Embattled real estate company MV Realty has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the 33 states in which it operates.
KIRO 7 has been investigating the company for more than year, which eventually led to lawsuits filed by attorneys general in six states for fraudulent and deceptive business practices.
The company pays consumers as low as $300 for the exclusive right to sell their homes for 40 years. The catch: if you didn’t use them to sell your house, you would be hit with a big penalty -- 3% of the value of your home.
After a series of investigations from KIRO 7′s Jesse Jones, Washington state passed a law cutting the length of these kinds of deals to five years.
The question is, what does this mean for the hundreds of people in Washington who have MV Realty contracts?
First, Chapter 11 is reorganization, so the company isn’t going away -- they just want to present a plan to a judge on how they will pay their debts. That means things won’t really change immediately.
In total, 16 states have laws curbing the kind of contracts MV Realty writes.
You can hear more about what this means for existing MV Realty customers today on KIRO 7 at 5:30 p.m.
BACKGROUND ON MV REALTY:
- Company accused of misleading homeowners into signing 40-year listing deals now facing legal trouble
- Mother falls victim to MV Realty after dying son signs contract
- Former MV Realty employee explains how company used ‘deceptive’ robocalls to target homeowners
- Florida Attorney General asks court to freeze MV Realty assets