Brittany Loy and her soldier husband were moving out of The Villages at Fort Moore , Georgia, this spring as they headed to a new posting in Alaska when they found out they were on the hook for a $2,000 move-out fee. The bill included the cost to replace the air conditioning unit in the home's back yard.
An inspector reportedly found "a small piece of corrosion in the bottom corner of the unit" and blamed the deterioration on the family's male dog, Loy said. She hadn't noticed whether the damage was there when moving in and estimated that at least two other families had lived in the house during the life of the unit.
The full amount to replace it "would have required us to pay $700 out of pocket," which the one-income household "did not have," Loy said in an interview. So she contacted the Military Housing Coalition for help.
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Co-founder and CEO of the Military Housing Coalition Heather Hall said the nonprofit didn't have any marketwide data, but after her years as an advocate, she's sensing more instances of military families needing help disputing big move-out fees.
The neighborhood where the Loys lived is part of the Michaels Organization, a real estate development and management company responsible for roughly 18,000 houses at 11 military installations. A spokesperson for the Michaels Organization declined to comment on the fee in question or the company's practices when assessing move-out fees. The company has been in the news over its use of non-disclosure agreements for tenants amid heightened scrutiny over base housing conditions.
When a family lives in privatized base housing, for the most part, the service member's entire Basic Allowance for Housing goes directly to the local housing operator. In the last month in which the family lives there, the housing company typically prorates the amount for rent, then either cuts the family a check for the balance of the month or deducts money for move-out fees. The fees that the remaining BAH doesn't cover come out of the family's pocket.
Sources have previously described the process for resolving fee disputes -- which varies from base to base and company to company -- as not only "arduous" but even "frightening."
Once the Military Housing Coalition started asking questions on the Loys' behalf, the housing operator reduced the fee for the air conditioning unit to $698, Loy said -- low enough that the month's remaining BAH covered it all with some left over. In the end, the Loys got a $300 refund out of the month's BAH with the reduced air conditioning fee.
Loy said she asked The Villages at Fort Moore to provide proof that it replaced the A/C unit but had not received any such confirmation.
The Defense Department doesn't track move-out fees to know whether a given base or housing company is more likely to charge them, a spokesperson confirmed by email, adding that move-out fees "are negotiated between the individual Military Departments and [housing] companies" and that the DoD is "committed to ensuring ... fair treatment" of tenants by the housing operators.
Hall said she's never heard of a tenant successfully asserting one dispute provision that's supposed to be available to families -- the "right" to withhold rent payments during a dispute.
The rent "is supposed to go into an escrow account," Hall said, "and we've yet to see that actually happen."
Congressional Office Weighs In on Carpet Fee
Army spouse Ayanna DeCruise said the military housing office at Fort Campbell , Kentucky, initially denied her and her spouse access to the formal dispute resolution process there -- because they were "no longer a tenant" -- after being charged to replace all the carpet in the house they moved out of this year.
The Tenant Bill of Rights, a series of protections for families required by Congress in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, guarantees "access to a Military Tenant Advocate" either through a base's housing office or a military legal assistant.
DeCruise sought the help of a military attorney at the family's new post, Fort Stewart , Georgia.
When moving out of the Campbell Crossing neighborhood, DeCruise said the move-out inspection felt "very rushed and unexplained." The inspector never pointed out any carpet stains during the inspection itself, DeCruise said. However, the inspector then informed the couple they would have to pay more than $800 to replace the carpet -- and the family of six had to get from Kentucky to Fort Stewart by the next day.
The inspector told her they had a choice: Pay on the spot with a card or have the money deducted from her spouse's paycheck. They handed over their card number to the inspector.
A spokesperson for Lendlease Communities, which operates Campbell Crossing, did not address DeCruise's case in response to a query by Military.com but said the company provides residents "with as many moving resources as possible while transparently communicating the move-out process with detailed guides, educational videos and FAQs." A Campbell Crossing move-out rate guide linked in the response omitted rates for "Rolled Carpet" and "Carpet Squares," however, for which it advised residents to "See Community Office."
The Military Housing Coalition figured out that Campbell Crossing hadn't applied a formula to account for automatic depreciation of the carpet's value over time, so the family got $152 back.
Still, DeCruise isn't convinced that the carpet damage she described as spots that were "smaller than palm sized" should have put the family on the hook for replacing all the carpet in the house. Hall, from the Military Housing Coalition, said she understood that families moving out of Campbell Crossing only had to vacuum the carpets anyway and that small stains would be charged individually per "square."
The Military Housing Coalition ultimately looped in the office of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
In a letter in response to questions from McConnell's office, Fort Campbell's garrison commander, Army Col. Christopher Midberry, said a review concluded that the family had been "reasonably charged for damage to the carpet."
A constituent services manager for McConnell's office suggested that DeCruise's husband submit a complaint to the Army's inspector general.
Fort Campbell's public affairs office did not respond to a query about the case. Lendlease announced in July that it's selling its military housing portfolio of more than 40,000 homes.
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