Broke a lease with orders-Charged $5000

[sara cantrell]

My husband is a Marine in California and he recieved orders to deploy. He turned them in to his leasing office and they gave him his 30 day notice without any problems. A week before he was supposed to deploy his orders were cancelled and he was given a later date to leave. Within the week we found an apartment with a month to month lease and moved in since we could not stay in our old apartment. We just recieved a letter saying that we owe $5000 to cover the rent we wont be paying. Can this happen even though he had orders at the time?

 

[fozzy2]

This actually poses an interesting question. Apparently, you broke the lease with a "good faith" belief that you would be able to under the SCRA. I'm assuming your husband had orders in hand for PCS or a 90+ day deployment, etc. Then the orders were cancelled. Since you had broken your lease, you moved elsewhere.

I would contact the JAG right away. In the first place, your original landlord might be thinking you were trying pull some kind of scam. A letter from the military confirming a legitimate military 'snafu' could put them at ease.

As a secondary matter, how does the landlord justify charging you $5,000? Normally, a landlord is expected to make a 'good faith' effort to rent your unit to someone else - and if they do then they can't charge twice for it. Unless perhaps your rent is very high (say, $2,500 a month) and he is figuring it will take maybe 2 months to fill the unit. [ I'm used to more reasonable Texas rents ].

At any rate, I'm not aware of any specific rulings on this particular set of facts. Did you *have* to move elsewhere after you had originally broken your lease? In other words, did you go to your landlord and say "My orders were cancelled, can I just continue my lease?" If you asked and they said no, then your case is a lot stronger. On the other hand, if you decided to just take advantage of a 'glitch' to break your lease and move somewhere cheaper/better, then your position not be as good.

Once again, this is a good one for JAG.

 

[fozzy2]

On a second reading, it may help to clarify a few things: Is your husband on regular active duty or is he a reservist called up for duty (sometimes people mix terms up)? Did he sign the lease before he went on active duty? Are you aware of the California statutes (if any) that apply to service members changing duty stations? Does the lease have any "military duty" clauses specifically written into it?

To make clear, there may be two separate issues: One is your protections under the SSCRA, which is an overarching federal law. The other is your protection under state law -- some states have extended further protections to service members. IIRC California is one such state.

 

[sara cantrell]

More Info

More information about my problem- My husband is active duty. Im confused about all of his FAP's and transfers but apparently that is why all of this confusion is happening. My husband was FAP'd (?) out from his parent command and when he was going to deploy he was supposed to leave with his original command also. Im not sure why his orders were cancelled on such short notice, but from what I get out of the story is that he did not have enough time in his enlistment to go on the deployment that was 7 months long. So they cancelled his orders and his old unit left without him. Since he did not go and only has a few months left on his enlistment he was PCA'd to the command he was FAP'd out to. The only problem is, his new command is a garrison unit, and they cant deploy him. His garrison command has now given him orders to a MEU, and he will be deploying in February.--- The confusion on the orders-- The woman I spoke to from the old apartments says her manager called the phone numbers on my husbands orders and that the person who answered told her my husband was no longer at the command (He was FAP'd to a different command!). I called my husbands command and had his SSGT call the manager. After he talked to her he told me she was very rude and said she thought the orders were fake. He told her he could fax over any paperwork she needed and she never responded. I dont know how she is trying to charge us $5000, because from what I understand if we break the lease without orders we will get charged for the remainder of the time we had on the lease or until they rent the apartment out, whichever comes first. Is this lady crazy or just hating Marines? Is this something I should report to the better business bureau? And I thought you only got orders for deployments, so what kind of documents does she need to see to realize he wasn't trying to scam her?
Thank you

 

[revere787]

retarded landlord

just dont pay the moron. Dont let this situation get you all worked up. Just dont pay her the money, she probaly wont follow through with anything. worst case situation, she takes you to court. That is not that big a deal, b/c when you show your copy of the lease like she will, and then your husbands orders to deploy, then the cancellation, and then the new orders, they will probaly tell her to shove it. The courts know the military is kind of last minute, and change their orders, and this and that. She is not gonna get any money out of you. Be smart, do not, i stress do not pay her. she isnt gonna do anything and even if she does, your right, she is wrong. end of story.