A Jacksonville-based property management firm is set to reimburse military personnel after unlawfully charging them early exit fees following military transfer orders, as declared by the United States Department of Justice in a press statement on Monday.

The Justice Department revealed it reached a settlement with JWB Property Management over infractions of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), a law that grants active-duty service members specific legal and financial rights during their service deployments.

According to the DOJ, JWB Property Management demanded early termination charges from six military members who tried to break their leases due to transfer orders. These charges were applied between March 2022 and August 2023, as mentioned by officials.

“Our military families already shoulder the burden of military-ordered moves and deployments,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We will not allow them to be penalized by landlords for answering the call of duty for service.”

As a result of a settlement agreement, JWB Property Management will be required to pay more than $39,000 in compensation to impacted service members and a $25,000 civil penalty. The DOJ said the company will also be ordered to make changes to its policies and training to ensure it complies with the SCRA moving forward.

JWB Property Management provided the following statement to First Coast News: 

“JWB Property Management takes special care to serve our military and veteran residents with the respect they deserve. JWB identified administrative errors within our system that could have led to incorrect fees for a small group of military residents – this impacted fewer than 1% of our military move-outs. JWB quickly reversed and remedied these issues before any deposit refunds were incorrectly charged. We have since updated our internal processes to ensure these errors do not happen again. JWB remains fully committed to compliance across all aspects of our residential leasing and operations including in our military- and veterans-focused programs that include no fee applications and our philanthropic commitment to veterans through K9s for Warriors,” President of JWB Real Estate Companies Alex Sifakis said.

Service members and their dependents who believe that their rights under the SCRA may have been violated are asked to contact the nearest Armed Forces Legal Assistance Program Office. Office locations can be found at legalassistance.law.af.mil.

This story was updated to add a statement from JWB Property Management.