Hurricane Grant Program Ineffective, Homeowners Say

TAMPA - My Safe Florida Home, the state hurricane inspection program, isn't living up to its name.

Homeowners are complaining about the performance of contractors hired to make safety improvements to their homes, as recommended by a free My Safe Florida Home inspection.

The complaints include shoddy workmanship, improper installation of safety features and delays that stretch from months to a year.

The problems go beyond the work to include reports of theft, harassment and property damage.

Why would residents hire the firms? Each of the contractors was approved by My Safe Florida Home.

The program requires grant applicants to choose from a list of contractors if they want to receive grant assistance up to $5,000.

The Tampa Tribune spent four months reviewing the program's use of approved contractors, interviewing more than 40 homeowners and examining hundreds of pages of documents obtained through public records requests.

Among the findings:

An employee for Plantation-based contractor Stacy Bomar Construction LLC was accused of forging an inspection document so the company could receive final payment. The employee was charged with fraud and theft. The court case is pending.

Homeowners have filed incident reports on at least two other firms, Eagle Development of Largo and Stormbusters of Sarasota. The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office received nine incident reports about Stormbusters, not all of them from My Safe Florida Home customers. Sheriff's officials said the reports were not criminal in nature, and they referred each to civil court. Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies received a theft report on Eagle Development. That case is under investigation.

At least 20 people reported having their deposits taken by two approved contractors that did not perform work according to their contracts. Both firms, Harbor Home Improvements of Boynton Beach and Stormbusters, have since gone out of business.

Attempts to contact both companies were unsuccessful. A lawyer representing Harbor Home Improvements did not return a call for comment.

Seventeen of the 20 people were Harbor Home customers, and three of them reported losing a combined $21,960 in deposits when their money was not returned. Each also abandoned efforts to better fortify their homes because My Safe Florida Home refused to extend their grant deadline, which is a year.

A Bonita Springs contractor, Apollo Renovations and Development, was accused by two homeowners of misconduct, including theft, overcharging, shoddy workmanship and threatening not to finish the work agreed upon unless the firm received thousands of dollars over the agreed contract price.

"I believed since the contractor was on the state's list, if the contractor wasn't doing what they were supposed to, the state would step in," said Diane Christianson, 63, of Bonita Springs.

She spent $26,000, including lawyer's fees, improving her window openings. She hired a lawyer, she said, after the firm refused to finish the job unless she paid an additional $5,000. The company still refuses to return the original blueprints of her home, Christianson said, and workers just finished the job in April, a year after the contract was signed.

Keith Powers of Apollo Renovations and Development referred questions to his attorney, William Hanlon of Tampa. Hanlon declined to comment.

"It's just in the administration of it," Christianson said of the program. "From the beginning, the safeguards were not in place and these contractors definitely were not measured well enough."

Little Vetting Of Contractors

My Safe Florida Home, which is administered by the state Department of Financial Services, was created in 2006, after two turbulent hurricane seasons.

The program offers free inspections to help homeowners determine whether their houses can withstand a severe storm and what safety improvements can be made.

It also provides grant assistance for residents who meet strict eligibility criteria to brace gable ends or reinforce window and door openings. The items covered under grant reimbursement changed in 2007. Improvements such as strengthening roof-to-wall connections with hurricane straps were removed, causing confusion for some homeowners who said they were never notified of the changes.

For nine months, the Tribune has reported on issues with the program - discrepancies and errors in the inspection reports, deficiencies with inspector training, and questions about grant allocations meant to help low-income residents that often are awarded to homeowners at or above the median income.

My Safe Florida Home officials say they were required by law to create the list of approved contractors. As of early May, there were 1,902 contractors on the list.

The list can change week to week. Contractors that receive complaints or violate the participation agreement can be suspended or removed from the program. Some companies have asked to go inactive to sort out business issues; others have gone out of business and have been taken off.

But the Tribune's investigation found that My Safe Florida Home officials don't do much to vet the companies, other than relying on another state agency's Web site.

The program accepts firms based on whether they appear to be licensed through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Some firms have only a local license, which program officials say they also check.

Officials also make sure the companies carry workers' compensation insurance. And the firms must pass a contractor's test, which is offered in-person or online, and sign a participation agreement.

Business and Professional Regulation officials said their only involvement has been to show My Safe Florida Home officials how to research a contractor's license on the agency's Web site.

"It is not within the scope of our mission to evaluate or opine on the contractors listed on My Safe Florida Home," said Sam Farkas, deputy press secretary.

The Web site shows the license status for each firm, as well as any complaints or disciplinary action.

Contractors remain active on the department's database even if they are under investigation for complaints. Investigations are confidential, however, and can take up to a year to become public, if probable cause is determined.

The Complaints

Since May 2007, My Safe Florida Home has received complaints about at least 136 approved firms, including marketing and solicitation violations.

It is difficult to gauge the total complaints received and even the action taken by the program. Some complaint files are incomplete or contain references to homeowners whose specific problems aren't fully explained or documented.

And some people don't complain, even if they have concerns about their contractor or the work performed.

The program put Tampa-based contractor American Storm and Fire Restoration on its inactive list in February after a dispute between its co-owners. The company had received four complaints at the time.

But the Tribune found two other people with complaints: Alice Croteau said she paid nearly $10,000 more than the price she agreed to. Laverne Myers reported shoddy workmanship, including an accordion storm door that was installed improperly and has never closed fully.

The door is off-track, and three screws were never made flush, which would allow the door to close properly.

"The man who put it on said all you need is some WD-40," said Myers, 86, "but WD-40 doesn't do anything."

Neither Croteau nor Myers contacted My Safe Florida Home.

Criteria For Removal

The Tribune picked 32 firms to examine more closely. Those contractors received a total of 78 complaints, but just eight have been removed from the list.

That's the extent of the discipline program officials say they can dispense.

"The MSFH program does not have the authority to punish a contractor," program administrator Tami Torres said.

There are specific violations that require immediate removal, Torres said, such as if a contractor fails to pull permits, overcharges a customer or has disciplinary action taken against it by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation while it is active in the program. But she declined to say how many complaints it takes to be removed from the list.

The Tribune found at least three contractors removed from the list after receiving just one complaint apiece. But seven firms remain listed that have between two and six complaints apiece.

Harbor Home Improvements received 17 complaints but wasn't removed from the list until the company closed and declared bankruptcy.

Some of the 32 firms have prior license complaints and/or disciplinary action on file with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. And 18 of them have complaints on file with the Better Business Bureau of West Florida.

My Safe Florida Home does not check Better Business Bureau complaint records, Torres said, and it doesn't exclude contractors with prior Business and Professional Regulation complaints or disciplinary action.

"DBPR or the local licensing authority has regulatory authority over contractors in Florida," Torres said. "They are required to take appropriate action if complaints are filed against contractors."

My Safe Florida Home officials accept no responsibility when problems occur. That's in the fine print of the program's contractor and homeowner contracts.

Contractors sign an agreement that says the program won't get involved in customer-contractor disputes.

And homeowners have to sign a similar document absolving the Department of Financial Services of responsibility for the "performance or non-performance or adequacy of work" by its approved contractors.

A Homeowner's Nightmare

One firm, Eagle Development, has 13 complaints on file with DBPR and is on probation. The company has 29 complaints in the past 36 months with the Better Business Bureau. And the firm hasn't been approved to pull construction permits in Hillsborough County since 2006.

"The responsibility falls to the contractor to register with a county or city to pull permits," Torres said.

Eagle Development was added to the approved contractor list in June.

Yvonne Robinson knew none of this when she hired Eagle Development in April to work on her Tampa home.

She found out soon enough: Employees from Eagle fell through her garage ceiling, leaving two gaping holes, while installing hurricane straps, Robinson said. The employees, she alleged in a Hillsborough County sheriff's report, later stole jewelry from her upstairs bathroom.

Michael Rubino, the owner of Eagle Development, said he uses a telemarketing company to retrieve the names of people who get approved for grants, which is how he knew to contact Robinson.

He accused Robinson of trying to get out of paying for the work - about $1,800.

A month later, the ceiling holes remain and Robinson's grant improvement work is incomplete. She has filed complaints with state and county officials and the Better Business Bureau.

My Safe Florida Home officials, however, told Robinson that the hurricane straps are no longer covered under grant reimbursement.

Eagle Development was removed from the list after Robinson complained, but she said she was told to allow Eagle Development back into her home to make repairs, even if the firm wasn't approved to work in Hillsborough.

Program officials deny telling her that.

"All this because My Safe Florida Home was going to protect me," Robinson said.

'Out On A Limb'

My Safe Florida Home was created by former Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, and current CFO Alex Sink inherited the program.

Sink has touted the program, encouraging homeowners to sign up during public appearances.

The Tribune requested a phone interview with Sink to discuss problems with the approved contractors. She declined the request and instead sent an e-mail citing a recent customer satisfaction survey.

The survey, released in late April, received input from 5,405 customers - 4,650 who had received an inspection and 755 who had been approved for a grant. That's about 2 percent of the total grant recipients.

Program officials lauded the results for showing that 80 percent of respondents rated their experience as excellent or good and 82 percent said they would recommend the program to others.

"I have personally received many thank you letters from Floridians grateful to have hardened their homes," Sink wrote to the Tribune.

Deborah Levulis wrote Sink about the program, but not to thank her.

She wanted to make safety improvements to her Juno Beach home, but her contractor, Harbor Home Improvements of Boynton Beach, took her $4,000 deposit, she said, and then filed for bankruptcy.

Levulis wrote to the CFO asking for help. A response arrived Jan. 11, but not from Sink.

"I am very sorry to hear that you contracted with them to complete your mitigation work," wrote MSFH senior management analyst Barbara Szumowski. "Regrettably, we cannot assist you with recovering your down payment."

Levulis said she needed more time to find another contractor, and her grant period was about to expire. Grant recipients have a year from being approved to pick a contractor from the list, make the improvements and file for reimbursement.

The program refuses to grant extensions. Instead, homeowners can reapply. Harbor Home Improvements customers were encouraged to find another contractor on the list and rush to complete improvements before their grants expired.

"I would never have used that contractor unless it was on that list," Levulis said recently. "You don't think My Safe Florida Home means 'I'm going to be ripped off by a contractor home.'"

Months after receiving Szumowski's response, Levulis is still angry.

"We shouldn't be exposed to these kind of businesses. Instead, they put us out on a limb and the limb broke. We all fell down," Levulis said.

"It's almost like somebody has robbed me from the state. The state helped rob me. They put me on a silver platter to a bad contractor."

For information on the My Safe Florida Home program, call 1-866-513-6734. Residents can request a free hurricane inspection, apply for a grant (through May 31) or discuss issues with the program.