Service members must give notice

Question: I had a tenant in the Army Reserve who received mobilization orders directing him to appear in several months. He gave me a verbal notice seven days before he left. He claims that he is entitled to a full refund of his deposit because the Army gives some rights to their personnel when they have to be mobilized. Is this true and what are my options?

Answer: As a member of the armed services, your tenant does have special rights when it comes to breaking a lease, if that’s what he has to do to fulfill his activation orders. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a tenant who must move can give his landlord a 30-day notice, which will end the tenancy 30 days after the rent is next due. For example, suppose rent is due on the first, and your tenant gives you a 30-day notice Dec. 15. Responsibility for rent will end Feb. 1. (The tenant must still pay January’s rent.) Your tenant had plenty of time to give you the required amount of notice. Seven days’ notice is not sufficient. You may treat his notice as if it was done properly -- that is, consider it a 30-day notice and consider the tenancy to have ended 30 days after the date that rent would have been next due. The Servicemembers law does not vary your state’s rules on the retention and use of the security deposit. In general, you may use the deposit to cover unpaid rent and to remedy damage in excess of normal wear and tear. If your tenant left the place spotless and had no unpaid rent to his name, you’d need to return the entire deposit. But apparently the tenant did leave unpaid rent behind -- that next month’s rent, which he was responsible for under the Servicemembers law. You may deduct that month’s rent from the deposit.

-- Janet Portman, Inman News

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E-mail Janet Portman at janet@inman.com.