SCRA Lease Termination Letter Template (Apartment & Car Lease)

Section 3955 lets you end a residential lease or a vehicle lease on qualifying orders, and it says exactly how: written notice, a copy of the orders, delivery to the lessor or the lessor’s agent, and, for a car, return of the vehicle within 15 days. The two letters below do that. They are the same text the SCRA letter generator produces for its residential and motor-vehicle lease options, so fill in the blanks here or let the tool compute your dates. Whether you qualify, and what it saves, is covered in break your apartment lease on orders and end a car lease on orders; this page is about the paper.

Template 1: residential lease

[Your mailing address]

[Today's date]

[Landlord or property manager]

RE: Notice of residential lease termination under the SCRA,
    [rented property address]

To [Landlord or property manager]:

I am a member of the [U.S. Army / U.S. Navy / etc.] serving on active duty.
I have received military orders that qualify me to terminate my residential
lease under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. § 3955.

This letter is my written notice terminating the lease for the premises at
[rented property address]. Under section 3955, for a lease with monthly
rent, termination takes effect 30 days after the first date on which the
next rent payment is due following delivery of this notice.

My rent is due on day [1] of each month, and I am delivering this notice on
[delivery date]. My lease therefore terminates effective [termination date].

Accordingly:

1. I will pay rent through [termination date] and nothing after that date;
2. No early-termination fee, penalty, or forfeiture applies to a termination
   under section 3955; and
3. Please return my security deposit, less any lawful, itemized deductions,
   to the following forwarding address: [forwarding address].

A copy of my military orders is enclosed as the statute requires. Please
confirm the termination and the handling of my deposit in writing.

Respectfully,


[Full name], [Rank]
[Branch]

Enclosures: copy of military orders; DMDC active-duty status certificate
(scra.dmdc.osd.mil)

The generator’s version of item 3 says “to the forwarding address I will provide.” If you know the address, put it in now; it starts the deposit clock under your state’s rules with no follow-up needed.

The date math, and where each line comes from

“30 days after the first date on which the next rent payment is due.” That is § 3955(d)(1)(A) nearly word for word: for a covered lease “that provides for monthly payment of rent, termination of the lease under subsection (a) is effective 30 days after the first date on which the next rental payment is due and payable after the date on which the notice under subsection (c) is delivered.” Rent due the 1st, notice delivered July 20: next due date August 1, termination August 31. Delivered August 2: next due date September 1, termination October 1. For a lease not paid monthly, termination is “the last day of the month following the month in which the notice is delivered.” The lease termination calculator does the arithmetic.

“I will pay rent through [termination date] and nothing after.” § 3955(e)(1): rent unpaid for the period before the effective date “shall be paid on a prorated basis,” and “the lessor may not impose an early termination charge.” Anything else due and unpaid under the lease at termination, including “reasonable charges to the lessee for excess wear,” you still owe. If you prepaid rent past the termination date, § 3955(f) requires the refund “within 30 days of the effective date of the termination.”

“Please return my security deposit … to the following forwarding address.” The deposit itself runs on state law. What the statute adds is § 3955(h): knowingly holding a servicemember’s deposit or property to subject it to rent accruing after termination is a federal misdemeanor. The forwarding address is in the letter so the landlord has somewhere to send the check.

The enclosure. § 3955(c)(1)(A) requires “written notice of such termination, and a copy of the servicemember’s military orders.” Under § 3955(i)(1), “military orders” includes “any notification, certification, or verification from the servicemember’s commanding officer” about current or future duty, so a commander’s letter works when the orders are not cut yet. And under § 3955(i)(3), a permanent change of station “includes separation or retirement from military service,” so retirement orders qualify too.

Template 2: motor vehicle lease

[Your mailing address]

[Today's date]

[Leasing company]

RE: Notice of motor vehicle lease termination under the SCRA,
    account ending in [1234]

To [Leasing company]:

I am a member of the [U.S. Army / U.S. Navy / etc.] serving on active duty.
I have received qualifying military orders and am terminating my motor
vehicle lease under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. § 3955.

This letter is my written notice, delivered [delivery date], terminating the
lease on the following vehicle: [year, make, model, VIN ending ####] (lease
account ending in [1234]).

Under section 3955:

1. No early-termination charge, penalty, or amount for remaining lease
   payments may be imposed on this termination;
2. Any lease amounts I paid in advance must be refunded to me on a pro-rata
   basis; and
3. I will return the vehicle within 15 days of this notice, as the statute
   requires. I will settle only the amounts I genuinely owe through the
   termination date, such as payments already due and any excess wear or
   mileage already incurred.

A copy of my military orders is enclosed. Please confirm the termination in
writing and provide a final statement showing no early-termination charge
and any advance-payment refund owed to me.

Respectfully,


[Full name], [Rank]
[Branch]

Enclosures: copy of military orders; DMDC active-duty status certificate
(scra.dmdc.osd.mil)

What the statute says about the car

Return within 15 days. § 3955(c)(1)(B): for a motor vehicle, termination is made by delivering the notice and orders and “by return of the motor vehicle by the lessee to the lessor (or the lessor’s grantee), or to the lessor’s agent (or the agent’s grantee), not later than 15 days after the date of the delivery of written notice.” Under § 3955(d)(2), termination is effective on the day both requirements are met. Notice without turn-in is not a termination.

No early-termination charge, but the genuine bill. § 3955(e)(2): lease amounts unpaid for the period before termination are prorated; “the lessor may not impose an early termination charge, but any taxes, summonses, title and registration fees, or other obligations and liabilities of the lessee in accordance with the terms of the lease, including reasonable charges to the lessee for excess wear or use and mileage, that are due and unpaid at the time of termination of the lease shall be paid by the lessee.” Get a signed condition and mileage report at turn-in so the “excess wear” line cannot grow later.

Advance payments back within 30 days. § 3955(f) covers “rents or lease amounts paid in advance,” which is where the enforcement record lives: BMW Financial Services paid $2.1 million to 492 servicemembers and Nissan Motor Acceptance settled over unrefunded capitalized cost reductions, both on lawful terminations where the refund never came. If you put money down at signing, watch for it on the final statement.

How to deliver, and how to prove it

§ 3955(c)(2) names the ways a notice can be delivered: hand delivery; a private business carrier; U.S. mail “with return receipt requested,” addressed as the lessor or agent has designated; or electronic means, which the statute defines as direct delivery to an electronic address the lessor designated, posting to a website or repository the lessor gave you access to, or “other electronic means reasonably calculated to ensure actual receipt.” Email to the leasing office address on your lease, or an upload to the resident portal, counts.

The delivery date matters more than the method, because § 3955(d) counts from it. Pick the method that leaves a dated record (return receipt, carrier tracking, portal confirmation, or a witnessed hand delivery with a signed copy) and keep it with the orders.

Deliver a § 3955 notice that holds up

1. Confirm your trigger and your date: PCS or 90-day deployment orders for a residence, the stricter 180-day or OCONUS rules for a car (§ 3955(b)).
2. Fill in the letter above or generate it at /tools/letter-generator/; check the residential termination date in the calculator.
3. Attach a copy of your orders (or a commander’s letter under § 3955(i)(1)) and a DMDC certificate.
4. Deliver by one of the § 3955(c)(2) methods and keep the dated proof.
5. For a car: schedule the turn-in inside 15 days, photograph the vehicle, and get a signed condition and mileage report.
6. Diary the effective date plus 30 days. Any advance rent or lease amount not refunded by then is a § 3955(f) violation.

What the lessor owes you afterward

Once a valid notice is delivered, the lessor’s side of § 3955 is short. No early termination charge (subsections (e)(1) and (e)(2)). Refund of anything paid in advance for the period after termination within 30 days (subsection (f)). No holding your deposit or property against post-termination rent (subsection (h)). A lessor that believes the termination is unfair has one path: § 3955(g) lets it apply to a court “before the termination date provided in the written notice” for relief “as justice and equity require.” A landlord that simply bills the fee anyway is where the Greystar settlement came from. The landlord’s side is written up in SCRA compliance for landlords.

Joint leases: your termination “shall terminate any obligation a dependent of the lessee may have under the lease” (§ 3955(a)(2)), and “dependent” is defined at § 3911(4) as your spouse, your child, or someone you supported for more than half their needs in the prior 180 days. A spouse or dependent can also terminate a covered lease within a year of your death in service, or of a catastrophic injury in some circumstances (§ 3955(a)(3) and (a)(4)).

The law behind this: 50 U.S.C. § 3955

Termination of residential or motor vehicle leases: read the statute.