This guide is for active duty members, National Guard and Reserve members who just received orders, military spouses, and veterans who recently left the service. It explains the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), the federal law that caps interest on debts from before service, lets you end certain leases and contracts, can pause civil court cases, and limits evictions, foreclosures and repossessions. You will learn who qualifies, when protection starts and ends, how to request each protection, and where to get free help.
This guide is general information about the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, current as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, it does not cover every provision of the law, and it cannot account for every state's rules.
Some figures change on a schedule or by law. The eviction rent limit ($10,542.60 a month for 2026) is recalculated each year as of January 1 and published in the Federal Register, usually weeks or months later. The life insurance protection cap follows the SGLI maximum, which is set by federal law. Congress also amends the SCRA itself; the license portability rules were rewritten in December 2024.
Your rights depend on details: whether your orders are Title 10, Title 32 or state orders, how long they run, when you signed a lease or took on a debt, whether military service materially affected your ability to pay, and the exact terms of your contract. Check these facts before you rely on any rule here.
Free help is available from military legal assistance offices (use the Armed Forces Legal Assistance locator), from Military OneSource at 800-342-9647, and, for VA benefits, from accredited Veterans Service Organization representatives and County Veterans Service Officers. You never need to pay someone to send an SCRA request.
Some agency web pages lag behind the law. Where a summary differed from the current statute, this guide follows the statute. If a lender, landlord or court relies on different rules, ask a legal assistance office to review your situation.
Deadlines run from specific dates, usually your release from military service. Send requests early, keep copies, and keep proof of delivery.
Who is covered, and when protection starts and ends
The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) protects people in "military service." For the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force and Coast Guard, that means active duty, including Guard and Reserve members on federal (Title 10) orders. Commissioned officers of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are covered while in active service. Time away from duty for sickness, wounds or leave still counts.
Guard members on Title 32 orders count as being in military service in one situation only: a call to active service authorized by the President or the Secretary of Defense for more than 30 consecutive days under section 502(f) of Title 32, to respond to a national emergency declared by the President, supported by federal funds. Other Title 32 duty and state active duty are generally outside the federal law, apart from narrow contract and lease rules covered below. Some states fill the gap: Minnesota, for example, gives people called to state active service or Title 32 duty the protections the SCRA provides.
Guard and Reserve members ordered to report for qualifying service are protected before they report. From the day you receive orders, the SCRA's rules on court cases, interest, leases, evictions, mortgages and service contracts apply.
Protection ends on your release date, but several rights continue after it. After release, you have 180 days to request the interest cap, and 90 days to seek a court stay or to reopen a default judgment entered during service or within 60 days after. On a mortgage from before service, the 6% cap and the court-order rule for foreclosure last one year. Liens need a court order for 90 days, and private life insurance protection lasts two years. Dependents (your spouse, your children, and anyone who got more than half their support from you in the 180 days before asking for relief) are covered by some rules directly and can ask a court to apply others. An attorney or someone holding your power of attorney can use your rights for you.
The 6% interest rate cap
Debts you took on before military service, alone or jointly with your spouse, cannot carry more than 6% interest a year while you serve. On a mortgage, the cap lasts one more year after service. "Interest" includes service charges, renewal charges and fees, but not bona fide insurance. Credit cards, vehicle loans, student loans, home equity loans and mortgages can all qualify; accounts only in your spouse's name do not.
Interest above 6% is forgiven, not postponed. The lender must lower your monthly payment and may not speed up principal payments. The Justice Department says the cap applies retroactively and excess interest you paid must be refunded. A lender can get relief from the cap only by convincing a court that service did not materially affect your ability to pay the higher rate.
Send each lender written notice with a copy of your orders or other proof of service, such as a commanding officer's letter. The Justice Department says a letter, email or lender portal message works, and suggests including the items listed below. Do it during service or within 180 days after release; the lender must then apply the cap from the date you were called to service. Lenders may check the Defense Manpower Data Center's SCRA website instead, but it shows only Title 10 active duty and currently omits periods under 30 days, so send your orders anyway.
The Justice Department treats Guard and Reserve debts taken out between periods of active duty as debts from before service. Refinancing or consolidating while on orders can create a new loan that does not qualify. State law may give more. The separate Military Lending Act caps the cost of many kinds of consumer credit for active duty members and their dependents at a 36% Military Annual Percentage Rate. It does not cover loans to buy or refinance a home, or loans to buy a vehicle.
- Your name, address, email and phone number
- Your duty status and current assignment
- A statement that you are requesting the 6% interest rate cap under the SCRA (50 U.S.C. 3937)
- Every account number you want covered
- A copy of your orders or your commanding officer's letter
Ending a home lease early
You can end a residential lease without an early termination fee if you signed it before entering military service, or signed it while serving and then got orders for a permanent change of station (PCS) or to deploy for 90 days or more. Separation and retirement orders count as a PCS. A lease signed after you received such orders can also be ended if a stop movement order of 30 days or more (or with no end date) then keeps you from using it. Professional, business and agricultural leases are covered, and ending the lease ends a dependent's obligation too.
Deliver written notice that you are ending the lease under the SCRA (50 U.S.C. 3955), with a copy of your orders or a commanding officer's notice about your duty status, to the landlord or agent: by hand, private carrier, return-receipt mail or electronically. With monthly rent, the lease ends 30 days after the next rent due date following your notice. Other leases end on the last day of the month after the month you give notice. A lease ended because of a stop movement order ends when you deliver the notice.
Rent before that date is prorated. You still owe taxes, summonses and reasonable excess wear charges due under the lease, but no early termination fee. Rent paid in advance for later periods must be refunded within 30 days of the termination date, and a landlord who knowingly holds your deposit or belongings to cover rent after termination commits a federal misdemeanor. Check state law for the rest of the deposit process.
The Justice Department takes the position that making you repay rent concessions or discounts is an early termination fee the SCRA forbids, and that lease clauses requiring a minimum distance to your new duty station are likely unenforceable. If a member dies in service, including during full-time Guard duty, Active Guard and Reserve duty or inactive-duty training (drill), the spouse or a dependent may end the lease within one year. The member, or a spouse or dependent if the member lacks capacity, has the same one-year right after a catastrophic injury or illness in service.
Vehicle leases, phones, internet and other contracts
You can end a vehicle lease early if you signed it before service and your orders are for 180 days or more (or are extended to that without a break). If you signed it while serving, you qualify with orders to deploy for 180 days or more, or PCS orders from the continental United States to outside it, or from a state outside it, such as Alaska or Hawaii, to anywhere outside that state. A move within the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia does not qualify.
Send written notice with your orders, then return the vehicle within 15 days; the lease ends when both are done. You owe prorated payments, taxes, title and registration fees, and reasonable excess wear and mileage charges, but no early termination charge. Advance payments must be refunded within 30 days, which the Justice Department says includes any capitalized cost reduction (down payment).
You can also cancel cell phone, home phone, internet, cable or satellite TV, gym or fitness, and home security contracts signed before you received orders to relocate for 90 days or more to a place the contract does not support. Send written or electronic notice with your orders and the end date. No early termination fee is allowed. Return provider equipment within 10 days after disconnection, and expect advance payments back within 60 days, except for the current billing period.
For a relocation of three years or less, you keep your phone number if you sign up again within 90 days after it ends, with no reinstatement fee beyond normal equipment charges. A family plan holder can drop your line, or every line if the family relocates with you. This contract rule expressly covers Guard and Reserve members on full-time Guard duty, Active Guard and Reserve duty or drill.
Court cases: default judgments, stays and custody
If you are sued in a civil case and do not appear, the court must first require the plaintiff to file an affidavit of military service: a sworn statement saying whether you are in service, with supporting facts, or that this could not be determined. A knowingly false affidavit is a federal crime. If you appear to be in service, the court must appoint a lawyer for you before entering judgment.
The court must pause the case at least 90 days if you may have a defense that requires your presence or the lawyer cannot reach you. A default judgment entered during service or within 60 days after must be reopened if you apply within 90 days after release and show that service materially affected your defense and that you have a legitimate defense.
If you know about a case, you can request a stay while serving or within 90 days after release. With the two letters below, the court must grant at least 90 days. Requesting a stay does not count as appearing and waives no defenses. If the court refuses a later request for more time, it must appoint a lawyer for you. If your stay request under this rule is denied, you lose the default judgment protections above. These rules cover civil and administrative cases, including custody, but not criminal cases.
A temporary custody order based only on deployment must end when the deployment no longer justifies it, and deployment cannot be the only factor in a permanent custody change. Deadlines to file a case by or against you also stop running during military service, except federal tax deadlines.
- Your letter explaining how current duty materially affects your ability to appear, with a date you will be available
- Your commanding officer's letter stating that duty prevents your appearance and leave is not authorized
Evictions, foreclosures, repossession and life insurance
During military service, a landlord needs a court order to evict you or your dependents from a home if the monthly rent does not exceed a limit adjusted each year. For 2026 the Defense Department published that limit as $10,542.60 a month, effective January 1, 2026 (Federal Register notice of March 10, 2026). This applies even in states that allow evictions without a court order, and knowingly evicting without one is a federal misdemeanor. If service materially affects your ability to pay rent, the court must, on request, pause the case for 90 days (longer or shorter if fairness requires) or adjust the lease.
A mortgage you took out before service cannot be foreclosed, and the property cannot be sold or seized, during service or for one year after without a court order, unless you signed a valid written waiver. In a case filed in that window, the court must, if you ask, pause it or adjust the loan when service materially affects your ability to pay.
If you paid a deposit or installment before service on a purchase or lease, such as a car loan, the creditor needs a court order to cancel the contract or repossess the property, and the court can order earlier payments returned. Liens on your property, such as storage or repair liens, cannot be enforced during service or for 90 days after without a court order. None of this erases debts: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) notes lenders can still charge late fees, report late payments and sue.
An individual life insurance policy (not group term) in force at least 180 days before service, whose terms do not cut coverage, raise premiums or restrict coverage because of military service, can be protected from lapsing for unpaid premiums during service and for two years after. Send the application (VA Form 29-380) to the insurer and a copy to VA, which decides whether the policy qualifies. Coverage up to $250,000 or the SGLI maximum, currently $500,000, whichever is greater, is protected. The premiums are not forgiven: unpaid amounts become a loan against the policy when protection ends, and anything the government pays the insurer becomes a debt you owe the United States that bankruptcy cannot erase.
Taxes, voting residence and license portability
Military orders do not change your legal residence for tax purposes. If you are not a resident of the state where you are stationed, that state cannot treat your military pay as earned there, cannot tax your personal property such as vehicles (business property excepted), and cannot use your military pay to raise the tax on your other income. Civilian wages and rental income can still be taxed where earned. If service materially affects your ability to pay income tax, you can notify the IRS or your state and have collection deferred until up to 180 days after release, without interest or penalty.
A spouse who lives in a state only to be with a servicemember on orders does not gain or lose a tax residence because of that move, and the spouse's wages are not taxed as earned there if the spouse is not a resident. Since January 2023, for any tax year of the marriage, a couple may elect the servicemember's residence, the spouse's residence or the servicemember's permanent duty station for tax purposes, whenever they married. Check your state revenue department's guidance.
For voting, orders do not cost you your residence, and a spouse may use the servicemember's residence regardless of when they married. A spouse may also use it for any other purpose, including registering a business.
Under the SCRA's portability section (50 U.S.C. 4025a), added in January 2023 and rewritten effective December 23, 2024, a servicemember or spouse who moves on military orders with a covered license (in good standing, never revoked or disciplined by any state, and not under investigation) can apply to the new state's board, which must treat the license as valid within that state's scope of practice. Apply with proof of orders (a commanding officer's letter counts), a marriage certificate for spouses, and a notarized affidavit affirming your identity, truthfulness, good standing everywhere you have been licensed, and that you will meet the new state's requirements. The board may run a background check and issue a temporary license if it needs more than 30 days.
The 2024 rewrite dropped the old two-year active-use requirement and added law licenses. Holders of interstate compact licenses follow their compact instead. The Justice Department says boards cannot demand extras such as exams, transcripts or references. The rule covers licenses and certificates that qualify you to practice a profession.
Getting help and enforcing your rights
Military legal assistance offices, free for eligible members and families, handle SCRA problems and can help draft and notarize affidavits; find one with the Armed Forces Legal Assistance locator. Military OneSource (800-342-9647) answers SCRA and residency questions. For VA benefits, accredited Veterans Service Organization representatives and County Veterans Service Officers can help.
If a company ignores your rights, get legal help quickly. File a complaint about a financial company with the CFPB online or at 855-411-2372; companies generally respond within 15 days. You can also report violations through the online portal of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, though the department asks people eligible for military legal assistance to go there first and cannot investigate every complaint.
The Attorney General can sue over a pattern or practice of violations, or a violation of significant public importance, seeking damages and civil penalties. You can sue on your own, including in a class action, for damages and other relief, and if you win, the court can make the violator pay your costs and a reasonable attorney fee. Using your SCRA rights cannot be the reason a lender denies credit, changes your terms or reports you negatively to a credit bureau.
You do not need to pay anyone to request SCRA protections; most requests take only a letter and a copy of your orders. Read any waiver before signing. A waiver letting a company change or end a contract, lease or mortgage, or repossess or foreclose, must be a separate written document signed during or after service, and contract waivers must be in at least 12-point type. Check anyone offering paid VA help with VA's Office of General Counsel accreditation search, and report military scams through VSAFE.
Checklist for Guard and Reserve members with new orders
Protections start when you receive orders, so act right away. If official orders are late, a commanding officer's letter about your duty status can serve as proof for leases and the interest cap. Keep copies of everything you send.
After your orders end, track the deadlines listed in the first section. If you were mobilized and health insurance in effect the day before your service began ended during it, you can apply within 120 days after release to have it reinstated, unless USERRA gives you rights to an employer plan. Professionals who suspended malpractice coverage must request reinstatement within 30 days after release. For job rights, see "USERRA: Your Reemployment Rights" on this site.
- Copy your orders and check the dates; some rights need orders of 90 days or more, others 180 days or more.
- List debts from before this period of service and send each lender a written 6% request with your orders.
- Decide on your home lease, vehicle lease and phone, internet, TV, gym and security contracts; send notices if you qualify.
- Tell any court handling your civil case about your orders, and request a stay if you cannot appear.
- Review insurance: VA Form 29-380 for a private life policy, and malpractice suspension if you are a mobilized health care or legal professional.
- See legal assistance about a power of attorney, any waiver, and state protections such as Minnesota Statutes section 190.055.
Sources
Every figure above is drawn from these sources. Figures and rules change, so check the current source before you act.
- 50 U.S.C. chapter 50, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (U.S. Code, 2024 edition, GovInfo)
- Federal Register: Notice of Publication of Housing Price Inflation Adjustment (2026 rent threshold, 91 FR 11527)
- Public Law 118-159, section 587 (license portability rewrite, Dec. 23, 2024)
- Public Law 117-333, Veterans Auto and Education Improvement Act of 2022
- Public Law 119-60, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 (checked for SCRA amendments)
- U.S. Department of Justice: Financial and Housing Rights
- U.S. Department of Justice: Your Rights as a Servicemember, 6% Interest Rate Cap
- U.S. Department of Justice: Know Your Rights, A Guide to the SCRA
- U.S. Department of Justice: Professional License Portability
- U.S. Department of Justice: 2025 Update, Portability of Professional Licenses
- U.S. Department of Justice: How We Can Help
- U.S. Department of Justice: Servicemembers and Veterans Initiative Resources
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Submit a complaint
- Military OneSource: Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
- Military OneSource: The Military Spouses Residency Relief Act
- Defense Manpower Data Center: SCRA website and FAQs
- Armed Forces Legal Assistance: Legal Services Locator
- VA: Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (SGLI)
- VA Life Insurance: SGLI Increase to $500,000 FAQs
- VA: VA Form 29-380, Application for Protection of Commercial Life Insurance Policy
- VA Office of General Counsel: Accreditation Search
- Minnesota Statutes, section 190.055 (Protections)
- Minnesota Statutes, section 190.05 (Definitions)