Florida SCRA Benefits: The 35-Mile Lease Exit & State Duty

Florida is one of the most military-dense states in the country: twenty-plus installations, three unified commands, and a Guard that activates every hurricane season. Its servicemember law is built around the way Florida orders actually flow. Lots of TDYs, lots of state activations, lots of moves federal law never thinks about.

What Florida adds to the federal floor

Protection	Federal SCRA	Florida
Lease exit trigger	PCS, or deployment 90+ days	✅ Any orders 60+ days, 35+ miles away, TDY and state duty included (§ 83.682)
Proof accepted	Copy of orders	✅ Orders or commanding officer’s written verification
Guard on state active duty	❌ Not covered	✅ Covered, incl. mortgage/property protections (§ 250.5205)
State income tax	Depends on state	✅ None. 0%

The 35-mile rule: Florida’s headline benefit

Read federal § 3955 next to Florida § 83.682 and the difference jumps out. Federal law asks whether you are PCSing or deploying 90+ days. Florida asks one question: are orders taking you more than 35 miles away for more than 60 days? And it accepts temporary duty, temporary change of station, and state active duty as triggers.

Real cases the federal statute ignores but Florida covers:

• A 75-day TDY from Eglin to MacDill. 400 miles, no PCS, no deployment. Florida exit.
• A Florida Guard member on a 90-day state hurricane activation across the state. Florida exit.
• Orders to a school course two states away for ten weeks. Florida exit.

Mechanics: 30 days’ written notice to the landlord, accompanied by the orders or your CO’s signed verification. Florida’s clock runs from your notice per the statute’s terms. Pair it with the federal timing rules and use whichever statute gives the better date, citing both.

State-duty protections for the Florida Guard

Hurricane season is an annual activation cycle, and federal SCRA sits it out. Florida does not. State law treats Guard members on state active duty as covered servicemembers, and § 250.5205 puts court supervision between state-duty members and mortgage foreclosures or personal-property seizures. It is the same architecture as the federal home-and-car protections, pointed at the activations the Governor orders. Florida Guard members should run the activation-cycle playbook on state orders using the state statute.

The tax bonus

No state income tax makes Florida the other great duty-station tax election. Stationed at Eglin, MacDill, Jacksonville, or Pensacola, you and your spouse can elect Florida and pay zero state income tax on covered income regardless of domicile. Florida is famously also a favorite domicile state for exactly that reason.

✅ Run the Florida stack

1. Any orders 60+ days and 35+ miles from your rental, including TDY and state duty: deliver 30 days’ written notice with orders or a CO letter, citing Fla. Stat. § 83.682 (and § 3955 if it also applies).
2. Check your exact dates and savings with the lease calculator, and cite the statute that ends the lease sooner.
3. Florida Guard on state activation: invoke § 250.5205 protections in writing if a lender moves on your home or car, and get the Adjutant General’s service statement the statute contemplates.
4. Stationed in Florida: make the duty-station tax election on arrival.
5. Federal benefits unchanged: pre-service debts still get the 6% letters.

📜 The law behind this: Fla. Stat. § 83.682

Termination of rental agreement by a servicemember — Florida's 35-mile / 60-day rule — read the statute.