Massachusetts AG Settles w/ Real Estate Brokerage For Allegedly Using Deceptive Notices To Bully Tenants Out Of Homes In Illegal Foreclosure Evictions

In Boston, Massachusetts, South Coast Today reports:

• A Fairhaven real estate firm must pay thousands of dollars in penalties after Attorney General Martha Coakley busted an alleged foreclosure scheme that involved attempts to force tenants out of their homes. RE/MAX Classic of Fairhaven and real estate broker Simone Schettino must provide relief and preventive measures to ensure their future compliance with state and federal consumer protection laws after reaching a settlement with Coakley's office. RE/MAX Classic did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday.

• According to Coakley's office, last spring, housing advocates unearthed a company notice given to New Bedford residents that threatened to change the locks on the property if those who lived there did not call the broker within 24 hours — a move that is illegal. The housing advocates provided Coakley's office with the document.

• Soon thereafter, similar notices sent by Schettino to Roxbury residents who were living in a foreclosed property were found by a housing and tenants' rights organization in Jamaica Plain, the Attorney General's Office said. Those notices also threatened to remove all property of the residents if the agent was not contacted.

• It is illegal to deliver notices or communicate statements to residents if the notices contain unfair or deceptive statements or threaten an illegal act. Under law, tenants with a valid lease are permitted to continue living in a foreclosed property for the term of the lease and both landlords or their brokers cannot alter the lease terms, Coakley's office said.

• Now, RE/MAX Classic must pay $2,500 up front, while another $7,500 penalty hovers over the firm should it not comply with conditions of the settlement, according to the attorney general. South Coastal Counties Legal Services(1) will receive $1,000 of the payment, while Local Consumer Aid Fund will receive $1,500. The company must also provide six free seminars that are open to the public and will provide information highlighting tenants and homeowners' rights in cases where their homes and properties face foreclosure.

Source: Real estate firm fined for foreclosure scheme.

For the Massachusetts AG press release, see AG Coakley Reaches Settlements with Real Estate Company and Broker for Serving Alleged Deceptive and Threatening Notices to Tenants of Foreclosed Properties.

(1) South Coastal Counties Legal Services is a non-profit corporation which provides free civil legal services to low-income and elderly residents in Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Nantucket, and Plymouth Counties, and the towns of Avon and Stoughton.