MIAMI VALLEY — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost would not answer directly Thursday when News Center 7 I-Team’s John Bedell asked whether the state would file a lawsuit against MV Realty or join another state’s legal battle against the company to look into allegations of deceptive business practices.
“We’re reviewing this and it’s a symptom of a larger problem,” Yost said. “It’s important to get it right, so I am not prepared today to give you an answer to that question, but we’re aware of the situation.”
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Yost was asked whether his office has an investigation open into Florida-based MV Realty.
“We don’t comment on the existence of investigations,” he said to Bedell.
Our I-Team, which has covered the story about MV Realty for months, has found that attorneys general in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania said they are going after the company on charges of deceptive practices. That word came after the I-Team reported Florida’s attorney general announced that office has filed suit.
“People don’t expect that a mortgage lien is going to be recorded on their property just for signing up to use a company as your real estate agent. It’s far outside the norm of industry standards,” Debra Djupman Warring, Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, said.
Attorneys general in Georgia and North Carolina have opened investigations into the company.
MV Realty is accused of locking Miami Valley homeowners into 40-year real estate contracts the homeowners have said are confusing.
As the I-Team has reported, MV Realty is doing business in 33 states, including Ohio where the I-Team found at least 600 homeowners statewide under contract with the company — and at least 146 in the Miami Valley.
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In return for quick cash, MV Realty agreements bind homeowners