Criminal Charges Filed Against Home-Finding Business

City prosecutors have filed 16 criminal charges against the operators of a Van Nuys home-finding business that allegedly cheated customers by lying about its services and refund policies.

The misdemeanor charges were filed by the Los Angeles city attorney against three officials of Express Homes, a rental listing service headquartered in the 6800 block of Van Nuys Boulevard, with branch offices in Reseda and Eagle Rock.

Joseph E. Perez, 33, who heads Express Homes, and Hugo Beltran, 38, another executive of the firm, are each charged with three counts of grand theft and multiple violations of the state Business and Professions Code, which governs rental listing services. Alex Greene, an Express Homes supervisor, is charged with Business and Professions Code violations.

The complaint lists 39 customers who allegedly were cheated during an eight-month period from December of last year to August.

“I’m confident there’s more [victims] out there,” said Deputy City Atty. Mark Lambert. “They are ripping off the consumer for $125 to $150 a person,” he said. “This is money from people who don’t have a lot to begin with.”

Reached late Thursday, Greene said he was unaware of the charges but vowed to “fight them to the end.”

“Express Homes conducts itself in a purely ethical and straightforward manner, and has in no way violated any law, any code, any breach of ethical practices at all.”

Los Angeles police said no arrests had been made.

The criminal charges follow a tidal wave of complaints against Express Homes and a half-dozen other rental listing services in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. The firms operate independently, but during the past two years have been accused by authorities and customers of the same misleading practices.

Some salesmen have rotated among the businesses. And when faced with mounting complaints and investigations, some operators have closed down and reopened elsewhere under a different business name.

The services charge home-seekers a fee to provide supposedly exclusive listings of rental homes and apartments.

According to Lambert and state real estate officials, customers are hooked by newspaper classified ads for rental dwellings described as so palatial and inexpensive they sound almost too good to be true.

When the home-seekers call, expecting to reach a landlord, they instead get a salesman who invites them to come in for an inexpensive list of fine rentals. But many customers later complain that the lists proved useless--featuring units that were nonexistent or were rented long before. Other times, customers said they encountered angry landlords who said their buildings were listed without their permission, a violation of state law.

Customers typically are charged $150 for rental lists, and promised refunds if they don’t find a home or find one on their own. In fact, state law requires rental services to refund all but $25 to customers who do not find a suitable rental--a provision that must appear in customer contracts.

But Lambert said Express Homes, like some of the other firms, has customers sign a second agreement that conflicts with the verbal refund pledge. That portion of the contract designates most of the $150 fee as a non-refundable fee for a credit check.

“They [Express Homes] practically guarantee that they will find housing for them, or else they will return their money--when in fact they have no intention of returning the money,” Lambert said.

If convicted, Perez and Beltran face a maximum penalty of up to one year in jail on each of the grand theft charges. The 13 counts under the Business and Professions Code are each punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Perez is charged with all 13 of the latter counts, Beltran with nine, and Green with four.

In a separate action, the California Department of Real Estate last month filed an administrative complaint against Perez. The complaint, which is pending, seeks revocation of his state license to operate Express Homes.

Earlier this year, the real estate department filed a similar complaint to revoke licenses of two other rental listing services: Quality Rentals of Burbank and Properties Unlimited of Glendale.