State attorney-general restitution · Open

California Consumer Recovery Account for real estate licensee fraud

California keeps a Consumer Recovery Account that repays people who lost money to a licensed real estate broker or salesperson and could not collect it from them. It covers actual, direct out-of-pocket loss plus interest and court costs, up to $50,000 per transaction and $250,000 in total against any single licensee, and excludes lost profits, attorney's fees and punitive damages. The department pays only where the claimant already holds a final civil judgment, arbitration award or criminal restitution order based on intentional fraud or the conversion of trust funds in a transaction that required a real estate licence — and the application has to reach the department within one year of that order becoming final. Someone holding such an order may be eligible; the department publishes the application forms (RE 806, RE 807 and RE 807A) and filing them costs nothing.