<prompt> Human: Ill make it as short as possible: I am planning on joining the military and was expecting to get a ship date about a month ago. My apartment lease ended in April, and I ended up going to a month-to-month contract because my landlord said I would have to pay a lease cancellation fee equal to one months rent if I signed a new lease then broke it even if it was because of the military. This didnt seem correct to me, so I asked her to double check with the property manager and she confirmed that would be the case. My rent increased by about 300month because of this and is going to increase 100 next month and every 2 months due to increases in market rates. I wont be able to pay rent if this keeps up, so I wanted to see if there are legal protections for people cancelling leases due to military orders. It would take me about 4 months to break even extra rent vs cancellation fee, but if I dont have to pay the fee it would make no sense to not sign a new lease. EDIT: Thanks for the advice everybody. Looks like I cannot be charged a fee but still have to give 30 days of notice and pay the associated rent regardless of a month-to-month contract or a lease. My landlord says shes fine with letting me sign a lease so Im going to do that and save some dough.  <response>: News to me, but it looks like there are legal protections for you. 