If you are a military member, you may be protected from being evicted from your house or apartment under certain circumstances. The key law that allows this is the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA).
If you rent a house or apartment and the rent doesn't exceed $9,106.46 per month (for 2023), the landlord must obtain a court order before evicting you or your family. This provision applies even if you rented the place before you joined the military.
A court can block the eviction for up to three months or longer if it feels that your military service affects your ability to pay the rent. This provision is not intended to allow you to avoid paying rent, but rather to protect families when they cannot pay the rent because military service has affected their ability to do so.
Normally, if you have your stuff in a self-storage facility and fail to pay the monthly rent, it can be sold after the owner of the facility notifies you. Depending on the state you live in, this can mean all they have to do is send you a letter and give you 60-90 days (depending on state law) before you either pay the rent or they sell your stuff.
However, the SCRA says that self-storage facility owners must get a court order or sue you (which also means going to court) before selling your belongings, even if the rent is overdue. This rule is intended to allow a judge to decide if your military service prevented you from paying your rent on time, like above. It doesn't keep you from paying rent, just keeps the owner from taking fast action on selling your stuff while you are deployed and unable to either pay your bills quickly or respond to misdirected mail on time.
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Related Topics: Servicemember's Civil Relief Act - SCRA BenefitsJim Absher is Military.com's former benefits editor and columnist. He joined the Navy to see the world and later realized the world is two-thirds water. He also worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs in field offices and Washington, D.C. before coming to Military.com in 2015. Read Full Bio
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