Justice Department Issues Fact Sheets About Lease Terminations for Servicemembers and their Dependents

The Justice Department announced today that it has issued two fact sheets to help servicemembers, including those who are returning to civilian life as veterans, avoid unnecessary rent payments and costly fees. The first explains how servicemembers and their dependents can end a residential or business lease on receiving eligible military orders. And the second explains how they can end certain vehicle leases.

“The Civil Rights Division is deeply committed, on Veterans Day and every other day, to ensuring that our military families are not saddled with excessive fees and payments as they heroically serve our country,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jesus A. Osete of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “These fact sheets are an important reminder for the military community, and to vehicle lenders and landlords, that servicemembers and their families have a legal right to end certain leases early when they transition to veteran status or are called to move on military orders.”

Military families are often required to relocate through a process known as “Permanent Change of Station” (PCS) moves. Because of the frequency of these moves, servicemembers are likely to end up in leases that need to be terminated early. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) allows servicemembers to cancel these leases so that they are not stuck paying for a residence or vehicle that they can no longer use solely because they are moving in service for our country.

The Department is issuing these fact sheets near Veterans Day to draw attention to an important part of the lease termination right: retirement and separation orders are eligible military orders for lease termination. When a servicemember transitions into veteran status, they receive a retirement or separation order that shows they are leaving military service. Lease holders and landlords may not recognize that these orders are covered by the SCRA, since they are not the typical PCS orders. But military families often use retirement or separation to relocate, and not recognizing these orders would leave them paying for a residence or vehicle that they may no longer need.

Our veterans face significant challenges when leaving military service. Recognizing these rights can spare these military families a large financial burden at a time of significant transition.

The Servicemembers and Veterans Initiative, housed in the Department’s Civil Rights Division, works to ensure that the rights of the brave men and women of our nation’s armed forces, and the veterans who have served in the past, are safeguarded from discrimination and unfair treatment.

The Department’s enforcement of the SCRA is conducted by the Civil Rights Division’s Housing and Civil Enforcement Section in partnership with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices throughout the country. Since 2011, the Department has obtained over $490 million in monetary relief for over 153,000 servicemembers through its enforcement of the SCRA. For more information about the Department’s enforcement efforts under the SCRA and other laws that protect the rights of servicemembers and their families, please visit www.servicemembers.gov.

Servicemembers, veterans, and their dependents who believe that their rights under the SCRA have been violated should contact the nearest Armed Forces Legal Assistance Program Office. Office locations may be found at legalassistance.law.af.mil. If servicemembers, veterans, or their spouses are not eligible for military legal assistance services, they may request that the Justice Department review their claim by submitting a complaint through civilrights.justice.gov/.