FAIR OAKS, Ark. — ABC10 first reported in July about problems coming from a Fair Oaks based company aimed at selling tiny homes, or ADUs, to people looking to expand. Hundreds of Northern California families claimed the company took their money and left their projects unfinished. Now, the state is involved as a group of homeowners share an intimate conversation about how the company took hundreds of thousands of dollars from them.
Five homeowners sat down with ABC10 and they all have the same thing in common. They all trusted and hired Anchored Tiny Homes to build them an ADU on their property. Throughout the process, the company failed to provide updates to the homeowners, leaving them to wonder if they'd ever have a finished ADU.
"I now feel like I've been sort of duped by that," said Sunny Lombardi in Sacramento.
All five homeowners say the company left them with unfinished projects. In July, Anchored Tiny Homes' CEO Colton Paulhus told ABC10 he was sorry to everyone he disappointed and that the company grew too fast, making it difficult to finish projects, pay contractors and employees.
"It is our intention to finish every single job. It is not our intention to stop projects. We're not abandoning people and leaving them high and dry," Paulhus told ABC10 in July.
Weeks later, he told his employees he couldn't make payroll. In August, Paulhus announced the business would be closing and filing for bankruptcy. Court records show the company has yet to file for bankruptcy. Former contractors and employees tell ABC10 they have yet to be paid the money they're owed.
"They are trying to save time and keep us from suing them," said Katie Lucas in San Leandro.
"It makes me feel like they're continuing to do what they want to do and they can start another business and continue with the scam in another avenue and until they're stopped, they're just gonna continue to do it," said Crystal Meyers in Woodland.
Paulhus told ABC10 he since tried to launch a company to help contractors with marketing. As for Anchored Tiny Homes, the Contractors State License Board confirms it launched an investigation and is working with the state Attorney General and Sacramento County District Attorney's Office. The CSLB has also suspended the company's contractors license, due to a cancellation of their contractors bond.
"CSLB can't act without honest, hardworking homeowners and other complainants coming to CSLB and bringing these things to the attention of CSLB. So now, we can get further ideas to educate the public so we can weed out the bad actors," said John Kinn with CSLB.
The state recently took suggestions from impacted homeowners to possibly implement changes when it comes to contractors licenses, to try and prevent this from happening again.
"We may need to look at why banks are not requiring escrow accounts today. If you go back 10-15 years ago, the banks would have an escrow officer to actually go out to the job site. They would look and see if the work was done, before they would authorize payment for that work, and you're just not seeing it currently," said David Fogt with CSLB.
Recently, the Better Business Bureau revoked Anchored Tiny Homes' accreditation after failing to maintain at least a 'B' rating, working with the BBB to modify its practices and cooperate with the BBB to fix the underlying patters identified by customer complaints.
ABC10 tried contacting Paulhus multiple times over the past several months about paying employees, his bankruptcy claim and more. He has yet to respond to our requests. The silence has left these homeowners with more questions than answers.
"Where is it all? You know, you're pulling in all these few $100,000 and you weren't paying anybody. Where was it all going? Just show us the paper trail," said Adrian Buckley in Tracy.
With no confidence any of them will see their money again, they want Paulhus to know he did more than just fail at his business.
"I just want them to know we have a face behind every name on their contracts. We have a story and each family is affected in our family, multiple generations," said Mariah Dorn in Lincoln.
Although Anchored Tiny Homes' contractors license is currently suspended, the CSLB says the company does have a chance to respond to try and save their license. If they don't respond in time, the CSLB can revoke their license without a hearing.
If you have been impacted by Anchored Tiny Homes, we want to hear from you. You can email your story to: ToThePoint@abc10.com.
WATCH MORE ON ABC10: Anchored Tiny Homes suspends operations, moves out of Fair Oaks office
