HousingWireHousingWire
The legal department at eXp Realty and parent company eXp World Holdings is not getting any rest over the holidays. The real estate brokerage, along with several executives including eXp World Holdings CEO Glenn Sanford, eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja, COO Patrick O’Neill, and eXp General Counsel James Bramble, are facing a new suit accusing them all of engaging in fraudulent practices, conspiracy and negligence.
The suit was filed on Friday by Michael Ammann in U.S. District Court in Miami. The plaintiff is representing himself pro se.
In his filing, Ammann claims that eXp publicly advertises that its agents may not act as contractors providing home repair or renovation services on properties they represent, as doing so would be a conflict of interest.
According to the suit, despite these policies, the defendants allowed eXp agent Megan Featherston to act both as a contractor and an agent on properties she represented for the plaintiff.
The plaintiff claims that eXp’s policy states that an “Agent shall not directly or indirectly (such as through a company an Agent owns or controls), perform or complete any repairs on a property for a client, this is or is intended to become the subject of a transaction in which the agents is involved, regardless of whether the agent is a licensed contractor.”
In the filing, Ammann claims that prior to filing this stuff, he warned the defendants multiple times about Featherston’s actions, including a complaint to her managing broker Sarah Ford on May 31, a complaint with the compliance department filed on July 31, and a written notice sent to Sanford, Pareja, O’Neill and Bramble on Nov. 4, followed by a detailed affidavit sent on Nov. 18.
Ammann claims that the alleged fraudulent misrepresentation and material misrepresentations about policy enforcement and ethical compliance caused him over $700,000 in damages. Additionally, he claims that the defendants had “entered into an agreement to perpetuate fraud by suppressing investigations and failing to enforce compliance,” and that the defendants had a duty to disclose the agent’s misconduct, which they failed to carry out.
The plaintiff is demanding a jury trial, compensation for the damages he incurred, with an option of trebling the damages, and injunctive relief requiring the defendants to publicly acknowledge the agent’s alleged violations and to implement independent compliance audits for two years.
According to many legal resources, it is common for brokerages to prevent agents from acting as contractors on home sale transactions they are involved in. Activities agents may and may not engage in are typically outlined in their firm’s Independent Contractor Agreement.
eXp did not return a request for comment.
