The state of Ohio is accusing a real-estate firm of deceiving homeowners into signing agreements that commit them to listing the home with the agency for 40 years.

According to a lawsuit filed by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, MV Realty, as part of its "Homeowner Benefit Program," offered homeowners between $300 and $5,000 as a "loan alternative" in exchange for the homeowners agreeing to list their home exclusively with MV Realty for the next four decades.

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MV Realty, based in Delray Beach, Florida, with an office in Columbus, in turn filed liens on the homeowners to secure the agreement.

"During that time, if the homeowner lists the property for sale without using MV Realty as its broker or the home is foreclosed upon, or if the homeowner’s heirs try to sell the home or the homeowner simply wants to cancel the deal, the defendants seek to be paid 3% of the property value — with both the percentage and the property’s value determined by MV Realty," according to a news release from the Attorney General's office.

According to Yost's office, the Homeowner Benefit Program agreements violated Ohio real-estate laws by failing to include:

• The name of the agent to be used

• Fair-housing language

• Anti-blockbusting language

• A clear expiration date for the agreement

• A clear statement of representation

In addition, the suit charges MV Realty founder Amanda Zachman of operating in Ohio without a real-estate license. Also named in the suit is Diana Remar, the broker for the Ohio office of MV Realty, who in a brief phone interview said she was unfamiliar with the suit.

Diana London, a representative of MV Realty, said, "We have just received the complaint, and our attorneys are reviewing."

The suit, filed in Franklin County, asks the court to put the company "out of business," according to the news release.

Ohio real-estate agents and officials have questioned MV's practices since the agency opened an Ohio office in the summer of 2021.

"The Ohio Recorders' Association has been very concerned about this," said Licking County Recorder Bryan Long, who refused to record the company's agreements.

"It puts a cloud, an encumbrance, on the property and land, and will transfer to the next owner. Supposedly at the next sale it goes away, but our issue was, let’s say it’s an older person, they pass away, their kids step in. Their child tries to clean up their estate, try to sell the home, list it with another Realtor, and then realizes there’s this document against the property, and in order for that to close, they’d have to pay MV Realty. They’d have to pay two sets of commissions and MV Realty did nothing to sell the property."

Long said recorders were also concerned about the length of the agreement.

"It's a 40-year agreement," he said. "What happens if the company goes belly up five years down the road? We were concerned about that. It’s still an encumbrance against the property and there’s no one there to release it."

According to MV Realty's website, Zachman founded the company in 2014 and helped developed the Homeowner Benefit Program, the core of the company's business model. The program pays homeowners for agreeing to list with MV Realty "should they ever choose to sell their home," according to the website.

As of August, 2022, the company had signed 32,000 Homeowner Benefit Program agreements and was on target to hit 100,000 agreements by August 2023, securing an estimated $425 million in commissions when those homes sold, according to the firm. As of December, the firm had an estimated 800 agents in 33 states.

It is unclear how many Ohio homeowners signed the MV Realty agreements.

jweiker@dispatch.com

@JimWeiker

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio sues MV Realty for its "Homeowner Benefit Program"