Viewers frequently contact NBC 5 Responds with questions about lease agreements -- usually they want to know how to get out of one.
If you need to get out of your lease, there's one situation where you nearly always have the protection of federal law -- if you're a member of the military facing deployment. So when one military family couldn't get out of dad's lease, they called NBC 5 Responds.
Since Saturday, April 23, Lori Wroblewski and her children have been going it alone. On that day her husband, Kyle, was deployed.
Kyle can't use his leased mobile phone overseas, so Lori tried to turn it in under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. SCRA is a federal law that mandates, among other things, that servicemen and women be able to terminate a lease when they're deployed.
The couple was leasing the phone through Citizens Bank, whose employees told her she couldn't get out of the lease.
"I'm not covered under the Servicemen [Civil] Relief Act. I'm a spouse. Even though it's his phone and a joint account and our money. I'm not covered."
Here's the complication. Lori said she signed the paperwork for her husband's phone.
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"They're telling me that because I signed for the phone that day, it's technically in my name and they can't do anything about it," said Wroblewski.
Over the rest of the 24 month contract, the couple would pay almost $630. That amount of money worries the military wife and full-time college student. It's money she'd rather use caring for the home front as her husband serves a world away.
Citizens Bank declined to comment, citing customer privacy. But the day after NBC 5 reached out to the bank, a representative contacted Lori. He told her if she returned the phone, they would end the lease agreement at no cost. Her cell phone provider is also waiving her bill for two months, saving her $660.
If you're being deployed, you have other protections under SCRA. For example, service members are protected from home foreclosure and can terminate a home or car lease. Click here to learn about other SCRA protections under the law.
