Levenson SCRA Case: Prepaid June Rent and a Deposit Held Over 120 Days

What happened

On January 29, 2020 the United States sued Deborah Levenson, the owner of an apartment in Brookline, Massachusetts, in the District of Massachusetts, and the U.S. Attorney's Office announced the settlement that day, subject to the court's approval. The consent order was entered on January 30, 2020, which is also its effective date (complaint paragraph 9; consent order paragraph 3 and page 5).

The tenant, an Army captain on full-time active duty since May 23, 2009, was assigned in August 2018 to duty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. He and his wife rented the apartment for 12.5 months, August 15, 2018 to August 31, 2019, with rent due in advance on the first of each month, and at signing paid the first month's rent, the last month's rent and a security deposit. They moved in with their two young children around August 15, 2018 (complaint paragraphs 7 to 13).

On April 8, 2019 he received orders for a permanent change of station, with dependents, to West Point, New York. On April 30 the couple delivered written notice with a copy of his orders, naming June 21, 2019 as the date the lease would end. Because the next rent was due May 1, the complaint says the SCRA entitled them to end the lease on May 31, so they gave three additional weeks of notice, and they helped Levenson find a new tenant who moved in shortly after they left on June 21. Their June rent had already been paid as last month's rent, so they asked for the nine days of June after their termination date and for the deposit. Levenson at first refused to refund anything, the complaint says, although he had told her before signing that he was in the military (paragraphs 14 to 21).

The case was referred to the Department of Justice on September 30, 2019, and the United States notified Levenson on October 7. On October 17 she e-mailed the couple complaining that they had brought in the Department, and when she did not respond to the first demand letter the United States sent another on October 31. She returned the security deposit on November 1, 2019, after holding it for over 120 days, and when the complaint was filed she was still refusing to repay the overpaid rent (paragraphs 22 to 25).

The law behind this: 50 U.S.C. § 3955

Termination of residential or motor vehicle leases: read the statute , or read § 3955 in plain English, with its enforcement record .

Men and women in uniform risk their lives for our country, and Congress enacted the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to protect their rights when they are called away to serve our nation.

Who was covered

The captain and his wife, both named in the order. The check was to be payable to the two of them, and counsel for the United States was to deliver it once their signed release arrived; the release covered claims related to the alleged violation of Section 3955 (consent order paragraphs 5 and 6 and Exhibit A). The complaint counts them both as persons aggrieved and notes that a servicemember's termination also ends a dependent spouse's obligations under the lease (complaint paragraphs 27 and 36). The injunction protected any servicemember tenant of Levenson's for the order's three years (consent order paragraphs 4 and 14).

What the settlement paid

• $3,000 in monetary damages to the captain and his wife within 15 days of entry, by certified check sent to counsel for the United States (consent order paragraph 5). The U.S. Attorney's release describes it as $3,000 in damages to her former tenant.
• A $500 civil penalty under § 4041(b)(3) and 28 C.F.R. 85.5, owed to the Treasury within ten calendar days of the effective date (paragraph 7).
• An injunction against keeping rent or lease amounts a servicemember prepaid for any time after the termination took effect, and against knowingly seizing, holding or detaining servicemembers' personal effects, security deposits or other property, citing § 3955(f) and § 3955(h) (paragraph 4).
• A first compliance report at 90 days and then one a year, covering any new residential lease, the properties she rents and whether a servicemember rents any of them; notice of any SCRA complaint to government counsel within 15 days; and preserved records. The order ran three years from entry and has ended (paragraphs 8 to 10 and 14).

Why this case matters

Last month's rent paid at signing is rent paid in advance. Section 3955(f) requires the landlord to refund, within 30 days of the termination's effective date, any rent the tenant prepaid for time after that date, and this couple had prepaid all of June. The record also shows that cooperation did not speed the refund: they gave three weeks more notice than the statute required and helped the landlord find a replacement tenant, and the deposit still came back only after two letters from the United States. The order also cited § 3955(h), under which anyone who knowingly seizes, holds or detains a servicemember's deposit or effects in order to apply them to rent claimed for the period after a lawful termination faces a fine, imprisonment of up to one year, or both.