Former sales representatives allege The Villages wants to maintain its “long-standing stranglehold” on the sale of property in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown and will stop at nothing to crush those who want to “fairly compete.”
These allegations are contained in the latest legal salvo filed this past week in U.S. District Court in Ocala.
Properties of The Villages has taken aim at former top producers Christopher Day and Jason Kranz, who broke away to form KD Premier Realty LLC. Properties of The Villages is seeking an injunction against the rogue sales agents it claims are doing “irreparable harm” to the powerful sales arm of Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
Day and Kranz, along with former Properties of The Villages representatives who have joined them, “simply want to fairly compete for business in The Villages.”
They are fighting the injunction sought by The Villages.
“With its lawsuit and motion, Properties of The Villages hopes to maintain its long-standing stranglehold on the sale of property in The Villages. But despite months of litigation – including 11 depositions and considerable paper discovery – Plaintiff cannot articulate any legitimate business interest to justify enforcement of the non-compete agreements or any concrete threat of irreparable harm,” Day and Kranz said in their legal response to The Villages.
They claim Properties of The Villages is trying to stake an unquestioned claim on customer “relationships” that cannot be protected under the law.
“Properties of The Villages seeks to protect all past, present and future customer relationships. But Florida law does not protect all customer relationships. It protects only “substantial relationship with specific prospective or existing customers,’” the pair of former sales agents said in the latest legal document.
They claim The Villages cannot claim all of these potential homebuyers as a protected relationship and Day and Kranz contend, “most of the customers potentially at issue are either former customers or unspecified future customers.”
A spreadsheet provided to Villages-News.com by KD Premier Realty LLC indicates that the fledgling firm is making a dent in the local resale market and is moving up on more established firms such as Realty Executives, Re/Max Premier Realty and Sally Love Real Estate.
