A St. Petersburg property management company is handing over $60,000 to settle a federal lawsuit after a Navy sailor was wrongfully evicted while serving across the country.
The Justice Department announced the deal with Rental Marketing Solutions, LLC (RMS) today, marking the largest payout ever secured for a single servicemember over a falsified military service affidavit.
The trouble started when RMS filed an eviction against the sailor for a property he hadn’t actually lived in for years.
At the time, he was stationed on the USS Nimitz in Bremerton, Washington. Federal law, specifically the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), requires landlords to file a truthful affidavit about a tenant’s military status before getting a default judgment.
This ensures that active-duty personnel don’t lose their homes or legal rights while deployed. Instead, RMS claimed the sailor wasn’t in the military.
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The fallout was immediate and messy. With a fresh eviction on his record, the sailor was rejected by more than a dozen landlords. He ended up sleeping in temporary housing and on a berthed ship with no heat for four months, while his wife had to move back in with her parents in another state.
“Protecting the civil rights of our servicemembers is a top priority for the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” said U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe. He noted that no member of the military should have their record tarnished or be denied housing because of a false statement in court. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon echoed that sentiment, calling the situation “unacceptable” and highlighting the “significant consequences” the couple faced.
Under the terms of the settlement, RMS isn’t just paying the $60,000 in compensation. They also have to cover ten years of credit monitoring for the sailor, pay a $6,000 civil penalty, and overhaul their internal policies to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Since 2011, the Justice Department has clawed back nearly $490 million for over 150,000 servicemembers in similar cases. Military members who think their rights have been stepped on are encouraged to reach out to their local Armed Forces Legal Assistance office.
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