Nevada announces settlement with predatory realty company
April Corgin Girnus
(Nevada Current) Hundreds of Nevada homeowners who fell for a predatory title scheme will be freed from those agreements.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford and the Nevada Department of Business and Industry’s Office of Consumer Affairs on Friday announced a settlement with Florida-based title company MV Realty over deceptive trade practices tied to their “homeowner benefits agreements.”
Homeowners would be lured in with an advertisement offering a “promotional fee” for allowing MV Realty to conduct a market analysis, then unwittingly sign a long-term, exclusive listing commitment. When the homeowners later attempted to sell their home and failed to list with MV Realty, they were hit with an early termination fee, typically 3% of the home’s sale price. These contracts were often for up to 40 years.
Such agreements have been dubbed by critics as non-title recorded agreements for personal service, or NTRAPS. They are also known as future-right-to-list contracts or right-to-list contracts.
Under the terms of the settlement announced Friday, all MV Realty agreements in Nevada will now be null and void.
According to the AG’s office, MV Realty entered into more than 700 of these agreements between “the beginning of 2020 through July 2023.”
During the 2023 Legislative Session, Assemblymember Heidi Kasama (R-Las Vegas) successfully championed legislation to restrict new right-to-list agreements to a length of one year. The state could not legally void existing agreements.
In legislative hearings, Kasama called out MV Realty specifically.
She told the Nevada Current in 2023 that she saw such companies as participating in deceptive trade practices: “All they talk about in big print is, ‘Should the opportunity come to sell we’d like to be able to sell your home and be your agent of choice. People go, ‘Sure.’”
Kasama could not be reached for comment on the settlement.
At least 32 states have passed legislation banning or regulating right-to-list contracts, according to the American Land Title Association, which had lobbied against such contracts in recent years.
Numerous states — including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Oregon — have successfully sued MV Realty for their deceptive trade practices. The company has paid millions of dollars in penalties and consumer restitution across the country, according to Nevada Consumer Affairs.
As part of the settlement, MV Realty will pay $200,000 in restitution to homeowners who were forced into paying early termination fees. The money will be distributed on a pro rata basis.
MV Realty did not respond to the Current’s request for comment by publication time. In 2023, the company in a statement defended their homeowner benefits agreements as “an innovative option that is first and foremost designed to benefit homeowners.”
Ford in a statement said Nevada’s settlement “will provide much-needed relief to Nevadans who fell for these harmful contractual practices that MV Realty had implemented in our state.”
Ford and Department of Business and Industry Director Kristopher Sanchez both praised the collaboration between their offices.
“This outcome reflects what strong coordination between agencies can achieve for Nevadans. Through partnership with the Attorney General’s Office, we were able to deliver real relief to impacted homeowners,” Sanchez said in a statement.