My chain of command just announced that they're going to inspect on and off-post housing. What are they allow to inspect?

You could have fun with it. Especially if you have a spare room. Put something really weird, but otherwise legal, in the room. Like a shrine with candles, incense and a picture of Ernest Borgnine, some random admiral or one of the people doing the inspection. Get the kids on board and have them refer to the inspector as "the chosen one."

When I was a young PFC living in Germany. I got tired of the Barracks and moved out. I still maintained an area in the barracks. My supervisor (E7)came over with a six pack. He told me he was supposed to inspect my off post quarters for health and safety reasons. We sat down at the kitchen table had a beer and he left.

If it’s your own property, or you rent from a private property owner they can’t inspect anything other than what they can see from the public roadway or sidewalk. The Army is part of the government is restricted from 4th Amendment from searching or entering your home. I would respectfully tell them no and to get a search warrant from a civilian judge (which will not likely happen). Remember Commanders only have search or inspection authority within their own company area, battalion area, installation etc.. Do what you want but I wouldn’t let them in my house.

My suggestion is to have your wife tell them they cannot enter if you do not want them to come in. I had a command try this. My wife said hell no. The tried to justify it saying he military paid BAH so they were entitled to inspect. She said she wanted a search warrant or police there also. And she would be at the JAG office at 0730. They left and never came back. No right to be in off post housing.

It seems like everybody’s missing an important point about this question. No commander in his right mind would go charging into your private home off base. There’s a huge breakdown of communication between whoever is setting up these inspections and the people that they are going to be inspecting. Most likely it is a morale and welfare type inspection and it’s purely voluntarily on the other hand if it’s some real search and seizure type thing that they will have all the vehicle search warrants that they need in either case someone’s not talking to somebody and someone’s not explaining everything to everybody.

Tell them to pound sand, or your wife said no fucking way.

No need for me to answer this one. JP4 and two of the other SFCs answered it perfectly. I will say that I've had this happen to me as well. And it was to make sure that I wasn't living foul. Terrible living conditions can easily hinder a trooper's mission readiness. And in this day and age where anything can pop off at a moment's notice & your unit gets the call, one trooper's absence can mean disaster for the mission.

I doubt they have any right to access your property. In my day they would have been met at the door with my .45 and escorted on my property.

I agree with SFC Jayson Boyd below. They cannot enter your off post residence any more than a landlord can if you rent. Your permission is required. On post is the property of the U.S. Government they have full authority over that. I once had a 1st Sgt demand my license and keys to my car which I turned over to him. The JAG came down on him pretty hard because that is private property. He had to give them back but could and did, suspend my post driving privileges. Fortunately I had a second car he did know know about so it was no problem. I just made sure I parked it where I wouldn't be seen entering or leaving it.

As this has happened to me long ago I sought legal advice at the time. Off post and on post privatized housing (basically everything but barracks) are not subject to searches by the chain of command. They can knock on the door and ask permission to enter. You have no obligation to let them in.

On post housing does not require police/warrants; but it does require a member of staff from the privatized housing company as an escort.

My First Question is does the Government own or lease these off post housing ?
if the answer is yes, then the answer to your Question is yes, your command can enter and inspect your house, with a proper notice.

if the Answer is no,
then the Command has no Authority to enter you home, without your Permission.

so I would do Few things,
first for your Dog Safety, make sure you have the proper size Dog Crate, for your Dog.
Especially if your Dog is not Currently People Friendly.

Secondly I would get The Dog Trained, I would make sure My dog Listen to my commands , for His or Her Safety .
If you cannot teach the Dog to become People Friendly, I Recommend you Hire a Dog Trainer to teach your dog to become people Friendly, this will save your Dog life.

If you do not do these things, and your Dog does not become people friendly, it only a matter of time before the Dog will hurt someone or worse a Child, then you will be court ordered by a judge to have the family dog killed or the court order kind words, (put down for public safety.)

Your House Should Always be Clean , Clutter is ok, you have a family living there, but it should be clean, if the Command is just ensuring that the person you are renting from is not a slum lord.

Your Command is not doing a housing inspection on you per say, they are making sure your landlord is not a SLUM LORD, that your Land Lord Is nit just taking your money, and Forcing you to live in Sub standard Housing, taking your hard earn cash and not making any repairs to the home, ie: not fixing the roof, or hot water heater, central AIR & Heat, and so on.

your command is not doing a Housing inspection on you , so you should have nothing to fear, unless you are the ones destroying the home, allowing your Dog to piss and shit all over the House and not clean it up, living in complete filth . then they will say something to you and your wife.

We had to do this many years ago at Fort Lewis. Mostly it was for off-post housing to check the maintenance and living conditions of younger soldiers. As has been pointed out, it was announced and the chain of command explained why this was being done and told soldiers they did have the right to refuse entrance to their housing. Most let the NCOs in. Mine didn't have an issue with it, as I already stopped by to talk to my soldiers, drop them off after work, pick them up for weekend details, etc. I have always known where my soldiers lived, on-post, off-post, and in the barracks. Call me old school, but that was part of the leader relationship I formed with my soldiers and their families.

WHAT!!! Another incompetent COMMANDER. It appears when Officers reach a certain rank, their BRAINS disappear. I believe this one has reached his "Peter Principle". The Peter Principle that members of a hierarchy are promoted until they reach the level at which they are no longer competent.

When I was in the military (a few million years ago), some base housing is off-base (or off-post). That may be the housing that they are referring to. Since they have informed you, that qualifies as the "landlord" giving you notice to inspect, which is the law in most states.

Easy answer. Nothing unless you let them. Otherwise they need a search warrant. Open and shut matter.

My last unit floated that idea numerous times. And I told them straight out without a warrant they are not going in my house.

If you own that home off post they can't come past the front door without your permission.

While I see this question is a bit old, it popped up in my notifications and after skimming a number of comments, I’d like to add another perspective that I’m disappointed to not be seeing.

First question on these things should be to ask what the intent/purpose is. It may very well have been misinterpreted or misconstrued somewhere along the chain.

Sometimes these very “inspections” are sincerely intended as leader engagement, to simply take a quick glance at the general conditions Soldiers (and Families) are living in but also to ensure leaders/units actually know WHERE a Soldier lives. Essentially a check and confirmation of the validity of alert rosters. Emergency situations aren’t the time to discover that a unit isn’t aware a Soldier moved addresses 8 months ago and no one knew or updated records. Likewise, homes don’t need to be “inspected” to set off red flags of potential concerns. A quick stop, knock on the door, introduction to a spouse, and so on can go a long way in providing a cursory glance of the conditions, confirming an individual’s address, and simply checking in to ensure the family has a touch point with the unit.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not naive and well aware that too often these are in fact attempts by overzealous leaders to push boundaries. But not always.

Please check out your 4th Amendment rights, unless you give consent, or signed a prior consent contract you are not obligated to a search/inspection by authorities. If you have shown reasonable suspicious activity, the story would be different.

I'm curious to know if this is a new post-wide policy or just a unit policy. Generally, policy changes like this are rooted in an incident that results in a preventative policy. When I was a Company Commander I had a situation where a young private, who was livibg in the barracks, went home on leave and came back with a young bride. He coukdn't bring her to the barracks so they "crashed" at a buddy's trailor with two other soldiers living there. Not a good situation and it was brought to my attention thru his chain of command who checked-up on his living situation since he had not received permission to live off post. This was a potential disaster that was avoided but I wonder what prompted the new policy with your command?