Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has filed a lawsuit in state court against physical climate risk modelling firm First Street Technology, alleging the company violates the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act through misleading property risk scores displayed on major real estate platforms.
The complaint, filed on 23 October, targets First Street’s proprietary “Risk Factor” suite, which evaluates flood, wildfire, air quality, and extreme heat risks for individual residential properties listed on portals such as Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor.com. The lawsuit contends that First Street uses free consumer exposure on these public listing portals to generate market adoption and sell paid, property-specific risk reports, while relying on speculative, non-transparent methodologies that artificially depress housing values.
The legal action highlights significant methodology variances between First Street’s flood scores and official Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) floodplain maps. While First Street maintains that its models account for property-level high-intensity rainfall and future climate projections—whereas FEMA evaluates broader community baselines—the state complaint alleges that First Street’s marketing claims regarding transparency, peer review, and scientific accuracy are deceptive.
Key legal, commercial, and market details surrounding the suit include:
- Alleged economic impact: The state claims inflated risk scores cause Florida properties to take longer to sell and fetch lower closing prices, while contributing to rising home insurance costs and refusing homeowner error-correction requests.
- Platform adjustments: Cites internal studies by real estate portals indicating that high-risk scores negatively impact home sales. Zillow altered its display model in late 2025, shifting from displaying First Street scores directly on property listings to providing external links.
- Corporate ownership: Follows the acquisition of First Street by financial analytics provider MSCI in a $120 million (£92 million) transaction announced in June and closed in August. MSCI declined to comment on the litigation.
- Sought remedies and penalties: Seeks a jury trial, injunctive relief prohibiting First Street from describing its models as “peer-reviewed,” “transparent,” or “accurate,” and civil penalties of $10,000 per statutory violation, increasing to $15,000 for violations affecting senior citizens.
In a public announcement detailing the lawsuit, Uthmeier accused the company of using speculative models hidden behind commercial paywalls to market fear and advance an activist agenda under the guise of peer-reviewed science.
First Street and parent firm MSCI have not issued formal statements regarding the active state court proceedings.
