Real Estate
When Johnny marches off to war military personnel have special tenant rights
By Ellissa Brewster, Real Estate Center at Texas A&M
Apr 7, 2011

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Enlisting in the military or receiving deployment orders are life-altering events that are stressful enough. Military personnel do not need the additional worry and expense related to breaking a residential lease agreement when military duty requires them to move.

By a unanimous vote, the 79^th Texas Legislature passed a law that allows members of the military to terminate their leases without legal ramifications.

The law gives special rights to those who are entering the military and to military personnel who receive orders for a permanent change of station or for a deployment.

If any of these conditions apply, a military member can terminate his or her lease, vacate property and avoid liability for future rent and other sums that normally would be charged for prematurely terminating the lease.

Judon Fambrough, attorney with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, explains the procedure.

The tenant must give the landlord or the landlord’s agent written notice of the lease termination and a copy of an appropriate government document. This document should provide evidence of either the tenant’s entry into the military service or of the tenant’s permanent change of station or deployment. The deployment must be for at least 90 days.

If the lease requires monthly payments, the effective date for termination occurs 30 days after the first date of the next rent payment. For leases that do not provide for monthly payments, the effective date is the last day of the month in which the notice of termination is given.

A tenant who terminates a residential lease because of military service may also avoid having to pay delinquent, unpaid rent and other sums owed the landlord if the following language does not appear in the lease:

Tenants may have special statutory rights to terminate the lease early in certain situations involving family violence or a military deployment or transfer.

Fambrough says that landlords may wish to update their lease forms to include this language.

Under most circumstances, the landlord cannot ask tenants to sign a waiver giving up their rights under this law. The exceptions are if the tenant moves to base housing or other housing located within 30 miles of the current dwelling that is not owned or occupied by relatives.

Tenants who are evacuating a property because of a family violence incident also may terminate their leases without liability. However, the specific rules are different.

The Real Estate Center (http://recenter.tamu.edu) has been providing solutions through research for nearly 35 years. Funded primarily by Texas real estate licensee fees, the Center was created by the state legislature to meet the needs of many audiences, including the real estate industry, instructors, researchers and the general public.