Lutz homebuyer commission lawsuit adds over 30 new plaintiffs

The Batton homebuyer commission lawsuits are not the only ones getting updated complaints. On Thursday, James Lutz, the lead plaintiff in the Lutz homebuyer commission suit in Florida, filed a second amended complaint.

This updated complaint adds 31 new plaintiffs to the suit, including many familiar names, such as Scott Davis, James Mullis and Mya Batton. In addition to the home Lutz bought in Florida, this new group of plaintiffs purchased homes North Carolina, Maine, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Kansas, New Hampshire, Iowa, California, Illinois, Utah, West Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Virginia, South Carolina, Washington, D.C., Michigan, Oregon, Connecticut and New York.

While the suit’s plaintiffs list got a makeover, the suit’s allegations and defendants,  HomeServices of America and Douglas Elliman, remained the same. In the suit, the plaintiffs allege that hey were forced to pay inflated prices for their homes due to the  National Association of Realtors‘  (NAR) Participation Rule, which required listing brokers to make a blanket offer of compensation to buyers’ brokers in order to list a property on the MLS. According to the suit, this rule led to artificially inflated agent commissions, which drove up home prices.

This rule is now defunct as NAR’s home seller commission lawsuit settlement bans offers of compensation from the MLS.

The suit was originally filed in July 2024 with just HomeServices of America named as a defendant. Lutz is represented by Randall P. Ewing Jr., from Korein Tillery LLC in Chicago, who is one of the lead attorneys on the Batton homebuyer commission lawsuits. HomeServices of America was dismissed from the original Batton suit earlier this year.