I received a notice yesterday from a law firm that specializes in class action lawsuits. This suit was against Coldwell Banker for “breeching their fiduciary duties” by charging bogus fees with titles such as “transaction coordinator fee” or “documentation compliance fee”.
CB is not admitting wrongdoing but will settle this to avoid future expenses. The payout per client who can provide proper documentation is $200. I believe this is the tip of the iceberg and other brokerages as well as appraisal companies and especially mortgage brokers will be next…
thoughts?
Critter
PS Not to mention people who specialize in granite tile and stainless steel appliances!
I think we’ll see lawsuits against builders, NAR, CAR, and realty companies for exaggerating the profits to be made (“real estate can’t go down”), title and escrow companies, builders for shoddy construction. Buyers who were fooled by builder salespeople who hid the available lots on a separate sales sheet, broken promises of schools/shops downtown,…
The largest lawsuits will be against lenders for not properly disclosing the loan terms.
Then there will be lots of surprises. Who would have guessed Enron and MCI would ever be in the hot seat? How many homebuilders violated SEC or options rules, despite just building cheaply and exaggerating/hiding their losses? It will take several years to hear the biggest cases.
Can Critter please tell me the name of the law firm handling the class-action lawsuit? I received a letter from them about the suit and then promptly misplaced it. I’d like to contact them and ask for another letter to be sent. Thanks.:)
I can, PasFlyer. It is http://www.gilardi.com. Look under Shrestha vs. NRT instead of Coldwell Banker. You can call the 800# for a claims packet – I tried to get the documentation off their website but hit a snag.
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