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- JWB Rental Homes will pay $25,000 to settle a federal complaint alleging illegal fees charged to military tenants breaking leases due to relocation orders.
- The company will also compensate affected servicemembers $39,000.
- JWB denies wrongdoing, attributing the issue to administrative errors affecting less than 1% of military move-outs.
- The settlement avoids further legal proceedings, and JWB has updated its procedures.
Jacksonville property manager JWB Rental Homes will pay a $25,000 fine to settle a federal complaint it charged military tenants illegal fees if they broke leases when they were ordered to move, the U.S. Department of Justice said June 23.
The company, organized as JWB Property Management LLC, will also pay $39,000 to servicemembers who were charged the fees, DOJ said in an announcement about the settlement.
The government argued JWB violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a law that suspends some normal civilian requirements to let military members focus on their duties.
The company denied violating anything, however, and the settlement said the two sides agreed only “to avoid the delay, uncertainty, inconvenience and expenses of protracted legislation.”
Justice officials said bringing the case reflected the government’s support for servicemembers and their families.
“Our military families already shoulder the burden of military-ordered moves and deployments,” Harmeet K. Dhillon, said assistant attorney general over Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said in a DOJ release. “We will not allow them to be penalized by landlords for answering the call of duty for service.”
Gregory Kehoe, U.S. attorney for Florida’s Middle District, which includes Jacksonville, said in the same release that “our servicemembers make tremendous sacrifices to protect the rights and freedoms of our citizens and we will combat all forms of discrimination against them to help ensure that they are able to fulfill their military obligations.”
Times-Union news partner First Coast News quoted JWB Real Estate Companies founder and President Alex Sifakis as saying JWB “takes special care to serve our military and veteran residents with the respect they deserve.”
Sifakis said the company “identified administrative errors within our system that could have led to incorrect fees for a small group of military residents” but that they represented less than 1% of military move-outs, the station quoted Sifakis saying.
He said the company has updated its internal controls to prevent the situation happening again.
JWB Rental managed about 5,800 rental homes in Jacksonville in 2024, the Times-Union reported at that time.