Local homeowner sues nationwide disaster response company for fraud and coercive tactics
VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) – A civil lawsuit has been filed against ServPro Global DRT and its ownership alleging fraud, elder abuse and coercive lien tactics in the wake of the 2024 Mountain Fire.
The company is also facing allegations of HAZMAT regulation fraud that are currently under investigation by state and federal regulators.
The eight-count lawsuit filed in Ventura County Superior Court, claims that ServPro Global DRT (disaster Response Team) used predatory methods to target homeowners just days after the almost 20,000-acre fire had destroyed their neighborhoods.
On the morning of November 6, 2024, the Mountain Fire started on South Mountain near the 7900 block of Balcom Canyon Road and Bradley Road, triggering evacuations and closures across the area during the response.
Evacuation Updates on #MountainFire pic.twitter.com/I60m5NApmY
— Ventura County Sheriff (@VENTURASHERIFF) November 6, 2024
One year later, the Ventura County Fire Department determined that the fire had been caused by embers from a smaller fire a week earlier.
According to the lawsuit, local Ventura County homeowner Craig Crosby was approached by two men on November 9, 2024, conducting door-to-door canvassing on behalf of One Silver Serve LLC which does business as ServPro Global DRT.
The duo presented the homeowner with a one-page contract offering restoration services that Mr. Crosby used a pen to amend, limiting the contracted work to "perform any evaluation inspection, recommendation, and documentation services on customer's property" and that any payments required the approval of his homeowner's insurance carrier, AAA Insurance.
The image below is exhibit A from the civil lawsuit and shows the amended contract Mr. Crosby agreed to on November 9, 2024.
Besides the amended contract, Mr. Crosby shared with the ServPro representatives that all services from the restoration company at his home must be authorized by his property insurance company, going so far as to add his AAA adjuster's name and phone number to the contract above noted the lawsuit.
On November 10, Mr. Crosby received an email stating that ServPro would be onsite the following day to conduct an initial assessment and on November 11, a team arrived at his home and began cleaning throughout the residence and attached garage detailed the lawsuit.
According to the civil suit, Mr. Crosby noticed a few weeks into the cleanup process that ServPro personnel had damaged his home's HVAC ducting and heating system as well as parts of the home's interior while removing attic insulation.
On November 24, 2024, Mr. Crosby reported the damage to his HVAC system to AAA Insurance and advised his insurer not to provide payment until the damage was paid or reimbursed stated the lawsuit.
A Senior Adjuster and a Claims Manager at AAA Insurance informed Mr. Crosby that ServPro Global DRT was not an approved vendor for customer claims and that the restoration company had not been authorized to perform any fire remediation work at Mr. Crosby's home noted the lawsuit.
The next day, Mr. Crosby emailed ServPro to suspend all work immediately, shared photos of the damage caused by their remediation crews, and notified AAA Insurance of the stop-work order detailed the suit.
On November 27, 2024, the same ServPro employees who had offered the initial one-page contract, reviewed the damage to Mr. Crosby's home during which one employee shared the work done by ServPro's teams was a "shit show"and assured Mr. Crosby that a solution would be provided explained the lawsuit.
According to the suit, Mr. Crosby obtained a $16,918 repair estimate for his damaged HVAC system and forwarded it to ServPro Global DRT which, despite initially characterizing the costs as "exorbitant", eventually agreed to reimburse the homeowner for the same amount and requested a liability release.
On December 4, 2024, Mr. Crosby received a bill from ServPro Global DRT for $62,427.88 listing him as the payor and the local homeowner immediately told the restoration company he was neither the payor nor the guarantor and had no contractual obligation for the work performed at his home noted the suit.
Mr. Crosby also noted that ServPro had misrepresented its authorization from AAA Insurance and all billing should go directly to his home insurance carrier added the civil suit.
While looking over ServPro's invoice, he noted a $12,844.25 charge for "Attic Insulation Removal and Replacement", but Mr. Crosby noticed ServPro's teams had only removed his attic's insulation and there was no longer any insulation in his attic after their work detailed the lawsuit.
A ServPro employee altered the invoice to read "Attic Insulation Removal" without removing the $12,844.35 charge noted the suit.
Mr. Crosby later paid Conejo HVAC Inc. $7,450 to replace the missing insulation shared the lawsuit.
On January 7, 2025, ServPro's legal counsel Darren Reed emailed Mr. Crosby stating that the liability release would not be executed because Mr. Crosby refused to "pay my client's bill" and that there would be no further discussions unless the local homeowner agreed to pay ServPro Global DRT $45,409.88 noted the lawsuit.
Your News Channel reached out to Mr. Reed regarding the allegations made in the civil suit and his response will added to this article when it is received.
In response, Mr. Crosby asked for the legal basis for the charges and noted that ServPro "knowingly and deceptively proceeded to work" without authorization from his insurance carrier, that ServPro had admitted to damaging his home's HVAC system, and concluding that the attorney's "time would be better spent counseling your client [ServPro] on ethical and lawful business practices".
On February 19, 2025, Mr. Crosby received notice of a Claim of Mechanic's Lein via certified mail from One Silver Serve LLC., the company that owns ServPro, that had been filed against his property on February 14, detailed the lawsuit.
Mr. Crosby learned at the time and shared with Your News Channel that he was not alone.
Months after the Mountain Fire had swept through the area, Mr. Crosby learned that at least five other neighbors were dealing with similar situations revolving around one-page contracts without estimated costs that ServPro employees had stated were approved by insurance carriers and agreed to in the days after the fire had destroyed or damaged their homes noted the lawsuit.
Work completed in connection with ServPro's remediation crews was, "substandard, incomplete, and in many cases, completely unnecessary" and even some homes already declared total losses by insurance carriers had ServPro Global DRT stating that their work was approved by the same carriers detailed the lawsuit.
"Within days after sending grossly inflated invoices to each of these wildfire survivors, SERVPRO GLOBAL DRT sent victims a Claim of Mechanic's Lien, hoping to extort payments from wildfire victims who had already endured catastrophic losses," added the civil suit. "On May 1, 2025, CROSBY searched the Ventura County Recorder's electronic records and discovered that ONE SILVER SERVE had filed a mechanics lien against CROSBY's property, as well as more than a dozen nearby homeowners, each of whom had sustained substantial personal and financial losses."
According to the lawsuit, ServPro has not reimbursed Mr. Crosby for the HVAC damage they eventually admitted to causing, have not returned personal items removed from his home, and have not repaired additional damage caused by their crews at Mr. Crosby's home.
Your News Channel spoke with Mr. Crosby about the allegations made in the lawsuit and he shared even more details that have come out since filing last year.
According to Christopher Johnson, an attorney representing Mr. Crosby, a hazardous materials inspection was conducted at the recommendation of his insurance carrier inside of his home that showed "significant toxic lead and hazardous material contamination that ServPro's 'cleaning' had entirely failed to identify or remediate" and that other neighbors had vacate their homes due to fire contamination not discovered by ServPro.
Johnson went on to allege that ServPro posted more than 125 hazardous-material work notifications claiming that HAZMAT remediation had been conducted and overseen by a California-certified environmental engineer from dozens of wildfire remediation sites.
The environmental engineer who signed the notifications had not conducted such oversight for more than three years shared Johnson who cited Cal-OSHA records in his email to Your News Channel.
"Despite executive changes in early 2026, when then-CEO Alan Reed departed, and private equity firm Orangewood Partners' Operating Partner, Peter Corsa, stepped in as ServPro Global DRT's new CEO, the company has continued to stonewall discovery," Christopher Johnson, a retired U.S. Attorney RICO prosecutor, detailed. "The fraudulent notification scheme alleged here may have affected hundreds of homes where toxic lead, asbestos, and other fire-related hazardous materials were never properly identified or remediated. Wildfire survivors who used ServPro or similar contractors for fire cleanup are urged to obtain independent HAZMAT inspections. Witnesses and additional victims are encouraged to come forward to support the ongoing legal, CSLB [Contractors State License Board], and Cal-OSHA investigations."
The allegations made in the civil suit and since about ServPro and its ownership remain allegations and have not been conclusively confirmed in a court of law.
Your News Channel was able to confirm that on July 8, 2025, the Los Angeles District Office of the U.S. Department of Labor opened an investigation into One Silver Serve LLC. related to an unspecified safety and health related complaint.
While Mr. Johnson's claims about the nature of the investigation have not been independently confirmed by Your News Channel, the investigation's timeline aligns with Mr. Crosby's civil suit's allegations leading to an investigation the month after filing in Ventura County Superior Court in June of last year.
In order to confirm the details of that ongoing investigation, Your News Channel is working alongside the California Department of Industrial Relations regarding a public records request for the materials.
Your News Channel has reached out to One Silver Serve LLC./ServPro Global DRT multiple times about the allegations and its response will be included in this article once it is received.
