The Washington Attorney General’s Office says it’s stepping in to resolve issues with a property management company that’s allegedly been illegally charging military service members.
Property management company Greystar was accused of using software that illegally charged service members for terminating their housing leases early to fulfill military orders.
In June, Greystar agreed to pay $1.4 million in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a release from the Washington AG’s Office.
The company was accused of charging those fees since July 2018.
Service members are protected from early lease termination fees under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA).
This allows service members to exit their leases early if they give written notice and copies of their military orders.
“Military service by its nature is disruptive enough—whether it’s someone being deployed to dangerous assignments or uprooting their whole family for new assignments around the country. It’s why we have laws that mitigate those challenges to help them serve the public,” Attorney General Nick Brown said.
“The last thing service members should have to worry about when getting ready to deploy is going through the fine print of their lease.”
In August, the AGO also settled with another company, Olympic Management Company, which was charging service members for breaking their leases early.
Olympic was required to pay $46,000 in refunds to the service member they had wrongly charged.