Safeguard Properties LLC has asked a Cook County Circuit Court judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the property maintenance firm by the state of Illinois.
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The Illinois Attorney General’s office sued Safeguard in September, alleging that the nation’s largest privately held firm that maintains foreclosed homes violated state consumer fraud laws. The suit charged that Safeguard, and firms subcontracted by it, illegally broke into the occupied homes of people behind on their mortgage payments or in foreclosure, locked them out, removed their belongings and wrongly told homeowners and renters that they could not remain in those homes during the foreclosure process.
More than 200 Illinois residents have complained about Safeguard’s practices, Madigan’s office said in September.
In its motion filed with the court Tuesday, Safeguard argued that the lawsuit is based on only four alleged instances since 2008, from among the approximately 90,000 property inspections that Safeguard performs in Illinois monthly. It also argues that the state’s claims are overly broad and the state’s demand for civil penalties of more than $50,000 is “legally defective.”
The Valley View, Ohio-based company also said that there were not enough facts alleged in the suit to bar Safeguard from operating in Illinois, as the lawsuit seeks, and to do so would be a “draconian remedy under Illinois law.”
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