EasyKnock Lawsuit: State Actions, Consumer Claims, and Shutdown

The EasyKnock lawsuit landscape spans more than two dozen consumer cases and enforcement actions by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, Michigan, and Connecticut, all built on the theory that the company’s “Sell & Stay” sale-leaseback program was a disguised predatory loan aimed at homeowners with equity but poor credit. EasyKnock shut down abruptly on December 5, 2024, transferred its properties to a related entity called NESE Property Management, and drew a congressional probe led by Senator Elizabeth Warren later that month.¹²

The Transaction at the Center of the Lawsuits

EasyKnock bought houses from homeowners who had significant equity but could not qualify for a refinance or home equity loan. The company paid off the existing mortgage, gave the homeowner a cash payout, and leased the property back to them for up to five years with an option to repurchase or direct a third-party sale.³

The marketing promised “100% of your home’s value.” The cash at closing was smaller. After a 4.99% processing fee, closing costs, and “repair holdbacks,” an NPR review of 15 transactions found homeowners walked away with between 10% and 52% of their equity, averaging about $54,000. The homeowner gave up the deed entirely. EasyKnock’s position was that these were sales, not loans, and therefore outside the Truth in Lending Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, and other mortgage lending rules.³

The repurchase option, which EasyKnock presented as a route back to ownership, rarely worked. Rent typically exceeded the former mortgage payment and rose at least 2.5% a year, and the repurchase price climbed along with it. Because the customer base could not access conventional credit, few could buy back. In Texas, roughly 20% of EasyKnock’s clients successfully repurchased.⁴ A missed rent payment led to eviction, not to the forbearance or modification options that come with a mortgage.

State Attorney General Actions

Massachusetts

Massachusetts moved first. On December 5, 2023, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced a settlement resolving allegations that EasyKnock bought homes at “bargain-basement prices” and charged unfair rents in violation of the state consumer protection law. EasyKnock agreed to stop all residential sale-leaseback transactions in Massachusetts permanently, pay $200,000 to the Commonwealth, return tens of thousands of dollars in improperly withheld funds to tenants, lower rents for some existing tenants, and rewrite its leases to comply with state landlord-tenant law.⁵

Michigan

In May 2024, Attorney General Dana Nessel issued a notice of intended action ordering EasyKnock to stop what the state called unlawful business practices. Michigan alleged deceptive representations about homeowners receiving full home value, exploitation through escalating rent and repurchase terms, misleading pressure tactics, and failures to make timely repairs.⁶

The investigation continued after the company closed. In June 2026, Nessel announced a settlement that established an $85,000 fund for affected Michigan customers and barred the successor entities, NESE Property Management Company LLC and EK Real Estate Fund I, LLC, from doing any future sale-leaseback business in the state. The successor entities must limit deductions from proceeds when homes are sold to third parties, follow state and local housing laws, refund tenants for rental registration and inspection fees that belonged to the landlord, and offer to report on-time rent payments to credit bureaus.⁷ Jarred Kessler was named personally as a respondent in the underlying compliance document, though the agreement was entered with no admission of liability.⁸

Connecticut

Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection sent EasyKnock a civil investigative demand in February 2024.⁹ The investigation became a state Superior Court lawsuit in November 2024 alleging violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. The Attorney General accused EasyKnock of targeting homeowners with poor credit, using confusing marketing, altering financial terms shortly before closing (in some cases cutting transaction values by $40,000 to $50,000), and writing leases that allowed immediate termination on any late rent payment.¹⁰ The complaint described the conduct as “oppressive, unethical, immoral, and unscrupulous.”²

Consumer Lawsuits

Homeowners filed suits in Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, South Carolina, Maryland, and elsewhere. The theory running through them is the same: the sale-leaseback was a loan in disguise and should be regulated like one.¹¹

Noggle v. EasyKnock was filed on June 25, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Randee Myree, Adam Noggle, and others alleged violations of Michigan usury laws, the Michigan Consumer Protection Act, the Truth in Lending Act, and the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act. They asked the court to return their home titles and award damages.¹² EasyKnock agreed not to pursue eviction against the Noggles while the case is active; the family pays roughly $400 a month in rent into an escrow account.¹

Stewart v. EasyKnock, Inc. was filed on August 2, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The plaintiff, a low-income Philadelphia homeowner, alleged that the program violated the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law by drawing “equity-rich, unsophisticated, low-income, poor-credit homeowners” into selling their homes for a small fraction of the equity.¹³ The docket shows the case remained active through at least December 2025.¹⁴

In Ohio, Bernat v. EK Real Estate Fund I, LLC reached the state Court of Appeals, which in October 2024 denied EasyKnock’s attempt to force the dispute into arbitration and stay the court case.¹⁵ In South Carolina, a complaint filed in Horry County Circuit Court in July 2025 alleged Truth in Lending Act violations and fraud, asking the court to void the sale and award $12,000 in statutory damages.¹⁶

The company did not lose everywhere. In Texas, where more than two dozen people sued, an arbitrator dismissed claims from plaintiffs who argued their agreement was a disguised loan, found the transaction to be a valid sale, and awarded EasyKnock $153,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees.¹⁷ EasyKnock denied all allegations across the litigation, maintaining its deals were transparent real estate transactions rather than loans.

The Shutdown and the Handoff to NESE

EasyKnock announced its closure on December 5, 2024. The website was replaced with a one-line notice: “After many years of serving consumers, EasyKnock has closed its doors.” No reason was given.¹ The company still managed hundreds of properties and had unresolved suits and investigations pending.

Customers were told a company called NESE Property Management would take over their homes. Public records showed NESE shared a post office box with EasyKnock, and its website domain had been purchased nine days before the shutdown, on November 26, 2024. On the day of the announcement, the NESE site was still under construction.¹ The Michigan settlement later confirmed the arrangement: NESE services the leases and option agreements, and EK Real Estate Fund I, LLC holds the properties.⁸

The Senate Probe

On December 16, 2024, Senator Elizabeth Warren, joined by Senators Richard Blumenthal, Chris Murphy, Tina Smith, Chris Van Hollen, Bernie Sanders, and Peter Welch, sent a letter to CEO Jarred Kessler demanding answers by December 30. The senators alleged that EasyKnock had used “loan-like language” to mislead consumers about what the deal was, run “bait-and-switch” changes to deal terms, charged excessive fees, and blocked repurchase through relentless rent increases.⁴ They asked for total customer counts, eviction numbers, fee breakdowns, Kessler’s compensation from 2016 through 2024, gross profit margins, and a full account of the relationship with NESE.¹⁸ Neither Kessler nor the company responded, according to available reporting.¹⁹

Where This Leaves Former Customers

Many former owners are still living in the houses they sold, now renting from an entity they never chose. Stacey Tutt of the National Housing Law Project said the buy-back provisions are “likely unaffordable for the homeowner” and that it is “very unlikely” a new purchaser of these contracts would rewrite them to make repurchase realistic.¹

Michigan customers have specific protections under the June 2026 settlement: capped deductions from third-party sale proceeds, refunds of improperly charged registration and inspection fees, and the option to build credit through reported rent.⁷ Outside states with similar settlements, the path is less clear. Individual suits are still moving, and the underlying legal question, whether residential sale-leasebacks should be regulated as loans, has not been resolved at the federal level. Legal scholars cited in the reporting have suggested new legislation may be required to reach transactions that sit outside existing mortgage rules.²⁰

1
NPR. Sale Leaseback Rent Mortgage EasyKnock
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NPR. EasyKnock Senate Probe Sale Leaseback
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NPR. Sale Leaseback Company EasyKnock Cash
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U.S. Senate. Letter to EasyKnock Regarding Business Practices
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Massachusetts Attorney General. AG Campbell Reaches Settlement With Real Estate Company EasyKnock
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Michigan Attorney General. AG Nessel Takes Action Against EasyKnock for Deceptive Business Practices
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Michigan Attorney General. AG Nessel Secures Agreement in Investigation of Sale Leaseback Company
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Michigan Attorney General. EasyKnock Assurance of Voluntary Compliance
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Connecticut Attorney General. EasyKnock Civil Investigative Demand
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CT Insider. CT EasyKnock Mortgage Rent
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HousingWire. EasyKnock Faces Consumer Lawsuits and Actions From State Regulators
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Pitt McGehee Palmer Bonanni & Rivers. Homeowners File Lawsuit Against EasyKnock Inc Alleging Predatory Mortgage Scheme
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Langer Grogan & Diver. Stewart v. EasyKnock
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CourtListener. Stewart v. EasyKnock Inc
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HEL News. EasyKnock Close
16
WBTW. Defunct Sell and Stay Home Buying Firm Sued in Horry County Court
17
BusinessWire. EasyKnock Secures Complete Victory in Ruling Over Sale Leaseback Lawsuit
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U.S. Senate. Warren Lawmakers Probe Real Estate Firm EasyKnock After Abrupt Closure
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Bisnow. Senators Investigating Defunct Home Sale Leaseback Company EasyKnock
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GPB News. Senators Launch Probe Into Sale Leaseback Company Citing NPR Reporting