foreclosure and sailors relief act

It used to be called the Sailors Relief Act. It has been updated and it's now the Servicemen's Relief Act.

The answer to your question is based upon where the serviceman is deployed. If he is not deployed in a war zone, then foreclosure action can be initiated.

My daughter is in the middle of a divorce. Her husband is in the Air Force. Two years ago he cut off her dependent benefits. She didn't have any money and I certainly couldn't afford an attorney at the rates they charge per hour. Luckily, I'm a paralegal and I was able to direct her to someone who is helping her do it Pro Se. Anyway, she finally got a judgment from the court on her husband for over $17,000 and reinstatement of current benefits to be deposited by the military into her account. There was a lag in getting that set up by the military and the first payment got put into his pay. It was almost $10,000. He sent her $8,500 and kept the rest for himself. We didn't find out about it until we got copies of his LES statements. By then it was too late to do anything because he volunteered to go to Afghanistan. The job he does in the Air Force (emptying human waste from the lavatories on the airplanes) is not critical to the war effort, so he volunteerd to go. The reason I make that point is because even if someone is stationed in a war zone, if their job is not critical to the war effort, their command can send them back to a location that does not fall under the Servicemen's Relief Act to deal with their debt issues.

The military is starting to take a stand with their members and military members can, in extreme cases, be booted out for having bad credit. You can't have bad credit or have filed a bankruptcy to join, and they expect their members to hold to that standard.

Sorry for the lengthy discussion, but issues with the military get complicated.

I would suggest you have your friend join this site as a member so he/she can be contacted by a debt counselor.

Excellent information, Debt Fairy, thanks. But one question: a job like your former son-in-law has is one that a local in the area could do, I think. So I wonder why they even took him? Just wondering...

To escape/avoid prosecution for taking the money I'm guessing. He's in Afghanistan, so maybe they don't want locals on the base for security reasons. Stupid choice on my son-in-laws part. He's not permanently deployed and will be back in February. He'll have a very big surprise waiting when he comes back -- Contempt of Court charges. The court commissioner is getting irritated with this case. My (still current) son-in-law filed the divorce petition and has done nothing to pursue it, leaving my daughter to do everything Pro Se. He has his mother look for an attorney for him and all she could come with is someone who is suffering from bi-polar disorder and alchoholism and was disbarred twice before. She currently has 6 new complaints against her with the Bar Association and I'm hoping that this time she will be gone for good. She has done nothing for him on this case except to appear unprepared at a hearing last May. She won't even correspond with us.

Their is misconception about this SRA. Yes if the person you are talking about is in a overseas area then yes he can see JAG and get a letter out and have the forecloser halted for sometime (not sure how long).

Also, if the service member accuried the debt (credit cards or anything) after joining the military then the SRA does not apply.

There is a lot of lack of understanding of how the SRA works from a civilian standpoint. For instance, whenever a creditor attempts to pursue a claim against someone, they simply check online to see if that person is active duty military. They don't check to see when that person enlisted and that makes a difference as to whether they can pursue the claim against. My son-in-law has a CU that wants to pursue him for an OD account to the tune of over $1,000. The NSF's etc. occurred before he enlisted. I informed them he where he was and once I said that he was active duty, the collector told me they were returning the file to the client as it was considered non-pursuable.

DebtFairy, I agree with you. I moved to Korea (active Army 17+ years), when I called to inform my creditors of my new address all of them asked me if I knew about SRA? I said yes and they all asked me to send them my orders. I now enjoy 6% on all my credit cards.

You just have to be careful, some may accept it and some may not.

If you claim SRA and it goes to court, and the debt was accured while active then you have nothing to stand on.

My situation, or I should say my daughter's is a little unique. Her husband is active AF. He filed the divorce papers but did nothing to pursue the matter and virtually left her to respond. He cut off her dependent benefits and so she was forced to motion the court for temporary support. The court ordered reinstatement of the benefits she was entitled to and a payment by him (not the military) of the back benefits he cut off. The whole thing totaled $17,000. He was stationed in Germany. After the court's order, he skimmed off $2,000 of the money the military reinstated (they did pay about $8,500) and then volunteered to go to Afghanistan. He's now in contempt of court for not only taking the $2,000 but not paying the remainder left from what the military didn't pay. But, because he got himself deployed to Afghanistan, that kicked in the SRA (we believe) and we can't touch him. This is what we understand. JAG at Hill AFB says differently, that we can get the judgment for garnishment of the remaining amount despite him being in Afghanistan. Maybe it's because he's only temporarily deployed there and not permanently. I don't want to pursue it just because of the misconception of SRA. It would be another argument to have to win in court. He will be back in about 3 weeks and then we'll pursue from that point. He'll be very surprised when he gets back to his station and find that he's being ordered back to the US for contempt of court.

DebtFairy,

You have already done what most people will do, you can even take it further. Find out who his commander is and let him know what is going on.

There are ALOT more things he can take care of and more quickly than you think. The military does not like black eyes.

I don't think you are fully understanding what is going on? With the military that is. First he cannot just "cut" her benefits off, she has a military ID and entitilied...If she went to court that was just wrong.

Get to his commander and things will straighten out VERY FAST.

I'm willing to be this commander knows nothing of what is going on.

Also, the SRA has nothing to do with current situations....to a point....this is not one of them..

Already went to his commander. E-mailed a complaint letter to him a couple of months ago. It got handed down to his 1st Sgt. who recommended him for the temporary deployment after the judgment, knowing full well he had a civil matter that needed to be completed. It was not a mandatory deployment, it was a voluntary one.

He did cut off her benefits. He went to his command 2 years ago and told them he wanted to cut off money to his wife. His 1st Sgt. came up with the ideas that they were "legally separated". She later told us that she thought up the idea based upon a legal theory class she had taken. She must have been very convincing because a Lt. Colonel sent my daughter a letter advising that the benefits were cut off because they were legally separated based on the fact that they weren't domiciled together. That theory is flawed simply because if it were applied to every married activy duty member and their dependents, there would be no dependent benefits available to anyone whose spouse was stationed overseas while the other spouse remained stateside. Also, there is no such thing as a "legal separation" without either a court order or an agreement between the parties stating that this was the situation. Her husband stupidly believed that because they weren't together, they were "legally separated." A Lt. Colonel cut the benefits off and fixed his pay at a single rate. Also, she has had two separate incidences where suddenly her I.D. card was revoked and had to get DEERS involved with the reinstatement. He got reprimanded by DEERS, but not by his command. Her husband also cut off her medical benefits through Tri-Care temporarily until he was ordered to reinstate them. He's a real piece of work and a blight on the AF and the military in general.

As far as the SRA, I can see where it would not apply and where it would apply and I don't want to lose focus on getting this divorce completed by getting hung up on where or when something can be enforced. He will be back from Afghanistan in a few weeks and things will proceed from there.

Things have already been complained to the Pentagon about the involvement of his command, but they seem to only want to address the court ordered issues and ignore the involvement of his command, which is another sore spot with my daughter.

Her husband does not have a high security job. Whenever she tried to call to talk to him, his command always got on the line and ran interference for him and refused to let her talk to him. They were rude and disparaging and always had their personal comments to add regarding their relationship. They were also aware of an affair he was having and did their best to protect him. It was and still is a nightmare.

DebtFairy, first if you have a letter from a LTC saying that her benefits are cut off you HAVE A MAJOR LAW suit against them and get ALOT of people relieved from there command! MAKE MANY COPIES OF THAT LETTER!!!!

Benefits cannot be just taken away, they just cannot be because some 1SG thinks up some wild ass story......Takes alot more than that....again HUGE law suit.

I'm sorry but you need to take this further MUCH further. Go beyond anything you though about...

Here you go, go straight to the top http://www.dodig.osd.mil/

Put everything in writting including that letter and send it off. You WILL get a response and people WILL loose there job, if everything you said happened. Be prepared to back it up in court or what ever it comes down to.

What is happening is not good.

Sorry but military is my life and I do not like to see people getting screwed because of lack of knowledge.

Thanks so much! This site may be what we need. We filed a complaint with our Congressman's office and they contacted DFAS and addressed only those things outlined in the court order. But this will really get to the people who supported him (my son-in-law). He's coming back from Afghanistan in a couple of weeks and will be in the states on leave for about 3 weeks. This is perfect timing to get a contempt order on him. JAG at Hill AFB says it would save them a lot of paperwork if we did get it. I don't see how we can miss.