OLYMPIA, Wash. – Greystar, a large national property management company, has settled with the Washington Attorney General’s Office (AGO) over allegations of charging illegal housing fees to military service members, the AGO said in a press release.
The agreement comes after the U.S. Department of Justice reached a $1.4 million settlement with Greystar. The settlement prevents the company from charging illegal early lease termination fees to service members in the future.
Greystar will also remove negative credit marks from service members’ reports and pay $50,000 to the Attorney General’s Office for future enforcement of the Service Members’ Civil Relief Act (SCRA), according to the AGO.
“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 servicemembers should have to worry about when getting ready to deploy is going through the fine print of their lease.””
Both the DOJ and the Washington Attorney General’s Office investigated Greystar for using software that charged illegal fees to service members who had to break leases due to military orders. Federal and state laws protect service members from these financial penalties.
Under the DOJ agreement, Greystar will offer restitution to affected service members dating back to July 2018. Those who paid unlawful fees will receive triple the amount, while those charged but unpaid will also receive restitution.
The AGO said Greystar has set aside $1.4 million for nationwide restitution and is conducting an audit to identify affected service members.
This settlement follows a similar agreement last month with Olympic Management Company, where the company agreed to refund more than $46,000 to service members unfairly charged, AGO added in the release.
