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SCRASAVER

Subchapter I. General Provisions

50 U.S.C. § 3918: When an SCRA Waiver Is Valid (12-Point Rule)

Official heading: Waiver of rights pursuant to written agreement

In one line

Says you can waive SCRA rights, but a waiver that lets a creditor modify, terminate, foreclose, or repossess counts only if it is a separate written document made under an agreement signed during or after your service.

  • The waiver must be in writing and executed as an instrument separate from the contract or loan it applies to
  • For those actions, the waiver is effective only under a written agreement executed during or after the period of military service
  • A contract waiver must be printed in at least 12 point type

Text checked October 9, 2026

What § 3918 does to your money

Lenders and landlords sometimes slip a waiver into the paperwork. Section 3918 lets a servicemember waive any SCRA right, then makes the waivers that cost the most money hard to get. A waiver that permits modifying, terminating or cancelling a contract, lease or bailment or a mortgage-secured obligation, or that permits repossession, foreclosure, sale or forfeiture of property, is effective only if it is in writing, in an instrument separate from the obligation, and made under a written agreement signed during or after your period of military service.

So a waiver buried in a car loan you signed before service does not let the lender repossess without a court order later. The agreement must name the legal instrument it applies to. And any written waiver of an SCRA right in a contract, lease or similar instrument must be in at least 12-point type: fine print fails on its face.

Reservists between orders and reporting count as servicemembers for this section, and that window counts as military service. Before you sign anything during service that mentions the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, read what it gives up, or have a military legal assistance office read it.

Guides on this site that apply § 3918

The full text of 50 U.S.C. § 3918

From the United States Code, 2024 Edition, current through January 6, 2025, as published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office on GovInfo (retrieved October 10, 2026). No amendment enacted after the edition cutoff was found on Cornell LII or in GovInfo’s compiled SCRA (amended through Pub. L. 118-159, Dec. 23, 2024). House style: the Code’s em dashes before a list are shown as colons, and en dashes as hyphens or “to”; no word of the text is changed.

(a) In general

A servicemember may waive any of the rights and protections provided by this chapter. Any such waiver that applies to an action listed in subsection (b) of this section is effective only if it is in writing and is executed as an instrument separate from the obligation or liability to which it applies. In the case of a waiver that permits an action described in subsection (b), the waiver is effective only if made pursuant to a written agreement of the parties that is executed during or after the servicemember's period of military service. The written agreement shall specify the legal instrument to which the waiver applies and, if the servicemember is not a party to that instrument, the servicemember concerned.

(b) Actions requiring waivers in writing

The requirement in subsection (a) for a written waiver applies to the following:

(1) The modification, termination, or cancellation of:

(A) a contract, lease, or bailment; or

(B) an obligation secured by a mortgage, trust, deed, lien, or other security in the nature of a mortgage.

(2) The repossession, retention, foreclosure, sale, forfeiture, or taking possession of property that:

(A) is security for any obligation; or

(B) was purchased or received under a contract, lease, or bailment.

(c) Prominent display of certain contract rights waivers

Any waiver in writing of a right or protection provided by this chapter that applies to a contract, lease, or similar legal instrument must be in at least 12 point type.

(d) Coverage of periods after orders received

For the purposes of this section:

(1) a person to whom section 3917 of this title applies shall be considered to be a servicemember; and

(2) the period with respect to such a person specified in subsection (a) or (b), as the case may be, of section 3917 of this title shall be considered to be a period of military service.

Enacted and amended by: (Oct. 17, 1940, ch. 888, title I, §107, as added Pub. L. 108-189, §1, Dec. 19, 2003, 117 Stat. 2839; amended Pub. L. 108-454, title VII, §702, Dec. 10, 2004, 118 Stat. 3624.)

What changed, and when

The Office of the Law Revision Counsel’s amendment notes for § 3918, newest first.

  • 2004: Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 108-454, §702(1), inserted after first sentence: "Any such waiver that applies to an action listed in subsection (b) of this section is effective only if it is in writing and is executed as an instrument separate from the obligation or liability to which it applies." Subsecs. (c), (d). Pub. L. 108-454, §702(2), (3), added subsec. (c) and redesignated former subsec. (c) as (d).

Effective date: Section applicable to any case not final before Dec. 19, 2003, see section 3 of Pub. L. 108-189, set out as a note under section 3901 of this title.

Every section of the Act, including the short administrative ones without their own page, is on the section-by-section index.

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