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Cook County State's Attorney Files Lawsuit Against
Local Air Duct Cleaning Business

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against a northwest suburban home air duct and furnace cleaning business charging that the company deceived and overcharged consumers for work that was never completed, State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez
announced today.

The lawsuit alleges that the owners and operators of American Pure Air, Inc, of Arlington Heights, 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. 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 monies 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.  “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 $1000.  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 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 over twenty (20) complaints from members of the public regarding American Pure Air.  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.

For more information on this lawsuit, or to obtain additional information about consumer fraud protections, contact the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Consumer Fraud Unit at 312/603-8700 or visit the State’s Attorney’s website at www.statesattorney.org.