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Remodeler faces new complaints

A couple accuse him of shoddy work at a steep price.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published January 28, 2007

A St. Petersburg couple say they are the latest victims of Frank Edmund Donofrio, a Seminole businessman who has been accused of shoddy and incomplete remodeling projects paid for with high interest loans he helps them obtain.

Linda and Olufemi Quintin Buraimoh, who live in Childs Park, say they hired Donofrio to build a porch enclosure and install a white vinyl fence.

Work on the fence dragged on from November to January, Linda Buraimoh said, and Donofrio did not complete the project until she threatened to file a complaint with the Pinellas County Construction Licensing Board.

The screen enclosure is cheap, shoddily built and remains incomplete, she said. On top of that, she said, the couple now have a bigger mortgage after paying for unsatisfactory work.

Donofrio, 40, disputes Buraimoh's story.

"We had a signed contract. We did everything by the book. There was nothing that we did wrong there," Donofrio said last week when reached on his cell phone. "Right now, we're busier than we've ever been. We run a good ship."

Concerned about situations like the Buraimohs', the city of St. Petersburg recently awarded an $80,000 grant to Gulfcoast Legal Services, a nonprofit corporation that provides legal assistance to low-income residents.

Tom de Yampert, manager of the city's housing and community development office, said the money will help Gulfcoast assist "residents that are preyed upon by predatory lending."

"We've had predatory lending issues with people going into predominantly our Midtown neighborhoods and we kept seeing more and more of this," de Yampert said. "The need has gotten so great that we needed to have an independent budget, so they could do this at an even greater level."

The city referred the Buraimohs to Gulfcoast when they called to complain.

Joseph Broadus, who has been hired by Gulfcoast to handle such cases, talked about the Buraimohs' complaint late last week.

"When they started off, they had a mortgage of $53,054.63 at 5 percent and payments of $460 a month. They ended up with a $117,600 mortgage at 9 percent, paying $900.08 a month," he said.

Broadus said the settlement statement indicates Linda Buraimoh got $35,136.80. However, he said, Donofrio had her sign the check over to him for the work.

"So now she's got this problem, she's got this enormous increase in mortgage, and she feels she doesn't have the benefit of what she wanted," Broadus said.

Buraimoh, 50, and her husband, 70, a dietary aide from Nigeria, decided to hire Donofrio after getting a postcard from his N&B Construction company at 9534 Seminole Blvd. The postcard promised "no money down home remodeling programs and debt management."

"We had been wanting for three years to do some remodeling at our home," said Buraimoh, who lives on 17th Avenue S. "We went ahead and called up and he basically told us what we needed to get together, W-2's, past income tax returns, pay stubs. He came back later that same week to our home and I provided it. We signed the paperwork."

She said there were no witnesses and no contract for the work to be done.

This is not Donofrio's first dispute with homeowners. In October 2005, he was arrested and charged with grand theft. The charge was related to his transaction with a 65-year-old St. Petersburg woman. He was released on $5,000 bail and entered a plea of not guilty. The case is ongoing.

Ten homeowners also filed a lawsuit against him, alleging fraud. He settled with four of those homeowners, but the terms were confidential. The case involving the other homeowners is proceeding, said Gary Cors, a Clearwater lawyer.

Donofrio, who lives in an upscale Seminole subdivision, said he is trying to resolve all the disputes.

"I'm using all the power in my resources to settle all these cases and make these people happy," he said. "I'd like to get all of this resolved. I've spent thousands and thousands of dollars to pay these things off. I'm not going anywhere."

Donofrio has operated several companies. Under Five Star Remodeling Consultants and Five Star Building Consultants, he solicited work by hanging colorful fliers on doorknobs that told homeowners their neighborhoods had been approved for "Operation Redevelopment," a program that could entitle them to assistance with remodeling projects.

In their lawsuit, nine homeowners from St. Petersburg and another from Clearwater said they mistakenly believed the offer was part of a government program.

Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this article. Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at 892-2283 or moore@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 27, 2007, 21:41:01]