CARLISLE — At least one MV Realty customer has questions after the company said it is stopping entering into new agreements.
The realty company has been accused of swindling homeowners into 40-year-old liens across the country, including here in the Miami Valley.
In a statement to the I-Team Tuesday, a company spokesperson said, “MV Realty has voluntarily temporarily suspended entering into new customers contracts as we work to address the concerns raised by regulators and legislators. The Company remains confident that the Homeowner Benefit Program fully complies with the law and benefits consumers who receive a cash incentive to select MV Realty as their listing agent.”
Debbie Chasteen, of Carlisle, has been a MV Realty customer since June. She said the move by the company is not helping those who have already entered into contracts with them.
“They need to go back and make them do something with the old contracts also,” Chasteen said.
Earlier this month, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued the company, making Ohio the fourth state to do so. Ohio’s lawsuit aims to halt new MV Realty agreements and is the only lawsuit that doesn’t mention existing deals.
The Ohio AG’s office did not give the I-Team a direct answer when we asked what their legal action means for more than 700 Ohioans just like Chasteen, who have already signed contracts with the company.
“I just want the contract tore up and gotten rid of. And that’s my big concern. You know, I just want it gone. You know, it’s a lot of stress,” Chasteen said.
Chasteen said she plans to reach out to the Ohio AG’s office to file a consumer complaint about MV Realty. She also said she has reached out to the Florida AG.
The I-Team spoke with Sarah Mancini, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, about MV’s decision to halt entering into new agreements.
“To see legal challenges being brought by multiple state attorneys general and all of the attention on their practices, it seems like the company is reacting by saying we better stop and and allow these things to play out and see which way it’s going to go,” Mancini said.
She called the move to halt new agreements a “huge win for consumers.”
“I think it’s a huge win for consumers to have this business practice stop because there are so, so many problems with it and so many people that have not understood what they were getting into,” Mancini said.
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