Lawsuit accuses big Tampa Bay builder of inflating home prices

KB Home, among the best selling builders in the Tampa Bay area, has been sued in Florida:

A Central Florida homeowner forced into foreclosure filed a class-action lawsuit last week against KB Home,  Countrywide Financial and LandSafe Appraisal Services, claiming the three conspired to rig housing prices in Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina, costing home purchasers millions of dollars, and fueling the collapse of the region’s housing market.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Orlando Friday, claims the three companies employed a well-planned scheme to control the typically independent appraisal process, jacking up home values, which, in turn, were used to determine the value of other homes sold by KB, affecting thousands of homeowners.

This is the third lawsuit Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro has filed against KB Home, Countrywide and LandSafe alleging a widespread and complicated inflation scheme. The other lawsuits represent homeowners in California, Arizona and Nevada.

“Since we filed the first lawsuit in May, we’ve heard from homeowners and industry insiders who have validated our conclusions that Countrywide and LandSafe were gaming the system, causing thousands of homeowners to overpay for their home purchases by tens of thousands of dollars,” said Steve Berman, managing partner of HBSS.

Berman noted that since the first suit was filed, he has heard from hundreds of homeowners, many desperate to dig out of the financial hole the suit contends KB and Countrywide put them in through the alleged scheme.

According to the 94-page complaint, Countrywide funneled all its KB customers’ home appraisals to a single person at LandSafe, an appraisal subsidiary of Countrywide, who in turn would deliver an appraisal value at whatever KB and Countrywide ordered.

The named plaintiff, Stephanie Sullivan, purchased her home in 2006 for $426,000. An appraisal conducted a year later reported her home was worth $310,000 and cited that the market was not the reason for the lower value but rather an inaccurate and fraudulent appraisal.

In 2007, Sullivan’s husband was laid off and they were unable to pay the mortgage. The Sullivans tried to work with Countrywide to modify the loan but the lending giant refused, filing a lien on the home and eventually foreclosed, pushing the Sullivans into bankruptcy.

The suit claims all KB Homes in the Southeast segment were targeted by the scheme. The complaint states between 2006 and 2008 more than 19,000 homes were delivered to the area. At an average price of $225,000 a home, and conservatively assuming an average inflated appraisal of $30,000 per home, that amounts to almost $600 million in inflated contract prices, the suit states.

UPDATE: The plot thickens. It seems the Laborers’ International Union of North America has been filing similar lawsuits against KB and other builders across the country. Its goal is to - surprise! - unionize the builders' work force. Makes you wonder if this isn't just a nuisance lawsuit.

Comments

[Frank Lee]

What - no REALTORS? I am surprised.

[Tino]

I am thinking that they also need to sue Standard & Poor's, Karl Case and Robert Shiller for developing their nefarious home price index.

How dare they calculate a statistic using open market transactions!

[Fuzzy Bear]

"Makes you wonder if this isn't just a nuisance lawsuit."

It does make a person wonder, but when I read through the tort and the mention of the following quote, it brought up more questions:

"LandSafe, an appraisal subsidiary of Countrywide, who in turn would deliver an appraisal value at whatever KB and Countrywide ordered."

As much as I am opposed to regulation, it clearly looks like the entire RE industry needs it. Independance, much like that of public auditing needs to be put into place to put the brakes on this type of unethical business activity. Realtors, appraisers, mortgage brokers and banks need to be independent of each other so that one party cannot influence the other party.

[Frank Gregoire]

As is aptly stated in the suit, LandSafe was owned by Countrywide, and this was not disclosed to borrowers. Countrywide, through their subsidiary LandSafe, made money on each and every appraisal assignment they referred to the Appraisal Management Company (AMC).

This is not an unusual arrangement. Most of the larger AMCs are owned by the larger banks; JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. What is unusual is the AMCs are not regulated in Florida. This may be corrected next year. Rep. Matt Hudson has introduced HB 303 - Regulation of Real Estate Appraisers & Appraisal Management Companies in the Florida House.

Although it remains to be seen exactly how the law might prevent the behavior alleged in the suit, there are a number of safeguards for consumers in the legislative proposal. More information and links at Appraiser Active

[James Thorner]

Thank you, Frank, for those details.