PITMAN, N.J. (PRWEB) December 15, 2017
Smart Vent Products, Inc., a leader in wet and dry floodproofing solutions, announced that the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey {case number 13-5691} ruled Crawl Space Door Systems, Inc., {CSD}, a competitor of Smart Vent, falsely represented its flood vents to be compliant with FEMA’s Technical Bulletin 1, August 2008 {TB-1}.
CSD’s false claims may have misled homeowners that CSD flood vents were compliant with FEMA’s TB-1, which has strict standards for flood protection. Smart Vent filed the unfair competition suit against CSD in 2013 to primarily help ensure that homeowners don’t lose their largest asset, their home and its irreplaceable contents, and businessowners don’t lose the company store, because un-certified and ineffective flood vents failed to meet federal standards.
Smart Vent’s state-of-the-art flood vents are certified by the International Code Council Evaluation Service. This body evaluates mass-produced engineered flood vents, including the underlying manufacturing processes and quality controls, ensuring compliance with FEMA TB-1 regulatory criteria. Smart Vent’s flood vents stay closed until they come in contact with flood water. Flood waters lift the internal floats, which unlatch and allow the flood door to rotate open. This allows the flood water to automatically enter and exit through the frame opening, relieving pressure from the foundation walls. And unlike some competitors’ products, Smart Vent flood vents feature large unobstructed openings that allow flood debris to easily pass through instead of being trapped against screens or smaller openings.
“Our mission at Smart Vent is and always has been to provide the best flood protection solutions and information available,” said Tom Little, VP of Smart Vent. “Every year thousands of Americans suffer catastrophic flood damage to their homes or other structures because they aren’t adequately protected. So when we see a company making false claims about its flood vents, we feel obligated to take action and safeguard consumers whether they are our customers or not. This decision reaffirms the superiority of the Smart Vent products line in the United States’ marketplace.”
U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle ordered that Crawl Space Door Systems, Inc., its employees, agents and others acting on its behalf were permanently barred from falsely advertising that its mass-produced, louvered flood vent products were FEMA TB-1 compliant. The court injunction noted “CSD failed to provide any evidence to rebut a finding of deception or materiality” and the order “furthers the public’s interests by protecting consumers (from) the deception and confusion caused by CSD’s false advertising of its flood vents.”
Little said, “With so many people rebuilding homes in Texas and Florida after the recent hurricanes, this ruling couldn’t be more timely.”
Smart Vent’s Flood Risk Evaluator division has set up a hot line 800-507-0462 and e-mail consumerconcern@yourfloodrisk.com to provide free evaluations of homes and buildings that have this falsely advertised flood vent in their foundations and any other questions consumers have about protecting their structures. Smart Vent will review property characteristics to ensure that there are enough flood vents to adequately relieve estimated flood water pressures which can lead to devastating damage.
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About SMART VENT PRODUCTS, INC.
Founded in 1997, Smart Vent Products, Inc. is the leading manufacturer of foundation flood venting systems and has an ICC-ES Certified product line with dual-function and insulated engineered models for residential and commercial applications. Smart Vent is providing over 100 million sq. ft. of certified flood protection around the world today. A new division called the Flood Risk Evaluator (http://www.yourfloodrisk.com) was recently born to evaluate and provide detailed reporting to property owners on what can be done to reduce rising NFIP flood insurance premiums. For more information about SMART VENT PRODUCTS, INC., call 1-877-441-8368 or visit http://www.smartvent.com.
Media Contact:
Christian Scarborough
Inventive Public Relations
512-297-6426
christian(at)inventivepr(dot)net