Antitrust attorney David Barry from San Francisco is cutting a legal swathe against REALTOR® groups from coast to coast. He remains unthwarted even though most of his attempts to date have been unsuccessful. Barry has challenged the National Assn. of REALTORS® on its REALTOR® trademark , and filed antitrust lawsuits against REALTOR® associations in Kentucky, Washington, Ohio, California, and other areas. He is "an attorney notorious for suing organized real estate." said June Barlow, vice-president and legal counsel of the California Assn. of REALTORS® (CAR).
The latest targets in Barry's legal crosshairs are ten natural hazard disclosure companies in California. The following is from a Realty Times report.
"The lawsuit calls for restitution paid to the buyers of natural hazard reports that allegedly falsely indicated that properties were not in high fire-hazard zones; an injunction to prohibit disclosure companies from selling natural hazard reports until there are systems in place to determine whether properties are in the high-hazard zones; and requirement that defendants advise buyers of non-complying natural hazard reports filed up to four years before the lawsuit.
"The lawsuit charges that the companies named in the lawsuit "have not, in the past four years, utilized the local (high fire hazard severity zone) data" that is intended to indicated areas with high fire hazards. "Instead, (the companies) rely on state maps superseded by local maps," the lawsuit states, and property disclosure reports may not indicate whether homes are actually located in these zones."
One of the companies named in the suit is Natural Hazard Disclosure, LLC, which is owned by CAR. Barlow said that she expects the complaint to be dismissed and calls it a "shakedown lawsuit" and "frivolous."
The lawsuit references Southern California wildfires in 2003 that killed 23 people and questions whether people who suffered injuries or damages in those fires "received natural hazard reports containing false information regarding very high fire hazard severity zones."
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