Ariz. Real Estate Firm Operates in ‘Brazen Disregard’ of TCPA, Alleges Class Action

A marketing and real estate firm in Mesa, Arizona, “routinely violates” the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by delivering ads or telemarketing text messages to residential or cellphone numbers listed on the national do not call registry, and does so “without the prior express invitation or permission required by the TCPA,” alleged Mandi Potter’s class action Friday (docket 4:24-cv-00866) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri. American House Partners appears to operate a telemarketing enterprise, “the likes of which the TCPA has largely done away with,” said the Imperial, Missouri, resident’s complaint. It operates in “brazen disregard” of the TCPA’s restrictions, it said. The company openly touts that it engages in ongoing “cold call” telemarketing and high pressure sales tactics to acquire consumers’ homes "for massive discounts on their fair market value," it said. It then promptly flips those homes to other investors “for substantial profits by way of assignment contracts,” it said. Potter personally listed her cellphone number with the DNC registry in 2018, “and has maintained that registration through the present date,” it said. She nevertheless began receiving numerous text messages in March from a “rotating series of phone numbers,” seeking to solicit her to use American House Partners in the sale of her home, it said. Potter didn’t give the defendant prior express written consent to send text messages to her cellphone number, said the complaint. The plaintiff “suffered actual harm as a result of the text messages at issue in that she suffered an invasion of privacy, an intrusion into her life, and a private nuisance,” it said. She suffered additional harm “due to her frustration and difficulty in identifying the entity and persons responsible” for the unwanted text messages, it said. American House Partners knew, or should have known, that Potter registered her cellphone number with the DNC registry, it said.