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A property preservation company with business in Texas charges Bank of America with fraud and deceit, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment in a civil suit in California.
Diversified Field Services of Tustin, California — which maintains foreclosed properties for banks — says in the lawsuit that Bank of America signed DFS to a contract to maintain repossessed homes in 14 states last year.
The company says it spent nearly $2 million preparing for the work, but that the work never came.
"Homeowners are not the only victims of this [mortgage] crisis; it extends to firms like DFS and onward to the mom-and-pop businesses who actually mow the lawns and clean the countless homes that now sit empty," said DFS attorney Eric Goodman.
DFS also alleges B of A publicly misrepresented the quality of the work DFS did, destroying its business and ruining its reputation.
DFS also alleges the bank never paid it for nearly $400,000 in work that it did do. The suit seeks unspecified damages.
Bank of America says it has not seen the civil suit, filed in Orange County, and cannot comment on it.
E-mail bharris@wfaa.com
