ComplaintsforExpress Homebuyers

• Initial Complaint

  03/24/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This company is harassing me daily. I have asked them to stop calling me and communicated this request via email and they called me right after I sent that. They call me over and over all day long. When I block their numbers they call from another number. I am demanding a cease of all communication from the company.

  Business response

  04/28/2023

  I'm sorry this has been ******************** experience with Express Homebuyers. According to our records, she entered her information into our website on March 4. We do our best to contact and respond to every person who inquires on our website. This may include reaching out daily. I searched for ******************** email in our company inbox, but did not find the email where she requested for our contact to cease. In any case, the last time we reached out to **************** was March 26. I have gone ahead and marked her contact information as Do Not Contact (DNC) and she should not hear from us again. 

  Thank you.

• Initial Complaint

  12/03/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I received a letter from ************************* and ***************** of Express Homebuyers on December 1, 2021. The letter had the BBB's logo, indicated Express Homebuyer's "A+" rating, and said in large red letters that "[c]ounty records indicate you owe past due property taxes for ****************** NW, Washington DC *******." That statement is untrue. DC Office of Tax and Revenue's publicly available Real Property Tax Database that there is not now and never has been a "past due" property tax balance on my home. I asked Express Homebuyers about the basis for its statement in two emails on December 1 and 2 and received no response. I called the company's (800) number on December 3, and a representative told me that the letter's "past due" taxes likely related to a "present" balance that was owed in September 2021. I explained that public records showed that my mortgage lender had paid that balance on time and in full. The representative admitted then that the company had no factual basis for saying that I owed "past due property taxes" on my home and that its letter saying so was a "mistake."I am concerned about Express Homebuyers' false statement about what public records say about my home's tax obligations. Given the standard-form nature of the letter I received, which was undated, unsigned, and appeared to have been generated by mail merge, I fear that this practice may not be limited to one case.

  Business response

  12/09/2021

  We want to apologize to **************** for the mailer he received.We are sorry for the concern and inconvenience we caused him with this letter. I want to assure him that he has been removed from our mailing list as of the time of his phone call on 12/3/2021. The DC tax records were sent to us by the district in early September and indicated there was a total balance amount. We have since reviewed *************' concerns and edited our mailer so as not to seem misleading or untrue. I appreciate his time in bringing this to our attention and wish him a happy and joyous holiday season and a prosperous new year.

  Customer response

  12/23/2021

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
  
   Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because: I do not find the Express Homebuyers' explanation for its false statement that I owed "past due" property taxes plausible. DC property taxes are assessed and due twice per year, in March and September. Reviewing property tax records in early September presumably would show a current balance for practically *any* DC homeowner. Critically, it would not and *did* not show a PAST DUE balance for me, as Express Homebuyers claimed in its letter more than two months later. Express Homebuyers could have confirmed in less than 60 seconds that I did *not* owe a past due balance at the time it sent its letter by reviewing publicly available records online.

  Even if I credited Express Homebuyers' explanation for misrepresenting that I owed a "past due" property tax bill, I note that the DC Attorney General's Office has sued Express Homebuyers for violations of DC's Consumer Protection Procedures Act and am attaching a copy of the AG's Complaint. The Complaint alleges several other other materially false statements in the letter that I and others received for which Express Homebuyers has provided no explanation or justification. It also alleges that Express Homebuyers' operation of a for-profit foreclosure rescue service in DC violates the Home Equity Protection Act of 2007.

  Furthermore, a November 23, 2015, article in local news blog ******.com (https://www.*********************/treasurers-office-slams-false-claims-in-letter-from-home-buying-firm/) indicates that Express Homebuyers has been making similar statements for at least six years. The ************ County Treasurer's Office apparently criticized Express Homebuyers' statements as "false" at that time, yet Express Homebuyers continues to make the same statements years later.

  Given this context, I cannot accept Express Homebuyers' response as a plausible explanation or a meaningful apology for what appears to be a long-running and widespread history of what the DC Attorney General's Office  deems actionable misconduct. I find its emphasis on its A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau in connection with such statements especially inappropriate.
  
  Regards,
  
  ***************************
  

• Initial Complaint

  12/02/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I received a letter from Express Homebuyers today (see attachment) indicating that I owe unpaid property taxes on my home and suggesting I might lose my home at auction. I don't owe any property taxes, and while I can spot what appears to be a scam, I wonder if others might panic and sign up for their services when they have no need for them. If they're sending out these letters en masse to homeowners in the area who don't owe anything, isn't that false and misleading advertising? I wonder why they have such a high BBB rating if this is their standard practice.

  Business response

  12/15/2021

  We want to apologize to ******************** for the mailer he received. We are sorry for the concern and inconvenience we caused him with this letter. I want to assure him that he has been removed from our mailing list. The DC tax records were sent to us by the district in early September and indicated there was a total balance amount. We have since reviewed *** ********* concerns and edited our mailer so as not to seem misleading or untrue. It is not our standard practice, and we want to assure him we are making changes so as not to make this mistake again. We appreciate his time in bringing this to our attention and wish him a happy and joyous holiday season and a prosperous new year.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩