Class Action Plaintiff Sues to Stop Real Estate Brokerage From Texting His Phone
Sibcy Cline real estate brokerage sent James Chams a series of unsolicited text messages beginning New Year’s Day, offering to list his Mason, Ohio, house though his cellphone number was listed on the national do not call registry since October…
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2022 and he wasn't interested in selling his property, alleged Chams' Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Tuesday (docket 1:24-cv-00123) in U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio in Cincinnati. Chams has never advertised his cellphone number online or used it for business purposes, said his complaint. The plaintiff also has never done business with Sibcy Cline and has never given the brokerage his consent to call or text his phone number, it said. He phoned the brokerage to inquire why it sent him multiple unsolicited text messages when he wasn’t looking to sell his property. Gayatri Chandran, a Sibcy Cline sales vice president, told him she received his contact information from a real estate lead generation company, Connekter, which indicated she should get in touch with Chams to offer her assistance in listing his property for sale, said the complaint. Chams told Chandran that he made no such inquiry to Connekter and that he wasn’t interested in listing his property for sale, it said. Chams “was very upset about this invasion of his privacy,” it said. The unauthorized solicitation text messages that Chams received from Sibcy Cline have harmed him “in the form of annoyance, nuisance, and invasion of privacy,” it said. The text messages also have occupied his phone line, and have disturbed the use and enjoyment of his phone, it said.