ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - The city of St. Louis filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Bustling Funding, LLC, a company accused of using a housing practice known as the  slow flip  to sell homes to low-income buyers without obtaining required occupancy permits.

The lawsuit follows a First Alert 4 Investigation in which local families warned others about the practice after being left with uninhabitable homes and facing eviction.

The lawsuit, filed in Missouri Circuit Court for the Twenty-Second Judicial Circuit, names Bustling Funding, LLC, a Missouri limited liability company, as the defendant. The company is headed by Joey Chianese of Virginia Beach. Chianese served a year in federal prison after he was indicted for trafficking in counterfeit goods in 2019. Bustling Funding owns dozens of properties in St. Louis.

In the slow flip model, a property owner sells a home through a contract for deed, retaining legal title while the buyer takes physical possession and makes monthly installment payments. The buyer does not receive the deed until all payment and other obligations under the contract are fulfilled. The buyer also assumes responsibility for all maintenance and repairs.

According to the lawsuit, missing a payment or failing to perform maintenance or repairs each constitute a default under Bustling Funding's contracts. When a buyer defaults, the lawsuit states, Bustling Funding typically sues to retake possession of the property, with the buyer forfeiting the down payment, all prior installment payments, and any improvements made to the property.

The city's petition states that the slow flip strategy is built on the assumption that most buyers will default and that sellers profit from the amounts paid prior to those defaults. Bustling Funding's contracts have largely targeted low-income people with poor credit histories, with the majority of properties located in north St. Louis.

Those against the practice say sellers inflate purchase prices, collect deposits and monthly payments, and charge high interest rates on homes that, in many cases, are not safe to live in.

The city a

#firstalert4   #crimewatchstlouis