Before a Tinker PCS, review internet, home-security and other covered service contracts for Servicemembers Civil Relief Act cancellation rights. For the ordinary relocation rule, the orders must send the servicemember away for at least 90 days to a location that does not support the contract, and the covered contract generally must predate those orders. Send the required notice and orders, specify the termination date, and track equipment returns and the final bill.
Add this review to your military relocation plan before household goods are packed. Stopping an automatic payment alone does not give the provider the statutory termination notice.
Check the contract against the covered categories
50 U.S.C. section 3956 covers specified mobile-phone, telephone, internet, multichannel video, gym or fitness, and home-security service contracts. It sets eligibility conditions rather than granting a blanket right to cancel every household subscription.
Make a list showing the account holder, service, agreement date, next billing date and the address or location where the service is used. Compare the agreement date with the date the orders were received. Ask the provider how to submit a military termination request and retain the actual contract.
The statute also has provisions for certain stop-movement circumstances and family plans. If your situation involves those provisions, a dependent’s account or another unusual arrangement, ask military legal assistance to review it. Do not assume the ordinary relocation checklist answers every eligibility question.
Send a dated request with the required information
The statute calls for written or electronic notice of termination, a copy of the orders and the date on which service is to end, delivered according to industry standards for termination notices. Keep a copy of what you submitted and evidence of delivery.
For an illustrative household leaving the Tinker area for an overseas assignment, schedule internet disconnection around the final days of occupancy. Send the documents through the provider’s verified process and request written confirmation of the effective date.
If the provider responds with a general cancellation policy, ask it to review the specific military request. Do not let the household’s last day in the home pass with nothing more than an undocumented telephone conversation.
Use the service-contract rule rather than the lease clock
Residential lease termination is addressed separately. Our guide to PCS orders and an Oklahoma rental lease concerns that housing obligation. Do not apply its rent-based timing formula to a covered home-security or internet contract.
In an April 2026 enforcement announcement involving ADT, the Justice Department addressed unlawful charges imposed on servicemembers seeking to terminate home-security services. The announcement illustrates why a company’s ordinary cancellation policy needs to be checked against the military protection.
For your own account, ask the provider to identify the basis for any proposed fee or extra billing period. Keep the disputed line item, effective date and response together for legal assistance to review. An enforcement announcement does not by itself resolve the facts of a different account.
Keep rented equipment out of the moving shipment
Section 3956 requires covered provider-owned consumer equipment to be returned no later than 10 days after disconnection. Its equipment definition addresses items rented or loaned for internet or multichannel video service, such as routers, modems and related devices.
Before packers arrive, photograph the equipment and its identifying label. Ask which items must be returned, whether a return kit is needed and how the provider will document receipt. Set those items aside with the return instructions instead of leaving them in a cabinet marked for shipment.
Keep tracking and receipts until the account is reconciled. A disconnect confirmation and an equipment-return receipt prove different things. If another household member will handle the return, make that assignment explicit before departure.
Reconcile charges and any advance-payment refund
The law prohibits an early termination charge for a qualifying termination, but it does not erase taxes or other obligations already due under the contract. Review those amounts separately from a disputed cancellation fee.
It also requires the refund of qualifying advance payments within 60 days after termination, with an exception for the remainder of the monthly or similar billing period in which termination occurs. Do not budget a refund of every unused calendar day without checking that exception.
Leave a way to receive the final statement after the move, and calendar a follow-up for an unresolved equipment charge or refund. Bring the contract, orders, notice, confirmation and bill to military legal assistance if a disagreement continues.
This is general legal information. Doug and Ronnie can help coordinate the home’s sale, purchase and possession dates through a conversation with OKC Metro Group, so service shutdowns fit the housing plan.
