The Pentagon office that runs military household-goods moves could become a full Defense Department agency before the end of the year, its commander said, after a year in which it cleared a backlog of 18,000 shipments and gave families more time to file damage claims.
“I can’t make promises, but I think probably sometime this year we will officially be an agency,” Army Maj. Gen. Lance Curtis, commander of the Personal Property Activity, said Oct. 13 at a forum during the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting in Washington, Stars and Stripes reported.
The Personal Property Activity handles about 300,000 moves a year. Curtis said it would be structured like the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Information Systems Agency, which run department-wide services.
For service members facing a permanent change of station, or PCS, move next year, here is what has changed and what you need to do if something goes wrong.
Why the Pentagon took over moving
Military moves have been a sore point for years: damaged furniture, late pickups, shipments that took months to arrive and claims that dragged on.
The Pentagon ended its Global Household Goods Contract with HomeSafe Alliance in June 2025. In January 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo creating the Personal Property Activity, based at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, to take over oversight of moves from U.S. Transportation Command, Military Times reported. It reports to Hegseth through the under secretary for acquisition and sustainment. Base shipping offices stayed in place but now report to the new organization.
If the process fails, “our job is to correct it and make it right, not deny that it happened,” Hegseth said.
Curtis, who led the Pentagon’s earlier PCS task force, said moving problems hit readiness. “When our warfighters are worried about their household goods, they aren’t focused on their mission,” he said, according to Military Times.
The office was told to stand up by May 1 and be fully operational within a year, Military Times reported. It was expected to add about 120 staff and had an operating budget of about $27 million to manage what officials described as a $3 billion program, Breaking Defense reported.
What has changed for families
“As we looked at the problem, we realized there were some serious deficiencies,” Curtis said at AUSA. Since then, according to Curtis:
- A backlog of 18,000 shipments has been cleared
- A central operations center and call center have been set up
- The booking window has been extended by 48 days
- The deadline to file a damage claim has been extended from nine months to one year
- Dependents can now file claims
Earlier this year, the peak-season booking window opened March 20, a month earlier than before, and moving companies’ rates were made more competitive, a Pentagon spokesman told Military Times.
The office also launched a website, ppa.mil, on May 1. A transportation specialist at Fort Knox called it “a one-stop shop” and urged soldiers to contact their local transportation office first. “Come to us first,” she said, according to the Army.
If your stuff is damaged: the deadlines that matter
The claim rules depend on when your shipment was picked up. These come from the Personal Property Activity’s claims guide.
| Step | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Notify the moving company of loss or damage | Within 180 days of delivery |
| File an itemized claim in DPS (pickup on or before May 14, 2026) | Within 9 months of delivery |
| File an itemized claim in DPS (pickup on or after May 15, 2026) | Within 12 months of delivery |
| Report damage to essential items or to your home | Within 7 days |
| Report damage to a shipped car (to the vehicle contractor) | Within 10 business days of pickup |
| Transfer a disputed claim to your Military Claims Office | Within 2 years of delivery |
The 180-day notice is “the most critical deadline,” the guide says. Missing it limits your options. Claims filed after the itemized-claim deadline are paid only at depreciated value, not full replacement cost.
How long the moving company has to respond
Once you file, the moving company has 15 days to acknowledge your claim. It then has 30 days to pay, deny or make an offer on claims of $1,000 or less, and 60 days on claims over $1,000. You can make a counteroffer in the Defense Personal Property System, or DPS, the guide says.
Inconvenience claims
If your household goods arrive late and you’re stuck paying for meals and lodging, you may be able to file an inconvenience claim against the moving company. For shipments picked up on or after May 15, 2026, the per diem includes 75% of the meals-and-incidentals rate for each authorized dependent traveling with you, according to the guide. The company must acknowledge the form within five business days.
How to file a claim
- Write down everything that’s damaged or missing at delivery, on the delivery paperwork if you can.
- Send the moving company notice of loss or damage within 180 days of delivery.
- Log in to DPS through the “Log in to DPS” button on ppa.mil and file an itemized claim with photos, receipts and repair estimates.
- If you can’t reach a fair settlement, transfer the claim to your service’s Military Claims Office within two years of delivery.
Military Claims Office phone numbers
- Army: 301-677-9347
- Navy and Marine Corps: 888-897-8217
- Air Force and Space Force: 937-656-8398
- Coast Guard: 757-628-4212
Numbers are listed on the Personal Property Activity’s claims page.
Why it matters beyond the boxes
Moving problems can be more than an annoyance. A 2023 external Pentagon committee linked PCS moves, especially late reimbursement of moving costs, to financial stress tied to suicide risk, Stars and Stripes reported. The Government Accountability Office recommended last year that the Pentagon overhaul the payment system behind moves.
The office plans to build out the modules of its MilMove software over the next three years. “Our current system is going to time out — it’s just aged,” Curtis said, according to Breaking Defense.
Katherine Kuzminski of the Center for a New American Security said the decision to create a permanent office “sends a good and strong signal,” Breaking Defense reported.
Agency status is Curtis’s estimate, not a set date. The Personal Property Activity is due to reach full operational capability around May 2027, a year after it stood up.
Official links
Sources
- Stars and Stripes: New agency for PCS moves
- Military Times: Hegseth puts more muscle into fixing troops’ household goods moves
- Breaking Defense: Pentagon creates permanent PCS agency
- U.S. Army: New Personal Property Activity website
Photo: brownpau via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
