Pennsylvania's rent-to-own case against Vision Property Management ends in deeds and restitution
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro sued Vision Property Management LLC and its affiliates in October 2019, alleging the national "rent to own" operator misled more than 650 low-income Pennsylvania families into contract-for-deed and lease-option deals on dilapidated, foreclosed homes whose defects were never disclosed. An Allegheny County judge found the company in contempt in 2020, then in November 2021 ordered 285 of the homes deeded outright to the families living in them. By June 2025 a related settlement with affiliate ACM Vision V, LLC added $992,000 in restitution on top of an earlier $800,000 in cash payments, while litigation against Vision itself and its owners, Alexander and Antoni Szkaradek, continued.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Settled
- Victims
- 650
- Schemes
- Contract-for-deed scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-17
The facts, as recorded
- The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office sued Vision Property Management LLC and its affiliates in October 2019, naming CEO Alexander (Alex) Szkaradek and chairman Antoni Szkaradek, alleging a 'rent to own' scheme that misled more than 650 low-income Pennsylvania families.
- The state alleged Vision did not disclose serious defects, leaks, mold, pest infestations and plumbing problems, before buyers signed, then made the buyers responsible for the cost of repairs; buyers who fell behind on payments, even temporarily, could be evicted and the same home re-leased to a new family.
- In December 2020 the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas held Vision in contempt and ordered it to stop collecting payments from at least one tenant while the case proceeded.
- On November 18, 2021, Judge Christine Ward ordered Vision and its affiliates to deed 285 Pennsylvania homes, including 19 in Philadelphia, nine in Delaware County and one in Montgomery County, directly to the occupants, treating their outstanding contracts as paid in full; the order did not cover tenants who had already left their homes, and Vision appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
- Philadelphia tenant Daniel Ramos signed a contract in 2013 for a home his former landlord had lost to foreclosure and that a Vision subsidiary bought at sheriff's sale for $15,000; Ramos put $4,000 down against a $72,000 total price and had paid about $39,500 over six years when he fell behind in 2019 and faced eviction, before the 2021 order restored his path to the deed.
- A 2020 agreement separately had affiliate ACM Vision V, LLC transfer 23 Pennsylvania homes to residents outright, and roughly 250 consumers received deeds through court-ordered resolutions in 2021 and 2022.
- The Attorney General's Office mailed more than $800,000 in cash restitution to more than 250 Pennsylvania consumers who had been evicted from, or had abandoned, homes under the contracts, under a consent decree the office announced in December 2024.
- In June 2025, Attorney General Dave Sunday announced a further $992,000 settlement with ACM Vision V, LLC that added restitution for the same group of roughly 250 consumers and permanently barred ACM Vision V from residential real estate transactions in Pennsylvania; litigation continued against Vision Property Management and owners Alexander and Antoni Szkaradek.
Why this case matters
Vision Property Management operated nationally, not just in Pennsylvania, and this case shows the full lifecycle of a contract-for-deed scheme: the pitch, the defect that was never disclosed, the eviction over a missed payment, and finally, years later, a court unwinding it one deed at a time. It is also the longest-running case on this page, stretching from an initial 2016 complaint to a 2025 settlement, with litigation against the company’s own owners still open.
What the state alleged
Pennsylvania’s suit described a pattern, not an isolated bad deal: homes bought cheaply out of foreclosure, re-leased with a promise of eventual ownership, defects left undisclosed, and buyers made to pay for their own repairs. A single missed or late payment, even temporarily, could trigger eviction, after which the same home went back on the market for the next family. Pennsylvania renters under these contracts typically stayed less than two years.
One family’s math
Daniel Ramos’s contract shows what “built to fail” looked like in dollars: a home Vision’s subsidiary bought for $15,000 at sheriff’s sale, resold to him on a $72,000 contract with $4,000 down and a promise of title after seven years. He paid roughly $39,500 over six years, more than half the total price, before a temporary missed payment put him at risk of losing everything he had paid, until the 2021 court order restored his path to the deed instead.
The money, in pieces
No single figure here captures Vision’s total take from Pennsylvania consumers. What the record shows is restitution, not loss: 23 homes transferred outright in 2020, roughly 250 more deeded through court order in 2021 and 2022, $800,000 in cash mailed to evicted or departed tenants in December 2024, and a further $992,000 settlement with affiliate ACM Vision V in June 2025. Each of these is money or property returned after the fact, not a measure of what families actually lost in years of payments, repairs and rent on homes they never ended up owning on the original terms.
The caveat
This page describes a series of settlements, consent decrees and one contested court order, not a criminal conviction. The November 2021 deed order was under appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and litigation against Vision Property Management itself and its owners, Alexander and Antoni Szkaradek, remained open as of the most recent settlement reviewed here. The allegations against Vision and the Szkaradeks personally are the state’s claims; nothing in the settlements reached so far is a finding that they personally committed fraud.
Sources
- Pennsylvania sues rent-to-own operator Vision Property Management for preying on low-income renters. HousingWire. Accessed 2026-10-17. Supports: The October 2019 filing, Alex and Antoni Szkaradek as named owners, the 650-family scope, the undisclosed-defect allegations, the eviction-and-re-lease pattern, and Shapiro's quotes.
- A judge ordered Vision Property Management to give homes to Pa. tenants who were misled by a 'rent to own' scheme. The Philadelphia Inquirer. Accessed 2026-10-17. Supports: The November 2021 court order, the Daniel Ramos example with his $15,000 sheriff's-sale purchase, $4,000 down payment, $72,000 total price and $39,500 paid over six years, and the quotes from Ramos, Froehlich and Shapiro.
- Pennsylvania judge awards homes to 285 tenants in misleading rent-to-own agreements. PhillyVoice. Accessed 2026-10-17. Supports: The 285-home breakdown by county, the December 2020 contempt ruling, the 2016 initial complaint and 2019 lawsuit timeline, and Vision's appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
- Settlement Reached in Vision Property Management Lawsuit, $992,000 Restitution for Consumers. MyChesCo. Accessed 2026-10-17. Supports: The June 2025 $992,000 ACM Vision V settlement and real-estate ban, the 2020 transfer of 23 homes, the roughly 250 consumers who received deeds in 2021 to 2022, the earlier $800,000 in cash restitution, continuing litigation against Vision and the Szkaradek brothers, and Attorney General Dave Sunday's quotes.