protection to service members who have difficulty meeting their financial and legal obligations because of their military service.


As part of that protection, the SCRA allows service members required to PCS or deploy with military orders to terminate automotive or residential leases early. The SCRA affords you this right regardless of what your lease says.


Residential Leases


Your deployment must be for at least 90 days for you to terminate your residential lease. To do so, provide the landlord (1) written notice (verbal notice is not sufficient), and (2) a copy of your orders; if you don’t have orders yet, a letter from your commander also works.


Your termination notice will be effective "30 days after the first date on which the next rental payment is due and payable after the date on which the notice is delivered."


In other words, if you want to terminate your lease at the end of June (for example), you must provide notice to your landlord before your June 1 rent is due. If you don’t provide notice until after you’ve paid June’s rent, your lease won’t end until the end of July.


Both your written notice and your orders/letter from your commander must be provided to your landlord for the notice to be legally complete. Using the above example, if you provide your written notice on May 29 but don’t provide your orders/commander letter until June 3, your termination notice is not legally complete until June 3, and your lease will therefore terminate at the end of July.


Your landlord must not demand any type of penalty for early termination, and refund your security deposit (minus any damages) within 30 days of the date the lease was terminated.


Automotive Leases


Your deployment must be for at least 180 days in order for you to terminate your automotive lease. You may also terminate the lease if you’re moving from stateside to overseas, or vice versa.


Finally, you may terminate a lease that you entered into prior to coming onto active duty at any time. These rights apply to vehicles used by both you and your dependents.


As with residential leases, you must provide written notice along with your orders or a letter from your commander. Automotive lease terminations are effective on the date the notice and orders/commander letter are provided to the lessor, along with the vehicle.


For additional information, call 565-4736 or  565-4734.