If you bought a home through an agent, file a claim
You have until October 27 to ask for part of $120,334,500
WHAT CHANGED?
A settlement fund of $120,334,500 is taking claims from people who bought a home, and the window shuts on October 27, 2026. It covers homes listed on a Multiple Listing Service anywhere in the United States where a commission was paid to a brokerage. If that describes a purchase of yours, you can start your claim on the official settlement site.
Here is the part almost everyone misses. The commission settlements that made headlines a couple of years ago paid home sellers, and those deadlines are long gone. This one is the buyer side — a separate case, Tuccori v. At World Properties, in federal court in Illinois. The judge takes it up for final approval on November 2.
WHO IS AFFECTED?
You bought a home listed on a Multiple Listing Service in the United States, and a commission was paid to a brokerage in that deal. Your share depends on how many homes you bought and the commission paid on them.
The purchase falls inside your state's class period. All of them end June 25, 2026, and the start dates run from December 8, 2017 to December 8, 2019 for one group of brokerages, reaching back further for the national companies and the National Association of Realtors.
You are claiming as a buyer, not a seller. Selling a home is not a basis for this one, and if you already released these claims in a home-seller settlement, you are excluded from them here.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Nobody can tell you what your payment will be, and I would be wary of anyone who says they can. The money is divided proportionally after fees, and the companies pay it in by installments, so checks go out over several years rather than next month.
What you can control is whether you are in the pool at all. The claim asks for proof of purchase: a closing statement, a settlement statement, a HUD statement, or your settlement letter. That is somewhere in the folder from your closing, and if it is not, your title company can usually send a copy. Clear, readable copies are fine.
One more thing worth saying plainly. A claim service that takes a percentage is not the settlement administrator. The official answers say you do not need to hire your own lawyer: the lawyers for the class already represent you and are paid out of the fund. If something turns up asking for a card number to release your settlement money, that is not this.
WHAT TO DO
Pull the closing paperwork for every home you have bought, then file your claim at the official settlement site before October 27. Check your state's start date while you are there — in some states it reaches back further than you would guess, and a purchase you assumed was too old may still count. If you would rather work on paper, the administrator will mail a form: 1-877-417-7662.
Claims like this open two or three times a year, and most people never hear about the ones they qualify for until the window has shut. The Settlement & Refund Recovery System covers where to look, how to prove a purchase when the receipts are gone, and how to file so a claim gets paid.
One question for you: can you still put your hands on the closing statement from your last home purchase? Hit reply and tell me. I read every reply, and what you tell me decides what I cover next.
Know someone who bought a house in the last few years? Forward this to them, or send them your personal sign-up link so they get the next one too.
Source: the settlement administrator's answers on the fund, the deadline and who is covered. The closed home-seller cases are at the home seller commission settlement site.
Written by Ellen Marsh
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