Meet The Homeowners’ Freebie So Diabolical That It Can Turn Into A Multigenerational Curse
Imagine that a fire insurance company has set up a booth outside PetSmart on a sunny day. Whether or not you buy fire insurance, they are giving away free iguanas. Florida has plenty of iguanas already, but freebies are freebies, so you take one, even though you can neither afford fire insurance nor anything worth replacing if a fire destroys it; you nod as the people at the booth tell you that you assume all responsibility for any damage caused by your new pet. Back home in your rented accommodation, your adorable iguana turns out to be a dragon. While you sleep, it breathes fire and burns down your rented duplex. You die, and during probate, your landlord and the people who gave you the iguana try to get you to pay for the damage it caused. Florida and two other states have filed lawsuits against a real estate broker that has brought homeowners to financial catastrophe with a promotional offer nearly as bad as the aforementioned fire-breathing dragon. If you are in danger of losing your house because of mind-bogglingly predatory promotional offers, contact a Plantation foreclosure defense lawyer.
Florida Sues MV Realty Over Decades-Long Financial Obligation Masquerading as a Cash Gift
Like so many Florida stories, this one begins with someone who sought fame on reality television. In 2013, Amanda Zachman, who was then known as Amanda Zuckerman, was a contestant on the reality TV show Big Brother. Later, she founded MV Realty, which operates in at least 33 states. The company is now facing lawsuits from the states of Florida, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts for its Homeowner Benefit Program, which the plaintiffs claim is a loan so predatory that, in the words of Pennsylvania attorney Kerry Smith, it “would make a loan shark blush.”
In the Homeowner Benefit Program, MV Realty gives homeowners a cash gift of $1,000. In return, the homeowner must hire MV Realty if they sell their home within the next 40 years. If homeowners hire another real estate company to sell their house, or if they list the house for sale by owner, they must pay MV Realty a penalty equivalent to six percent of the appraised value of the house. In other words, if you try to sell even a modestly priced house without MV Realty, you could end up repaying the loan at an interest rate in excess of 1,000 percent.
Worst of all, the agreement still holds true if the original homeowner dies within the 40-year period. The homeowner’s heirs must notify MV Realty, within ten days of the original homeowner’s death, whether they want to abide by the agreement or pay the penalty immediately to get out of it. Screenwriters trying to think up a scheme for a greedy capitalist supervillain only wish they could think of something like this.
Work With a Debt Lawyer to Avoid Jeopardizing Your Home Ownership
A South Florida debt lawyer can help you find a way to get access to credit without putting your home at risk. Contact Nowack & Olson, PLLC in Plantation, Florida to discuss your case.
Source:
forbes.com/sites/brandonkochkodin/2023/01/09/reality-tv-villain-meets-desperate-homeowners-three-states-are-suing-over-alleged-fast-cash-scam/?sh=40fc89384f6a
