State's attorney sues Arlington Hts. furnace business
The Cook County State's Attorney's Office has filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against an Arlington Heights home air duct and furnace cleaning business, charging the company deceived and overcharged consumers for work that was never completed, State's Attorney Anita Alvarez announced Wednesday morning.
The lawsuit alleges that the owners and operators of American Pure Air Inc. not only overcharged consumers for work that was not completed, but in some cases intimidated consumers for payment, violating provisions of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
No one at American Pure Air was available to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday morning.
The lawsuit was filed late Tuesday against American Pure Air Inc. and its owners and operators, Gal Yarimi and Barak Schnitman.
According to the lawsuit, American Pure Air would misrepresent to consumers that their duct work or furnace was contaminated with mold, fungus, dust mites, or bacteria and that these contaminants posed an immediate health risk.
American Pure Air would then sell additional products and services to eliminate or control the purported contaminants and charge homeowners significant additional money for sanitizers, furnace cleanings, or "germicidal ultraviolet lights."
"It is an outrage that consumers seeking honest services to help clean the air within their own homes have been subjected to this type of fraud," Alvarez said in a news release.
"On behalf of the consumers who have been victimized by this company, we intend to seek full restitution."
According to the lawsuit, American Pure Air engaged in advertising in which it promised whole house air duct cleaning services for $99 or less. On some occasions, an original $99 estimate resulted in a final actual bill of over $1,000. In other instances, American Pure Air allegedly would perform extra services without first obtaining the customer's authorization and then intimidate the consumer to pay for the unauthorized services, the news release said.
The lawsuit further alleges that American Pure Air would offer a "free" furnace inspection and a "free" dryer vent cleaning. After employees of American Pure Air arrived at consumers' homes seeking these services, the company would not honor the promised advertising or would impose undisclosed limitations on the advertised prices. American Pure Air allegedly also failed to clean all of the duct work in consumers' homes or would fail to provide the advertised free dryer vent cleaning.
The State's Attorney's lawsuit was initiated after the office's Consumer Fraud Unit received more than 20 complaints from residents.
The lawsuit seeks to permanently bar the defendants from engaging in any further alleged deceptive practices; refunds for victims and $50,000 in damages against the defendants.