What Is a Military Clause in a Lease for a Rental Home?
A "military clause" in a lease for a rental home is a clause that essentially says, "If the tenant receives military PCS orders, the tenant is not breaking the lease to give 30 days' notice to the landlord." You'll want to check with your local property manager regarding language typically used in your town and regarding the typical number of days' notice. Near Camp Pendleton, you can call Frank Delzompo, my husband and broker-owner of Sand to Sea Properties, at 951-326-7330 for the most up-to-date information on wording of the clause and related details.
Let's break this down a little more:
PCS orders are "Permanent Change of Station" orders. These orders are issued by the US military to service members for the military member to move permanently (until other orders move the military member or family again, of course!).
What about orders to go to school somewhere for some weeks or months? Orders that do not change the "permanent" station of the service member, but only send him or her somewhere temporarily are not "PCS orders." So, on that technicality, if the service member gave the landlord notice that he or she was going to move and stop paying rent short of the full term of the lease, the service member would be breaking the lease.
If a tenant is breaking the lease or leaving pursuant to a military clause, the tenant has certain obligations both under the written terms of the lease and under the duty of good faith and fair dealing which underlies contracts. For example, the tenant should give sufficient written notice of when the tenant will be out and the home will be ready for the landlord or property manager to inspect it and determine what if any repairs need to be made and the security deposit reduced accordingly. What repairs are allowed to be paid out of the security deposit is a good topic for another blog post; it is too complicated to add here. If you have questions on that, feel free to call Frank Delzompo, 951-326-7330 for a free consultation.
It should be noted that the security deposit is NOT to be used by the tenant or landlord as the last month's rent, because the security deposit is defined as a deposit being held in trust by the landlord to be returned only if the tenant leaves the home in a condition that requires no repair, etc.
All of this being said, the landlord should consider the tenant's situation in full, with an eye to fairness, as a judge would later if it went to court: is the servicemember being sent to a school for six months and his wife is pregnant and plans to go spend the time with her family? There are lots of scenarios to spin; the bottom line is knowing how the Military Clause works both technically and in practice, making the landlord and/or property manager make decisions based on the law both in theory and in practice. If you want an experienced property manager in the areas near Southern California military bases like Camp Pendleton, you've found a great one in my husband, Frank Delzompo, 951-326-7330.
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