How To Stop Annoying Real Estate Calls to Your Landline and Cell Phone
In the last few years it seems that some real estate agents or brokers have jumped on the phone calling spam bandwagons. They call your home phone, often using canned recordings, or text messages to your cell phone. These messages tend to be about how they can help you buy or sell property. There have recently been several class action lawsuits filed against brokerages for do-not-call/auto dialing violations. 
The federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) prohibits a brokerage from using an auto-dialing system. Brokerages can easily violate the law even when the calls are ultimately transferred to a live agent.
The TCPA prohibits:
- Prerecorded voice messages to landlines.
- Prerecorded voice messages to mobile phones without consent.
- Auto-dialed calls, and text messages to mobile phones without consent.
Have no fear – there is something you can do to prevent these. First of all, make sure your numbers are registered with the Do Not Call Registry. Click here to do that. Then, if you continue to get such calls or texts you can report them. The caller will be fined and the calls/texts should stop.
Damages can be substantial: $500 for each call placed negligently and $1500 for each call placed willfully. Although this seems like small change to a big brokerage, the total claims can rise quickly since damages are uncapped and per call, and importantly, multiplied by the number of calls for each class action plaintiff.
In order to report a violation you need to wait 31 days after you register your number. There are also some types of organizations that are allowed to call you without penalty, such as debt collectors , charities, political organizations and telephone surveyors. To see the list you can look on the website. To report a violation click here. We all need to be vigilant if we do not want to be bothered by unsolicited calls and texts.
