The nation’s largest owner of single-family homes for rent has agreed to pay $48 million to settle claims by the Federal Trade Commission that it reaped millions of dollars via deceptive business practices, including forcing tenants to pay undisclosed fees on top of their monthly rent.
Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Invitation Homes also agreed to ensure it is clearly disclosing its leasing prices, establish procedures to handle tenant security-deposit refunds fairly and cease other unlawful practices, the FTC said Tuesday.
In the complaint, filed in federal court in Atlanta, the FTC claims that the Dallas-based company used “deceptive advertising and unfair practices” to charge millions of dollars in bogus fees that harmed tens of thousands of people.
These mandatory fees, charged for internet packages, air-filter delivery and other services, were not disclosed in the monthly rental rates that Invitation Homes advertised, the FTC claims.
All told, the company charged consumers tens of millions of dollars in junk fees as part of their monthly rental payments between 2021 and June 2023, the FTC alleges.
The agency also claims that Invitation Homes “systematically withheld” tenants’ security deposits after they moved out, unfairly charging them for normal wear-and-tear, and used “unfair eviction practices,” including starting eviction proceedings against renters who had already moved out.
The funds from the settlement, which is subject to approval by a federal judge, would go toward customer refunds.
Invitation Homes did not immediately return a request for comment.
As of June 30, the company owned or managed more than 109,000 homes across the U.S.
Shares in Invitation Homes were down 2% in afternoon trading Tuesday.
FILE - The Federal Trade Commission building on Jan. 28, 2015, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
CHICAGO (AP) — Michael Moss said he felt shame and guilt for years after he was sexually abused as a teenager by guards at a troubled Chicago juvenile detention center.
Moss, now 30, spoke publicly Tuesday about his traumatic experiences as one of hundreds of survivors who’ve filed lawsuits recounting disturbing allegations of systemic sex abuse in youth detention facilities in Illinois.
“I wouldn’t wish my situation on anybody,” he said during a news conference with about half a dozen other survivors surrounding him. “I hope that justice is granted for the pain and suffering we all went through as kids.”
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to being identified or decide to tell their stories publicly, as Moss and others who've filed lawsuits have. Most plaintiffs in the lawsuits are identified by initials.
Overall, 667 people have alleged they were sexually abused as children at youth facilities in Illinois through lawsuits filed since May. The complaints are part of a wave of similar lawsuits against juvenile detention in states including Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, California and New York.
The most recent Illinois complaints, filed Monday, detail alleged abuse from 1996 to 2021, including rape, forced oral sex and beatings by corrections officers, nurses, kitchen staff, chaplains and others. The complaints, from the accounts of 272 people, cover state-run youth juvenile detention facilities and a county-run Chicago center.
Moss said he was 17 when he was detained at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center for “a few mistakes.” He said he was soon being physically beaten and sexually abused by staff. According to his lawsuit filed Monday, two guards began to isolate him in a bathroom and his cell and forced him into sex acts on multiple occasions. One guard threatened to send him into solitary confinement if he didn’t comply.
“These abuses are horrific in nature,” said attorney Todd Mathews, whose firm has helped bring the Illinois cases. “This has to stop. It has to stop. It has to be dealt with.”
But prosecuting such cases has been difficult.
Few cases nationwide have gone to trial or resulted in settlements; arrests have been infrequent.
Attorneys said local prosecutors have enough details to start building cases and blasted state leaders in Illinois, which has stood out nationally for the sheer volume of sex abuse cases cases.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, whose office has investigated church sex abuse cases, have declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Officials with the Illinois Department of Corrections and Department of Juvenile Justice, the state agencies named in several complaints, have declined comment as have Cook County officials.
The allegations from all the lawsuits are hauntingly similar.
Many plaintiffs said their abusers threatened them with beatings, transfers to harsher facilities and longer sentences if they reported the abuse. Others were given rewards like cigarettes and food if they kept quiet. Most abusers are identified only as the survivors remembered them, including by physical descriptions, first names or nicknames.
Moss hopes to learn more through the lawsuit, including the full names of the guards he said abused him. He said even with the time that’s passed and having a family of his own, it’s still difficult for him to talk about it.
“We just hope that it doesn’t keep going on,” he said.
Attorney Todd Mathews speaks during a press conference regarding a lawsuit alleging that more than 200 men and women were sexually abused as children while in custody at juvenile detention centers in Illinois, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Attorney Jerome Block speaks during a press conference regarding a lawsuit alleging that more than 200 men and women were sexually abused as children while in custody at juvenile detention centers in Illinois, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Attorney Todd Mathews speaks during a press conference regarding a lawsuit alleging that more than 200 men and women were sexually abused as children while in custody at juvenile detention centers in Illinois, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Attorney Jerome Block speaks during a press conference regarding a lawsuit alleging that more than 200 men and women were sexually abused as children while in custody at juvenile detention centers in Illinois, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Michael Moss, 37, a victim, speaks during a press conference regarding a lawsuit alleging that more than 200 men and women were sexually abused as children while in custody at juvenile detention centers in Illinois, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
