By Robert Griswold
Question: My husband is in the military and stationed at a large Marine Corp base. He asked me to write you concerning the lease we have at our apartment building. We signed a lease recently for a term of 12 months that does not contain a military clause. He now has orders to be deployed to the Middle East. I am sure that there are many other military families with similar circumstances. Based on his orders, is there a law that allows us to terminate the lease with no further legal responsibility?Landlords' attorney Smith replies:
Landlords, as with all Americans, appreciate your husband's commitment to the protection of our country. The Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940 is going to protect military members under these circumstances, but only to a certain extent. If you are going to remain in the apartment while your husband is deployed, you will need to continue to pay the rent. The military base will often have resources that can be of assistance to make special allotments to keep the rent current.
If for some reason you fail to pay rent, the landlord could initiate eviction proceedings against you in court. However, the Act will stop the landlord in his tracks before he or she attempts to initiate a default judgment while your husband is deployed. It was designed to protect people who are in the process of protecting the country from a civil judgment of this kind. Still, the commanding officer will understand the landlord's need to have rent paid and hopefully make arrangements to satisfy the debt.
By the way, his deployment does not give you the right to terminate the lease. Your lease apparently does not contain a military clause. In the future, it's a good idea to negotiate for a military clause in your lease, which would grant you the right to terminate upon a permanent change in duty station or deployment.
Tenants' attorney Kellman replies:
The Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act is helpful to our military service members in certain cases only. Among other protections, this act can help to break leases for tenants or temporarily suspend eviction proceedings. The lease termination protection only applies to service members and reservists who are called to active duty after they had commenced their tenancies. The law assumes that active duty personnel would handle the possibility of being ordered to other locations for military service when negotiating their leases.
A qualifying service member must follow certain notice procedures to properly break a lease. There is also a part of this law that may freeze an eviction for up to three months. For this "eviction freeze" protection, the service member must show that his/her military duties have materially affected the ability to pay the rent and that the rent does not exceed $1,200 per month. Therefore, if your lease was signed while your husband was on active duty, this law will probably not help you to break the lease.
You can certainly negotiate with the landlord for an early termination of the lease, including offering your cooperation with showing it to prospective renters. I am hopeful your landlord appreciates your husband's service to our country and that he will work with you on resolving this matter.
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