Military Housing Tenant Bill of Rights: 18 Rights, 30-Day Rulings

Privatized military housing is run by private companies, but every lease there must carry the Military Housing Privatization Initiative Tenant Bill of Rights. Congress ordered it in the FY2020 NDAA and codified it at 10 U.S.C. § 2890. The rights with dollars attached are easy to miss: a seven-year maintenance history before you sign, BAH held back during a dispute, a commander’s ruling on move-out charges, and free relocation when a repair makes the home unlivable.

The 18 rights and the code section behind each

DoD’s revised list of all 18 rights reached residents August 1, 2021, a Joint Base Andrews article of August 26, 2021 reports. Older projects needed each company’s consent, and the Army’s Fort Bliss brief still says “nearly all” companies agreed to apply all 18. The Air Force housing site’s front page, read October 10, 2026, still promises “the full benefit of the 15 rights,” the February 2020 count. Ask your housing office in writing which rights cover your project.

Statute read on GovInfo (2024 edition) October 10, 2026; the FY2026 NDAA did not amend these sections. Wording follows the DoD list in the Fort Bliss Army Housing Office brief of November 1, 2024.

Who decides a dispute, and how fast

Section 2894 sets the clock; the Universal Lease’s Schedule 3, as Hunt Military Communities posts it, fills in the mechanics.

1. Informal first. Landlord, then the housing office’s informal process. At Fort Bliss the Army brief says the garrison commander mediates, “normally within 10 business days.”
2. File the formal request with the Military Housing Office on the standard form. Within two business days the request must be acknowledged and copied to the commander, the housing office, and the landlord (§ 2894(c)(1)).
3. Inspection within seven business days (§ 2894(c)(3)). Under the Universal Lease, refusing access ends the process with no decision.
4. Input. The commander must solicit views from the housing office chief, the landlord, you, a judge advocate or federal civilian attorney, and a civil engineer for facilities issues (§ 2894(c)(4)).
5. Decision within 30 calendar days of your request, never more than 60 (§ 2894(c)(5)). It is final.
6. Enforcement. A repair order gives the landlord at least 10 business days. After that, amounts payable to the landlord for the unit drop 10 percent for each five calendar days the work stays undone (§ 2894(d)).

The statute names the installation or regional commander; the Army briefs at Fort Bliss and Fort Riley name the Commanding General of Installation Management Command. Under Schedule 3 the decider can order repairs, fund your relocation, release segregated rent, credit “fees, charges, or move-out damage assessments,” or let you end the lease or skip the minimum move-out notice and its fees, and “may not order any remedies other than” those.

Holding back your BAH

Under § 2894(e), inside a formal dispute about maintenance or habitability, you can ask that all or part of your BAH or allotment be segregated so the landlord cannot use it. The amount is limited to the period in which the landlord missed DoD maintenance standards or the home was uninhabitable under state or local law. Schedule 3 caps segregation at 60 calendar days, requires an explicit request in Section 7 of the form, and keeps the money in a project-level reserve account until the decision says who gets it.

This is not a rent strike: your lease obligations continue during the dispute (Schedule 3, section 5).

Move-out inspections and charges

Right 6 gives you time to prepare and be present. Section 3056 of the FY2020 NDAA, a note under § 2890, says you “must be given sufficient time to address any concerns.” Under § 2891a(c) the housing office inspects at move-out and must get a list of any move-out charges the landlord seeks. And § 2891a(f) bars out-of-pocket fees beyond rent except optional services such as parking, non-essential utilities, or damage from tenant negligence. A note limits § 2891a to project documents signed or renewed on or after December 20, 2019, so ask whether yours qualifies.

Move-out charges are a named subject of the formal process (§ 2894(a)). Ask the housing office for the landlord’s charge list and compare it with your pre-move-out walk-through.

Ending the lease on orders: the SCRA still applies

Title 10 gives you no exit on orders. That comes from 50 U.S.C. § 3955, which covers leases of premises occupied for a residential purpose, and DOJ has used it against a privatized housing manager. On September 27, 2018 it announced that United Communities, LLC, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, agreed to pay $62,501.78 to resolve allegations that it imposed early termination charges of $138 to $3,100 on 13 servicemembers who ended leases on orders, by reclaiming lease incentives: $45,001.78 in damages to the 13 and a $17,500 civil penalty.

Section 3955(e)(1) says the lessor “may not impose an early termination charge.” Orders include a commanding officer’s letter, and a permanent change of station includes separation or retirement (§ 3955(i)). The apartment lease explainer covers the termination date, and the section text is on this site. Some operators’ own terms beat the statute; read yours.

What the bill of rights does not do

It does not reach every project; “nearly all” companies agreed. A commander cannot order remedies beyond the Schedule 3 list. Under § 2894(g) you keep the right to sue, but the Universal Lease bars either side from going to court while a formal dispute is pending, and Schedule 3 makes the decision confidential. Two overlooked protections: § 2890(f) bars requiring a nondisclosure agreement to start, keep, or end a lease (litigation settlements aside) and gives you 10 business days to get advice before signing one, and § 2890(e) sends reprisal reports to the DoD Inspector General.

Who runs your housing, and where to escalate

Terms vary by installation. Each page below is built from company, Army, or DOJ documents:

• Hunt Military Communities: its move-out document says short-notice orders may waive the 30-day notice.
• Corvias: at Fort Riley, rent is collected in arrears and refunds are mailed by the 10th.
• Liberty Military Housing, called Lincoln Military Housing until December 2020: its JBLM resident guide prints an estimated move-out charge sheet.
• Balfour Beatty Communities: pleaded guilty in 2021 to defrauding the military over maintenance records.

Section 2894a requires a public DoD complaint database; it is at dhfs.mil, titled the DoW Housing Feedback System on October 10, 2026. A dependent who lives in the home, signs the lease, or is authorized to act for a deployed member counts as a tenant under 10 U.S.C. § 2871(12); the spouse and family guide covers powers of attorney.

File a formal housing dispute and protect your BAH

1. Log every problem in the work order system and save ticket numbers. Do not confirm a repair as complete until it is.
2. Use the landlord’s escalation steps, then the housing office’s informal process, and ask for the military tenant advocate.
3. Have installation legal assistance review the formal request form.
4. File the formal request with the Military Housing Office. For a maintenance or habitability dispute, request rent segregation in Section 7 and keep paying through your allotment.
5. Allow the inspection within seven business days, and put day 30 and day 60 from filing on your calendar.
6. If orders arrive first, end the lease under § 3955: the lease termination calculator gives the date, the letter template the notice, and PCS money moves the rest.

The law behind this: 10 U.S.C. § 2894

Landlord-tenant dispute resolution process and treatment of certain payments during process: read the statute.