COMPANY AGREED TO SETTLE CASE FOR $74,087
The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that a management company had agreed to pay $74,087 to settle claims that it had violated federal law by charging fees to nine servicemembers who wanted to prematurely terminate their residential leases after they received military orders requiring that they relocate. Under the consent order, the company agreed to pay a total of $51,587 to the servicemembers and a $22,500 civil penalty to the United States. (Among other things, the company must also institute new policies and procedures consistent with federal law.)
In a written statement, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, noted that, “The right for servicemembers to terminate leases without penalty when military orders send them elsewhere is a critical protection for people who already sacrifice so much …. The Justice Department will continue to enforce federal civil rights laws to ensure that paying rent for housing they no longer need is not another sacrifice servicemembers must bear.”
That definitely terminated that.
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