SCRA for Landlords & Property Managers: Eviction, Exits & Deposits

Fifteen of the 64 cases in this site’s SCRA enforcement ledger are against landlords, property managers, or a military housing operator. The conduct is ordinary: an early termination fee the software added, a deposit held against rent that was never going to accrue, a default eviction judgment on an affidavit nobody checked. Each rule below was read at uscode.house.gov on August 15, 2026, the rent ceiling in the Federal Register the same day, and every case fact comes from DOJ’s own page.

Rule one: no eviction without a court order (§ 3951)

Except by court order, a landlord may not evict a servicemember or the servicemember’s dependents, during the period of military service, from premises “occupied or intended to be occupied primarily as a residence” where the monthly rent does not exceed the statutory ceiling (§ 3951(a)(1)(A)). The same subsection bars subjecting the premises to a distress, which is seizing the tenant’s goods for rent, without a court order.

The ceiling. The statute prints $2,400 and adjusts it every year by the percentage change in the CPI Rent of Primary Residence index since November 1984, with the Secretary of Defense publishing the new figure in the Federal Register (§ 3951(a)(2), (3)). The 2026 notice, published March 10, 2026 at 91 FR 11527, sets the maximum monthly rent at $10,542.60 effective January 1, 2026. Almost every unit in the country is under it.

In court. The judge may on the court’s own motion, and must on the tenant’s request when service materially affects the ability to pay, stay the proceeding for 90 days (longer or shorter as equity requires) or adjust the lease obligation (§ 3951(b)(1)). The court can grant the landlord equitable relief alongside a stay and can order a rent allotment from the servicemember’s pay (§ 3951(b)(2), (d)). Knowingly taking part in an eviction or distress that violates the section is a misdemeanor (§ 3951(c)). The tenant’s view of the same rule is on the eviction protection page.

What this is not. It is not a bar on suing. Nonpayment is still nonpayment; the SCRA moves the decision to a judge and slows it down. It does not cover a unit above the ceiling or extend past the period of military service.

Rule two: the lease exit (§ 3955)

A tenant may terminate a residential lease at any time after entering military service during the lease term, or after receiving, while serving, orders for a permanent change of station or to deploy with a unit or as an individual for not less than 90 days (§ 3955(a)(1), (b)(1)). “Permanent change of station” includes separation or retirement (§ 3955(i)(3)). A stop movement order that blocks occupancy of a lease signed on PCS orders is a third trigger (§ 3955(b)(1)(C)).

What you may require. Written notice of termination and a copy of the military orders, delivered by hand, private carrier, return-receipt mail, or electronic means including email to an address you designated or a posting to a resident portal (§ 3955(c)). “Military orders” includes official orders or “any notification, certification, or verification from the servicemember’s commanding officer” about duty status (§ 3955(i)(1)). Asking for a forwarding address for the refund is sensible and not prohibited. That is the whole list.

What you may not require. Notarization; the statute does not mention it. A specific form; the statute names none. Proof that the new duty station is more than some number of miles away; the ledger’s RedSail case (2024) ended with the manager agreeing to stop imposing a 35-mile limit it had borrowed from Virginia law. Repayment of a move-in concession or lease incentive on the way out; DOJ treated that as an unlawful charge at United Communities (2018), FPI Management (2023), and JAG Management (2023). A “military clause” in the lease that waives or narrows these rights; under § 3918 a waiver of the right to terminate a lease is effective only if it is in writing, in an instrument separate from the lease, executed during or after the period of service, and in at least 12-point type. A clause the tenant signed with the lease before orders arrived does not qualify.

When it ends. For a lease with monthly rent, termination is effective 30 days after the first date the next rent payment is due after the notice is delivered; for any other lease, on the last day of the month after the month of delivery (§ 3955(d)(1)(A)).

Worked example. Rent is due on the 1st. The tenant hands you notice and orders on Wednesday, August 20, 2026. The next rent due date after delivery is September 1. Thirty days after that is October 1, 2026, the termination date. September rent is owed in full, October rent is prorated to the one day through the effective date (§ 3955(e)(1)), and nothing is owed after October 1. If the tenant prepaid October, you refund it within 30 days of October 1 (§ 3955(f)). If the tenant moves out September 5, the date does not move; they owe through October 1. The lease termination calculator runs the dates from any notice day.

Money. No early termination charge (§ 3955(e)(1)). Rent paid in advance for the period after the effective date is refunded within 30 days of the effective date (§ 3955(f)). Taxes, summonses, and other amounts due and unpaid at termination under the lease, including reasonable charges for excess wear, remain payable. A dependent’s obligation under the lease ends with the servicemember’s termination (§ 3955(a)(2)); a non-dependent co-tenant’s does not, and the statute leaves that to the lease. Knowingly seizing or holding the tenant’s security deposit, personal effects, or property to subject it to rent accruing after the termination date is a misdemeanor (§ 3955(h)). If you think equity requires something different, § 3955(g) lets you apply to a court before the termination date; the remedy is a judge’s order, not a charge you invent.

The tenant-side walkthrough is at break your apartment lease on orders, and the notice they will send you probably came from the lease termination letter template.

Rule three: the affidavit before a default judgment (§ 3931)

Eviction filings default constantly, and § 3931 sits at exactly that moment. Before entering judgment for a plaintiff against a defendant who has not appeared, the court must require an affidavit stating whether the defendant is in military service with the supporting facts, or stating that the plaintiff cannot determine it (§ 3931(b)(1)). If the defendant is serving, no judgment until counsel is appointed, and a 90-day minimum stay follows if a defense may need the tenant present or counsel cannot reach them (§ 3931(b)(2), (d)). A declaration under penalty of perjury satisfies the requirement (§ 3931(b)(4)). Making or using one you know to be false is a crime (§ 3931(c)). A judgment entered against a servicemember can be reopened on application within 90 days after release from service (§ 3931(g)).

The factual basis is a same-day search of the DMDC SCRA website, saved with its date. PRG Real Estate paid up to $1.49 million in 2019 over 127 default judgments obtained without the affidavit; Chesapeake Coveside paid $225,000 in 2022 and had the judgments vacated; Rental Marketing Solutions paid $60,000 in 2026 over one false affidavit against one sailor. The procedure, with what to put in the affidavit, is on the military affidavit page.

Screening, storage, and the rest

The SCRA does not prohibit tenant screening or asking about military status on an application. What it bars is using a servicemember’s exercise of SCRA rights as the basis for adverse action or an annotation identifying the person as Guard or Reserve (§ 3919), and it puts the affidavit and DMDC obligations in front of any default judgment regardless of what you knew at signing. Screening a servicemember out for being likely to PCS is a fair housing and state-law question this page does not reach.

Property left behind is a separate trap. A lien for storage or “any other reason” on a servicemember’s property cannot be enforced during service and for 90 days after without a prior court order (§ 3958(a)). Fourteen towing and storage cases sit in the ledger, each an auction or disposal of a servicemember’s vehicle or goods without one, most recently S & K Towing ($160,000, July 2026) and Vehicle Management Solutions ($220,000 plus a $60,000 penalty, May 2026). If a departing tenant’s belongings or vehicle stay on your property, get the order before you dispose of anything.

What DOJ has done to landlords

A first-violation civil penalty is now up to $79,380 (28 CFR 85.5, for penalties assessed after July 3, 2025, per the eCFR table read August 15, 2026), on top of compensation. Greystar’s $77,370 was the ceiling in June 2025. The three individual landlords in the ledger paid $475, $500, and $1,595. The penalty scales to the case; the exposure does not go away because you own one duplex.

The checklist

SCRA controls for a landlord or property manager

1. Lease language. Strike any early termination fee, concession clawback, mileage test, or notarization requirement as applied to a § 3955 termination. Do not put a rights waiver in the lease; § 3918 requires a separate instrument signed during or after service.
2. Notice intake. Accept written notice by hand, carrier, mail, email, or portal, with orders or a commander’s letter. Log the delivery date and the next rent due date, and compute the termination date from those two facts.
3. Final account. Prorate rent to the effective date, add only amounts due under the lease at termination (excess wear, unpaid utilities, taxes), and issue the refund of anything prepaid within 30 days. Return the deposit under state law; never hold it against post-termination rent.
4. Dependents and roommates. Release the servicemember and every dependent on the lease. Handle a non-dependent co-tenant under the lease and state law, and put the outcome in writing.
5. Before any filing. Run every defendant through the DMDC SCRA website the day the affidavit is signed and attach the certificate. Never file “not in military service” without it. If the tenant is serving, expect appointed counsel and a stay.
6. Eviction of a covered tenant. Court order only, on any unit at or below $10,542.60 a month in 2026. No lockouts and no distress on the tenant’s goods.
7. Property left behind. Court order before enforcing any lien on a servicemember’s belongings or vehicle, during service and 90 days after.
8. Systems. Audit your property management software for automatic fees on move-out; the Greystar allegation was that the billing rule, not a leasing agent, imposed the charge.
9. Records. Keep the notice, the orders, the date math, the final ledger, the refund, and the DMDC certificates for at least the length of a DOJ consent order, which in this ledger runs three to five years.

If you are the tenant reading this, your landlord’s obligations are the mirror of your rights; the free enforcement route starts with installation legal assistance and the DOJ complaint page described on the most common SCRA violations. Lenders and servicers have their own page: SCRA compliance for lenders and servicers.

The law behind this: 50 U.S.C. §§ 3951, 3955, 3931

Evictions and distress; termination of residential or motor vehicle leases; protection against default judgments: read the statute.