How to Complete an SCRA Waiver: The Four Statutory Requirements

To complete an SCRA waiver correctly, you need a standalone written document, signed by both parties during or after your period of active-duty service, that names the specific contract or loan involved, spells out the exact Servicemembers Civil Relief Act protections you’re giving up, and is printed in at least 12-point type. Miss any of those and the waiver is void under 50 U.S.C. § 3918.¹ There’s no single government-issued form, so the document itself is usually drafted by the creditor, the landlord, or an attorney, and your job is to make sure it does what the statute requires before you sign.

Before You Sign, Know What Disappears

A waiver removes safeguards Congress specifically designed to shield military members during service. Depending on which rights the document covers, you may be surrendering:

The requirement that a creditor get a court order before foreclosing on your home or repossessing your vehicle. With a valid waiver, the creditor can skip that step.¹
The 6% annual interest cap on most debts you took out before entering service, along with the lender’s duty to forgive and refund excess interest.²
Default-judgment protections in civil lawsuits, including the plaintiff’s affidavit about your military status and the court’s appointment of counsel to represent you.³
Your right to a stay of at least 90 days in a civil case against you while you’re on active duty.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is direct about the choice: you have the right to refuse a waiver and find another lender.⁴ Completing a waiver correctly matters, but so does deciding whether you need one in the first place.

The Four Statutory Requirements

Section 3918 sets four conditions. A document that fails any one of them cannot be enforced, even if you signed it.

A Separate Written Document

For the actions that matter most — ending a lease, canceling a contract, foreclosing on a mortgage, or repossessing secured property — the waiver has to be its own instrument, not a clause tucked inside the underlying loan agreement, lease, or promissory note. A waiver paragraph buried on page 14 of a closing packet does not satisfy the statute.¹

Signed During or After Service

Both parties must execute the agreement while the servicemember is on active duty or after that service period. A waiver signed before you go on active duty cannot surrender protections that haven’t activated yet. The rule exists to stop lenders from collecting pre-signed waivers at loan origination.¹

Identification of the Specific Instrument

The document has to specify the legal instrument the waiver applies to: the particular lease, mortgage, or loan. If the servicemember is not personally a party to that instrument (a spouse’s contract, for example), the waiver also has to name the servicemember. Blanket language surrendering “all SCRA rights” without tying the waiver to a specific obligation is not what the statute contemplates.¹

12-Point Type or Larger

Any written waiver covering a contract, lease, or similar legal instrument must be printed in at least 12-point type. Even though the waiver stands alone, Congress didn’t want that stand-alone document to itself be unreadable.¹

These four rules apply whenever the waiver relates to modifying, terminating, or canceling a contract, lease, bailment, or secured obligation, or to repossessing, foreclosing, selling, or otherwise taking possession of property that serves as security or was acquired under such an instrument.¹

What the Waiver Must Say

There is no official government template. Creditors, landlords, and attorneys use their own forms. Stateside Legal, a legal-aid resource for military members, offers a free interactive tool that generates a sample “Waiver of SCRA Rights & Entry of Appearance & Consent to Jurisdiction,” though it warns the output will likely need modification before use in the state court where a related case was filed.⁵

Whatever template you work from, the finished document needs to contain:

The servicemember’s full legal name, branch of service, and enough identifying information (such as a service number) to confirm active-duty status.
A precise reference to the underlying obligation. A lease at a specific address. A mortgage with a named lender and account number. An auto loan tied to a described vehicle. The statute requires the document to specify the legal instrument to which the waiver applies.¹
A specific list of the SCRA rights being surrendered: foreclosure protection, the 6% interest cap, the right to a stay of proceedings, default-judgment safeguards, or some combination. A vague reference to “all SCRA protections” invites a later challenge.
Signatures from both parties and the date. The statute requires a written agreement of the parties, so the creditor or landlord signs too.

If a lease lists two tenants and only one is a servicemember, state clearly which individual is waiving SCRA rights. Names, addresses, and account numbers should match the underlying contract exactly. Discrepancies give a court reason to question the document later.

Get a Legal Assistance Attorney to Review It

Before signing, talk to a military legal assistance attorney. The Marine Corps Statement of Understanding on SCRA rights puts it plainly: “You should consult with a Legal Assistance attorney before waiving your rights.”⁶ Stateside Legal’s interactive waiver tool goes further, stating that to use the resource “you must first speak with a Special Attorney that should be made available to you upon request.”⁵

Every military installation has a legal assistance office. The Armed Forces Legal Assistance website at legalassistance.law.af.mil maintains a locator for the nearest one. These attorneys can review the proposed waiver, confirm whether the protections you’d lose actually matter in your situation, and catch defects before you sign. The consultation costs nothing.

Sign, Notarize, and Deliver

After you and an attorney have reviewed the document, sign it in front of a notary public. Section 3918 does not explicitly require notarization, but Stateside Legal’s instructions direct servicemembers to sign in front of a notary, and most creditors and courts expect it; a notarized signature is far harder to dispute later.⁵ Military installations typically offer free notary services through the legal assistance office or the installation’s administrative offices.

Send the signed original to the opposing party or their attorney. If you mail a physical copy, use certified mail with a return receipt so you have proof of delivery. Many lenders also accept documents through secure upload portals. Keep a copy for your own records. Stateside Legal’s process is straightforward: print the form, sign before a notary, make copies, and send the original with any attachments to the other party.⁵

Once the creditor or landlord has the waiver, they will typically review it against § 3918 before proceeding. If you don’t get written confirmation within a reasonable period, contact the institution’s compliance department to verify the waiver was accepted and applied to your account.

If Something Went Wrong at Signing

A waiver that fails any statutory requirement is unenforceable. If a creditor pressured you into signing before your service period began, embedded the waiver language inside a larger contract, printed it in type smaller than 12 point, or failed to identify the specific obligation, you have grounds to challenge it. Coercion or duress at signing — for example, a lender threatening immediate repossession unless you waived on the spot — can void the document on general contract-law principles as well, regardless of § 3918’s formatting rules.

Timing matters. The sooner a defective waiver is challenged, the easier it is to stop the creditor from acting on it. Contact a military legal assistance attorney as soon as you suspect a problem.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3918 – Waiver of Rights Pursuant to Written Agreement
2
The United States Department of Justice. 6% Interest Rate Cap for Servicemembers on Pre-service Debts
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 US Code 3931 – Protection of Servicemembers Against Default Judgments
4
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
5
Stateside Legal. Waiver of SCRA
6
Marine Corps Recruiting Command. NAVMC 11494 – Servicemembers Civil Relief Act Advice and Statement of Understanding