Rochester-Based Company Settles With Minnesota AG Office

St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) - A Rochester-based real estate corporation has agreed to pay nearly $240,000 to end a consumer protection investigation launched by the Minnesota Attorney General's Office.

A news release issued by Attorney General Keith Ellison says the settlement with Dwell Equities, LLC settles his office’s investigation into the company's failure to comply with legal requirements for foreclosure rescue services. He says it also provides compensation to six affected homeowners and requires the company to cease engaging in foreclosure rescue services.

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The Attorney General's Office launched an investigation into Dwell after receiving complaints over the two previous years about the company's practices. The news release says the investigation found that Dwell representatives would approach individual homeowners in foreclosure and make promises that its services could help them stay in their homes.

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It also found that the company did not comply with "numerous legal requirements when engaging in foreclosure rescue services and that many of their customers were left in worse position than before the company approached them." Those deficiencies included failing to conduct business using written contracts that included notices of cancellation and failing to meet the requirements of state law by providing homeowners with at least 82% of the fair market value of their property while serving as a so-called "equity purchaser" and acquiring homes in foreclosure.