Two Florida homebuyers have sued homebuilder LGI Homes, lender loanDepot and their jointly owned mortgage venture, alleging the companies ran a coordinated sales-and-financing scheme that lured renters into homes they could not afford. The complaint, filed July 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, seeks class-action status on behalf of thousands of Florida buyers.
The case, Connelly v. LGI Homes, Inc., No. 5:26-cv-00539, was brought in the court’s Ocala Division by plaintiffs Mara Connelly and Richard Bryan Wilson, according to the court docket. The 70-page complaint names LGI Homes, loanDepot and LGI Mortgage Solutions LLC β the two companies’ mortgage joint venture β as defendants and demands a jury trial.
What the complaint alleges
According to the allegations laid out in the filing, LGI Homes marketed new houses in renter-heavy neighborhoods with advertised payments as low as “$799/mo” and “NO Down Payment Required.” The complaint alleges that once a prospective buyer responded to the ads, LGI sales staff pulled the person’s credit on the spot, discouraged them from shopping around for their own real estate agent or lender, and pushed for a signed purchase agreement the same day.
The advertised monthly figure, the complaint alleges, omitted property taxes, homeowners insurance and HOA dues β costs the plaintiffs say can push the real payment 30% to 70% above what was advertised. The suit alleges the true “Real Monthly Payment” was disclosed to buyers only after they had signed a purchase agreement and put down a nonrefundable deposit.
On financing, the complaint alleges LGI steered buyers toward loanDepot and LGI Mortgage Solutions β the joint venture the two companies launched in 2021 β citing an internal company goal described in the filing as a “90.0% capture rate” for in-house loans. The plaintiffs argue that LGI sales representatives who collected income and financial information, pulled credit reports and told buyers what they qualified for were acting as unlicensed mortgage loan originators, in violation of the federal Truth in Lending Act and the SAFE Act’s licensing requirements. LGI’s sales staff hold no mortgage-originator licenses, the complaint alleges.
The plaintiffs also allege that LGI buyers have gone into foreclosure at a rate roughly four times the national average for comparable mortgage borrowers, though the complaint does not identify an independent, verified data source for that comparison. RealtyWire has not independently verified the foreclosure-rate claim.
The complaint raises four counts: violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, common-law fraud and negligent misrepresentation against all three defendants, and a Truth in Lending Act origination claim against LGI Homes specifically. The plaintiffs are seeking more than $5 million in damages, plus disgorgement of profits, restitution and an order barring the alleged practices going forward.
These are allegations from a newly filed complaint. No court has ruled on the claims, and LGI Homes, loanDepot and LGI Mortgage Solutions have not yet filed a formal response with the court. RealtyWire found no public statement from LGI Homes or loanDepot addressing the lawsuit as of publication.
The companies’ joint venture
LGI Homes and loanDepot have marketed their in-house lending arm since 2021, when the two companies announced LGI Mortgage Solutions as a joint venture designed to handle financing for LGI’s homebuyers directly, expanding it to Arizona, Colorado and Florida that year. LGI Homes is a national builder focused on entry-level and move-up buyers, many of whom the company has said are transitioning from renting. loanDepot is one of the country’s largest nonbank mortgage lenders.
Both companies are publicly traded β LGI Homes on the Nasdaq under LGIH and loanDepot on the New York Stock Exchange under LDI β putting the case in front of investors as well as regulators who oversee mortgage-lending and consumer-protection rules. Builder-lender joint ventures have drawn broader legal scrutiny recently, including a separate dispute between mortgage lenders UWM and Rocket over steering allegations.
What it means
Verified: A class-action complaint was filed July 29 in the Middle District of Florida naming LGI Homes, loanDepot and LGI Mortgage Solutions as defendants, seeking class treatment for Florida buyers and alleging violations of state consumer-protection law, common-law fraud and federal lending-disclosure rules.
Attributed allegation, not established fact: the specific claims about ad language, sales tactics, a “90% capture rate” target, undisclosed cost increases and comparative foreclosure rates come from the plaintiffs’ complaint. None of these claims has been tested in court, and neither defendant has publicly responded.
What to watch: whether LGI Homes and loanDepot move to dismiss or answer the complaint, whether a federal judge certifies a class covering “thousands” of Florida buyers as the plaintiffs are seeking, and whether the case draws scrutiny from state or federal regulators over builder-affiliated lending arrangements more broadly. The case follows a wave of scrutiny over “captive” homebuilder-lender joint ventures, an arrangement tested in other recent litigation over steering homebuyers toward affiliated mortgage units.
