On September 17, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that a preliminary injunction order against affiliated Florida-based realty companies (the defendants) was issued by the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles. According to the order, California alleged the defendant targeted financially vulnerable homeowners with its “Homeowner Benefit Program,” a program that promised cash payments to consumers for the right to act as the homeowners’ real estate agent if they sold their homes within the next 40 years. California alleged that in offering this program, among other things, the defendants engaged in misleading advertising and illegal telemarketing to consumers on the National Do Not Call Registry. 

In issuing the injunctive relief, the court determined the defendant’s practices, which allegedly included recording liens on homeowners’ properties without proper disclosure and using unlicensed individuals to sign real estate contracts, likely violated California’s False Advertising Law, its Unfair Competition Law, and its Real Estate Law, and found that California was more likely to suffer greater injury from the denial of the injunction than defendants would if the injunction is granted. The order requires defendants to remove liens that have been recorded on California properties within 30 days or within five days of notification from any homeowner needing the termination for a property transaction. Additionally, defendants will be prohibited from recording any new liens on the property of California homeowners related to the program and from enforcing any existing agreements with such homeowners for the duration of the litigation.