Security Deposit Protections for Military Tenants

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), the federal law that protects people on active duty, does not set its own deadline for returning a security deposit. It lets you end a residential lease early after permanent change of station (PCS) orders or orders to deploy for 90 days or more, bars the landlord from charging an early termination fee, and requires a refund within 30 days of any rent you paid for time after the lease ends. Your deposit then comes back under your state's usual deadline and deduction rules, and a landlord that knowingly holds it to cover rent for any period after the termination date commits a federal misdemeanor.

Who can end a lease under the SCRA

According to the Justice Department, the SCRA covers full-time active-duty members of the six military branches, Reserve members on federal active duty, National Guard members on federal (Title 10) orders or on Title 32 orders of more than 30 days in response to a national emergency, and commissioned officers of the Public Health Service and NOAA. You can end a residential lease when one of these applies:

• You signed before entering military service.
• You signed while in service and then received orders for a PCS, which includes separation or retirement, or to deploy with a unit or as an individual for 90 days or more.
• You signed after receiving PCS or deployment orders, then got a stop movement order, an order halting military moves during an emergency, lasting 30 days or more or with no end date, that keeps you or your dependents from living there.

Ending the lease also ends any obligation a dependent has under it, such as a spouse who signed with you. If a servicemember dies while in military service, a spouse or dependent may end the lease within one year after the death.

How to give notice, and when the lease ends

Give the landlord written notice and a copy of your orders, at any time after the date of the orders. A notification or verification of your current or future duty status from your commanding officer also counts as orders. Name the law, 50 U.S.C. 3955, in the letter. You can deliver it by hand, by private business carrier, by mail with return receipt requested, or electronically, such as by email to an address the landlord designated.

If you pay rent monthly, the lease ends 30 days after the first rent due date that follows delivery of your notice. Example: you deliver notice on September 10 and rent is due on the 1st, so the next due date is October 1 and the lease ends on October 31. Other leases end on the last day of the month after the month you gave notice. A termination based on a stop movement order takes effect as soon as you deliver the notice and orders.

What you owe, and what the landlord cannot charge

• Rent through the termination date, prorated for any part of a rental period. In the example above, you owe rent up to October 31.
• No early termination charge. The SCRA bars it outright.
• Other lease charges due when the lease ends, including reasonable charges for excess wear, meaning damage beyond ordinary use.
• A refund of advance rent within 30 days. Rent you paid for any time after the termination date must come back within 30 days of that date. If you had prepaid November's rent in the example, the landlord owes it back by November 30.

Read any lease addendum that mentions the SCRA before you sign it. Military OneSource warns that signing an SCRA waiver can leave you facing significant penalties for ending the lease early.

How your security deposit is handled

The SCRA does not set deposit rules, so the landlord follows the same deadline, itemized statement, and deduction rules it uses for any tenant. In California, the landlord must return the deposit, minus any deductions, with an itemized statement within 21 days after you move out. Texas sets 30 days after you surrender (hand back) the unit, but only once you give a written forwarding address. For other states, see security deposit return timelines by state.

From the deposit, the landlord can take rent you still owe through the termination date and the cost of damage beyond normal wear and tear. It cannot take an early termination fee or rent for any period after the termination date. Knowingly holding your deposit, or your belongings, to collect rent for that later period is a federal misdemeanor punishable by a fine, up to one year in prison, or both.

Before a PCS move or deployment, give the landlord your forwarding address in writing, ask for an inspection while you can still fix problems, and photograph each room once it is empty. Two state rules help if you will be away: since September 1, 2025, Texas lets deposit notices go by email if you and the landlord or its agent have emailed before, and a California landlord that received your rent or deposit electronically must refund the deposit electronically to an account you name in writing, unless you agree in writing to another method. Getting your security deposit back covers each move-out step.

State laws that add protections

State law can give you more than the SCRA. Three examples:

• California: the exception that lets some small landlords collect two months' rent as a deposit does not apply to a service member, so your limit stays at one month's rent, and a landlord cannot refuse to rent to you because of that rule. Since April 1, 2025, a landlord that charges a service member a higher-than-standard deposit because of credit history, credit score, housing history, or a similar factor must explain the extra amount in writing by the day you sign, put its return date in the lease, and refund it after no more than six months if you are current on rent.
• Texas: under Property Code section 92.017, if your lease does not say, in substance, that "Tenants may have special statutory rights to terminate the lease early in certain situations involving family violence or a military deployment or transfer," ending it on military grounds also releases you from any unpaid rent owed on the termination date. A landlord that violates the section owes your actual damages, a civil penalty of one month's rent plus $500, and attorney's fees. You can waive the right only in a separate signed document tied to a move into base housing or other housing within 30 miles, and the waiver does not apply if you move in with family or move because military service cut your household income by 10% or more.
• Florida: Statutes section 83.682 covers more situations, including PCS orders that require a move of 35 miles or more, temporary duty or state active duty orders of more than 60 days to an area 35 miles or more away, and orders to move into government quarters, meaning any military housing, including privatized base housing. The lease ends on the date in your notice, which must be at least 30 days after the landlord receives it, and you owe rent prorated only to that date. If you terminate under this section 14 or more days before you move in, you owe no damages or penalties, and none of these rights can be waived.

If your situation does not fit the SCRA or a state military rule, see our guides to breaking a lease early and breaking a lease to relocate.

Where to get free help

Your installation's legal assistance office can review your lease, your notice, and the landlord's deposit statement. Federal law authorizes this help, subject to staff availability, for active-duty members, retirees, their dependents, and Reserve members for a period after release from mobilization orders of more than 30 days. Expect advice rather than courtroom representation: Fort Drum's office, for example, gives free advice and counseling but says it cannot represent clients in civilian courts. The Justice Department directs servicemembers to the office locator at legalassistance.law.af.mil and takes reports of SCRA violations at civilrights.justice.gov/report.

If the landlord keeps deposit money your state's law says you are owed, the overview of state security deposit laws explains the penalties and how to demand payment.