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Spring Hill home builder cited after complaints

Customers say the work was delayed and shoddy and subcontractors' liens were put on their homes.

By DAN DeWITT
Published March 28, 2006

SPRING HILL - The county Development Department, responding to repeated complaints from customers of Designer Homes Inc., has cited the company for failing to pay subcontractors' liens and ignoring notices of building code violations.

Ray Heyduk, an investigator for the department, said the county had resisted taking any action against the Spring Hill builder for several months, hoping to allow Designer to work off its debts and complete its contracted jobs.

He relented, he said, "because (customers) called the county commissioners. They got on my boss (Grant Tolbert), and he got on me."

"It's unfortunate," said Tolbert, director of the Development Department. "This is something I do as a last resort because we really want to see these houses completed."

But the county has been flooded with complaints from Designer customers about shoddy work, long construction delays and subcontractors' liens placed on their homes. The customers said the action is long overdue.

"The county said that if they did anything, it would put (Designer) under," said Sherri Romanowski, whose unfinished home in Spring Hill carries two liens worth $14,000. "But it might have been better if it did put them under, because then I might be in my house."

The Sheriff's Office and the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which issues contractor's licenses, are investigating customers' complaints against the company but have not taken any action, representatives from both agencies said Monday.

The civil citations filed by the Development Department, which could result in $27,000 worth of fines, stem from 12 of Designer's contracts to build single-family homes, Heyduk said. Most of the complaints are for failing to pay liens filed against the properties by subcontractors that Designer has not reimbursed for work.

State law says builders are subject to fines if they fail to pay off such liens within 75 days.

Designer, which has built homes in Pasco and Citrus counties, has 15 liens that have been outstanding at least that long, Heyduk said; because the hearing before a special master will not be held until May 24 - and because several other liens on Designer projects are near the 75-day limit - the total number of citations will likely climb, Heyduk said.

On several of the 12 properties, Designer has ignored "red tags" that inspectors place on work that does not meet county code. The contractor is required to contact the Development Department within seven days of the time a red tag has been issued, Heyduk said. In several instances, Designer has allowed months to pass without responding to the tags, Heyduk said.

Designer has about 30 unfinished contracts, said David Pfleger, the company's owner. He said Monday, as he has in the past, that the company's problems started in October 2004 with the death of his brother, Don Pfleger, who was then the company's only licensed contractor. Making matters worse, David Pfleger said, Designer had expanded rapidly that year. That left it struggling to find adequate building materials and qualified workers after that year's hurricanes and during the ongoing building boom, Pfleger said.

He said an investor from Chicago, whom he declined to name, has agreed to "get us some money so we can get these liens paid off and have some operating capital to move forward."

He blamed the citations on the complaints of customers, not on the county.

"This was instigated by homeowners who didn't get their houses done on time," he said, "and it really forced the (development) department into doing this."

--Dan DeWitt can be reached at dewitt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6116.

[Last modified March 28, 2006, 03:01:29]