Splitero Lawsuit and HEI Industry Litigation: Contracts as Loans

As of mid-2026, there is no known Splitero lawsuit: the San Diego home equity investment company has not been named as a defendant in any reported case. The caveat is significant, though. Courts in multiple states have ruled in 2025 that near-identical products sold by Splitero’s competitors are loans rather than investments, federal regulators have taken the same position, and a consumer law group has publicly urged states to investigate Splitero by name. The legal groundwork for a challenge to Splitero’s product exists; what does not yet exist is a case with Splitero’s name on the caption.

What Splitero’s Product Actually Costs

Splitero gives homeowners upfront cash in exchange for a share of their home’s future value, marketing the arrangement as an option contract rather than a loan, with no monthly payments, no income requirements, and no interest.¹ Homeowners can receive up to 25% of their home’s appraised value, capped at $500,000, and the agreement runs as long as the primary mortgage. Repayment is triggered by sale, refinance, or cash settlement.²

The cost to buy the share back can be steep. Splitero’s pricing page lists a “Safety Cap” of 17.99% compounded monthly, which limits the repurchase amount in cases of high appreciation or early buyback.¹ In one scenario the company publishes, a homeowner who takes $100,000 upfront owes an estimated $240,000 after five years.² A 4.99% origination fee comes out at funding, plus roughly $1,000 in closing costs.

Whether that arrangement is a loan or something else is the whole legal question. If it is a loan, Truth in Lending Act disclosures, state mortgage licensing rules, usury caps, and ability-to-repay obligations all apply. HEI companies have not been treating their products that way. Courts are starting to.

Courts Are Calling These Contracts Loans

A run of 2025 court decisions found that home equity investment agreements from companies with business models very similar to Splitero’s are, in substance, loans. None of the cases name Splitero, but the reasoning applies to the product category.

The most consequential ruling came from the Ninth Circuit in Olson v. Unison Agreement Corp. The court held that Unison’s HEI product is a “loan” and “credit” under the plain meaning of those terms because the contracts created “a very real set of contingent obligations to make future payments,” and found that marketing the product as having “no interest” or “no debt” had “the capacity to deceive.”³ The Ninth Circuit covers California, Oregon, and Washington, three of Splitero’s core markets.

Other 2025 rulings reached similar conclusions:

In Commonwealth v. Hometap Equity Partners, a Massachusetts state court denied Hometap’s motion to dismiss, holding the product was a loan because there was “no substantial risk” the lender would lose its principal, and upholding claims of unconscionability and deceptive marketing.³
In Stone v. Real Estate Equity Exchange, a Colorado bankruptcy court let a homeowner pursue claims that an HEI agreement was an unconscionable loan.³
In Muskal v. Point Digital Finance, an Arizona court ruled that an HEI contract constitutes “credit,” triggering the Truth in Lending Act’s ban on mandatory arbitration in mortgage contracts.³
In Weingot v. Unison Agreement Corp., a federal court in the Eastern District of New York denied summary judgment, finding “a clear dispute of fact” over whether Unison’s marketing about sharing appreciation was fraudulent or misleading.³

The common thread: courts are looking past the “option agreement” label and asking what the deal actually does. A company advances money, records a lien, and expects repayment later at what amounts to a large return. That, judges are increasingly saying, is a loan.

The Unison Class Action in Colorado

The lawsuit closest to Splitero’s business model was filed in April 2026 in federal court in Colorado, one of the states where Splitero operates. Katharine and Charles Kane of Centennial allege they received roughly $87,000 to $88,000 from Unison in 2018 in exchange for a 70% stake in their home’s equity appreciation. When they sought to exit the contract in 2025 and 2026, they were told they would owe between $178,000 and $279,000.⁴

The Kanes allege Unison violated the Colorado Consumer Credit Code and the Colorado Consumer Protection Act by marketing its product as a debt-free alternative to loans when the agreements function like predatory mortgages without the required disclosures.⁵ The suit seeks class-action status on behalf of hundreds of Colorado customers, monetary damages, and a court order voiding existing Unison contracts in the state. Additional plaintiffs have joined since the initial filing.⁶ Comparable suits are targeting Hometap and Unlock Technologies.

The Federal Position

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed an amicus brief in January 2025 in Roberts v. Unlock Partnership Solutions AOI, Inc., a federal case in New Jersey. The CFPB argued that Unlock’s home equity contract qualifies as a “residential mortgage loan” under the Truth in Lending Act because the product involves a right to defer payment of debt, and that the substance of the transaction should take precedence over its contractual label as an “investment.”⁷

The bureau argued the investment plan exception does not apply because the company faces no meaningful risk of loss. In the Unlock contract at issue, the company required repayment of 70% of the home’s value despite an initial payment of only 44%, meaning Unlock would profit even if the home depreciated by up to 39%.⁷ The Roberts case was terminated in February 2026, and the docket does not indicate a published ruling on the CFPB’s arguments.⁸ The position itself is nonbinding, but it signals how the federal consumer regulator views the product category.

Splitero Named by Name in Consumer Advocacy Reports

The National Consumer Law Center, in reports published in October 2024 and September 2025, called HEI contracts “predatory equity-theft schemes” and “complex, high-cost mortgage loans.” The September 2025 report specifically named Splitero among the HEI providers it recommended states investigate, alleging that originators like Splitero manipulate appraisals through “risk adjustments” and use deceptive schemes to target vulnerable and older homeowners.⁹

The NCLC recommended that states classify HEI contracts as mortgage loans, impose usury caps, require ability-to-repay assessments, mandate HUD-certified counseling before closing, and step up enforcement.⁹ Those recommendations have not translated into a specific enforcement action against Splitero as of mid-2026.

Washington state has taken a different tack. House Bill 1464, introduced in the 2025-26 session, would create a licensing and regulatory framework for Home Equity Sharing Agreements under the Department of Financial Institutions, effective July 2026. The bill defines these products as their own category rather than as mortgage loans, a different route than the one the courts are taking.¹⁰

What Splitero Customers Are Reporting

Splitero holds a 4.5 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot from nearly 200 reviews and an “A” rating with the Better Business Bureau as of March 2026.¹¹ Positive reviews cite helpful staff and clear communication. Negative reviews raise concerns about slow processing, documentation, and unmet “payoff expectations” — homeowners surprised by what they owe when it comes time to settle.²

That last complaint tracks the central grievance in the Unison, Hometap, and Unlock cases: homeowners who signed what they understood as a simple equity-share deal, then years later found the buyback figure far higher than they expected. Splitero currently operates in 14 states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Washington¹² — several of which are jurisdictions where courts have already reclassified competitor HEI products as loans. Whether a case is eventually filed against Splitero itself remains open. The legal theories that would support one are already on the record.

1
Splitero. Pricing
2
The Mortgage Reports. Splitero Review
3
National Consumer Law Center. Courts Expose Deception in Home Equity Investments
4
9News. Home Equity Loan Contract Lawsuit
5
National Mortgage News. HEI Customers File New Class Action Against Unison
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HousingWire. Unison Class Action Home Equity
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Proposed Amicus Brief in Roberts v. Unlock
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CourtListener. Roberts v. Unlock Partnership Solutions AOI Inc.
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HEL News. State Action on HEI Products
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Washington State Legislature. HB 1464 Bill Report
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LendEDU. Splitero Home Equity Review
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Splitero. Eligibility