They don’t get copies of what they sign. Legal services attorneys’ clients say they had no idea they were signing mortgages. This is not disclosed during the sales pitches but appears in the fine print of the contract and only the signature pages are shown the homeowners. The documents the homeowners sign in Pennsylvania include a mortgage that is recorded to allow MV Realty to enforce the contract’s terms.
When successful with its sales pitch, MV Realty then sends a notary to the house and has the owners sign a Homeowner Benefit Agreement which contains terms that are very different from the deal MV Realty sells over the phone. MV Realty promises that there are no risks to homeowners because they pay nothing to MV Realty unless they sell their homes. People also refer their neighbors to MV Realty for cash bonuses. The homeowners receive a few hundred dollars payment for signing up. MV Realty representatives call homeowners and make a telephone sales pitch for their Homeowner Benefit Program, a simple promise that the homeowner will allow MV Realty to list their home if they sell anytime in the next forty years. What is MV Realty? They are a Florida real estate firm that has expanded its operations to Pennsylvania and over 30 other states. The Attorney General’s office has recently brought a lawsuit against MV Realty alleging that its practices violate PA Law.
While the law enforcement members could not share details, they made it clear they were definitely looking into MV Realty’s practices and agreed to refer cases to each other. The risk posed to Pennsylvania homeowners by MV Realty was raised at a meeting last April by Philadelphia Commissioner of Records James Leonard. The Department of Records had become aware of a second mortgage scam affecting Philadelphia homeowners. There was a lot of interest in the issue at the meeting and subsequent meetings among the stakeholders from the Attorney General’s Office and the District Attorney’s office, and legal services attorneys who had clients with complaints against MV Realty. The robust discussions about MV Realty’s tactics and resulting actions are an excellent example of the benefits of the Task Force’s stakeholders meetings. This task force is an opportunity to bring together stakeholders to brainstorm ideas and share expertise. RHLS Senior Counsel Judy Berkman leads a Fraudulent Conveyance Task Force which operates under the auspices of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Task Force Members include the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Records, Law Department, District Attorney’s Office, Police Department, the Register of Wills (ROW), and other City Departments. Other stakeholders range from state and local elected representatives and government officials, to private and public interest attorneys, notaries, and representatives from title insurance companies and community organizations.
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