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A Stay of Civil Proceedings, a Lease Extension for State Active Duty, and a $5,000 Penalty Behind Them
Under North Carolina’s own Servicemembers Civil Relief Act a court must stay a civil action on your application unless it finds your ability to litigate is not materially affected by service. A Guard member whose lease expires during state active duty may extend it to ten days after that duty ends. A knowing breach is an unfair or deceptive trade practice carrying up to $5,000 per violation.
Verified August 23, 2026
What this benefit is
Under North Carolina’s own Servicemembers Civil Relief Act a court must stay a civil action on your application unless it finds your ability to litigate is not materially affected by service. A Guard member whose lease expires during state active duty may extend it to ten days after that duty ends. A knowing breach is an unfair or deceptive trade practice carrying up to $5,000 per violation.
What it's worth: A mandatory stay on application, a lease extended to ten days past state active duty, and enforcement worth up to $5,000 a violation
- The stay is mandatory on application unless the court finds the servicemember’s ability to litigate is not materially affected by military service — the court may also order it on its own motion.
- The stay is available during military service and within 60 days after it terminates.
- The lease extension runs to ten days after the state active duty or equivalent service terminates, on the same terms that applied during the month before expiry.
- The $5,000 figure is the maximum civil penalty per violation the court may assess in an action brought by the Attorney General, and its clear proceeds go to the Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund. It is not a payment to the servicemember.
Who is entitled to it
- A member of the North Carolina National Guard is a servicemember under the Act.
- The stay of proceedings at §127B-31 reaches a servicemember engaged in military service.
- These protections belong to the servicemember, though someone may apply for the stay on their behalf.
- Your home is in North Carolina.
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How to claim it
Deadline: During military service, and within 60 days after it ends- 1For the stay, apply — do not wait to be offered one. The court shall stay the action on application by the servicemember, or by a person acting on their behalf, unless it finds the ability to litigate is not materially affected by military service.
- 2Watch the 60-day window. §127B-31 applies during military service and for 60 days after it terminates, so a case that lands just after a return home is still inside it.
- 3For the lease extension, check the trigger carefully: it is for a lease that EXPIRES while you are engaged in state active duty, not a lease you want to break early. That is a different section and a different answer.
- 4Give the landlord written or electronic notice. The extension runs to ten days after the state active duty terminates, and the terms during the extension are the same terms that applied during the month before the expiry.
- 5Stay current. §127B-32 applies only to servicemembers who are current on all rents and security deposits required and in good standing on the lease, and nothing in it relieves you of paying rent, fees or dues on time and in full.
- 6Do not sign the protections away. §127B-33 says the Article supersedes any agreement that reduces, limits or eliminates a right or benefit it provides.
- 7If a landlord, lender or provider breaks the Act, name the remedy: a knowing violation is an unfair or deceptive trade practice under Chapter 75, the Attorney General may seek an injunction, restitution and a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation, and you may sue in your own right for an injunction, restitution and damages, recovering attorneys’ fees and court costs if you prevail.
- 8Call the North Carolina National Guard Legal Assistance Program on (984) 664-6220 before you file anything. It is named in the Guard’s own bulletin as the office that advises on these rights.
- Form
- Application to the court for a stay; written or electronic notice to the landlord for a lease extension
- File with
- The court hearing the civil action, or your landlord
- No renewal
- Once granted it does not need renewing.
Correction§127B-32 is an extension, not an escape. It helps a Guard member whose lease runs out mid-deployment; it does nothing for someone who wants out of a lease early. Confusing the two is the commonest way this section is misread.
Worth knowingThe $5,000 civil penalty is not compensation. It goes to the Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund. The money that comes back to a servicemember is the restitution and damages under §§127B-35 and 127B-36, plus attorneys’ fees on a win.
Worth knowingThe Act deliberately reaches Guard members on state active duty of more than 30 consecutive days — the population the federal Act does not cover — and extends the same treatment to members of the National Guard of another state who live here.
Known gapChapter 50A article 3, the deployed parents custody and visitation provisions, and N.C.G.S. §50-13.7A were not read this session and are not covered here. They are recorded as a candidate.
Known gapncleg.gov refused retrieval again this session. The statutory text quoted here was read in full from the General Assembly’s own Article 4 statute PDF as republished by the UNC School of Government, and every section number and provision in it is independently corroborated by the North Carolina National Guard Staff Judge Advocate’s bulletin.
Sources
- authority · statuteN.C.G.S. §127B-31 (stay of court proceedings because of military service — the court may stay on its own motion and shall stay on application by the servicemember or a person acting on their behalf unless it finds the ability to litigate is not materially affected; applies during military service and within 60 days after it terminates), §127B-32 (eviction; penalty or fee; extension of lease — a North Carolina National Guard member, or a member of the National Guard of another state residing here, whose residential lease expires while engaged in state active duty is entitled to extend the lease to terminate 10 days after that duty terminates on written or electronic notice, on the same terms that applied during the month before expiration, and only where current on all rents and security deposits and in good standing), §127B-33 (no waiver), §127B-34 (knowing violation is an unfair or deceptive trade practice for purposes of Chapter 75), §127B-35 (Attorney General civil action; injunction, restitution and a civil penalty not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) per violation remitted to the Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund under G.S. 115C-457.2) and §127B-36 (private right of action; injunction, restitution, damages, and attorneys’ fees and court costs to a prevailing servicemember). Session Law 2019-161. Statutory text read in full this session from the General Assembly’s own Article 4 statute PDF as mirrored by the UNC School of Government, ncleg.gov having refused retrieval.
- operating · published policyNorth Carolina National Guard, Office of the Staff Judge Advocate — bulletin on the North Carolina Servicemembers Civil Relief Act: the Act allows a servicemember to stay court proceedings in civil actions (§127B-31) and to extend residential leases that expire during state active duty (§127B-32); rights may not be waived (§127B-33); a knowing violation is an unfair or deceptive trade practice (§127B-34); a violator may be sued by the NC Attorney General or the servicemember (§§127B-35, 36); the NCNG Legal Assistance Program may be reached at (984) 664-6220
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