They promised to build tiny homes and help families weather the housing crisis, but prosecutors say some California builders instead diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars of customers\u2019 money.<\/p>\n
The Sacramento County District Attorney\u2019s office filed a 35-count criminal complaint against Austin and Colton Paulhus, the brothers who co-founded Anchored Tiny Homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI cried. But it was a good cry,\u201d said San Leandro resident Katie Lucas, a former Anchored Tiny Homes customer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Online, Colton Paulhus boasted that his Sacramento-area company was putting ADU\u2019s in tons of Northern California backyards and raking in serious revenue in 2023. \u201cI can tell you right now a $100 million business,\u201d he said at one point on his defunct podcast.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But now, the Sacramento District Attorney alleges the Paulhus brothers conspired and repeatedly violated state law when they \u201cbilled customers and received payment of approximately $1,046,433\u2026 despite performing no work and supplying no materials.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bay Area customers like Lucas came forward in 2024 to tell NBC Bay Area that Anchored Tiny Homes had abandoned their projects after taking tens of thousands of dollars up front. Soon, the business failed and the state revoked its license \u2013 forcing many families who\u2019d prepaid Anchored Tony Homes to find a new contractor and pay for some work a second time. <\/p>\n
Lucas says she\u2019s been waiting for criminal charges.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a relief to know that something is happening. [And] that somebody\u2019s going to be held accountable for what they\u2019ve done,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
On page after page of the \u201cFelony Complaint,\u201d the district attorney alleges Austin and Colton Paulhus \u201cdid wrongfully divert\u201d money that more than 30 customers had paid them to build an ADU.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Count 21 involves Alan Miller in Oakland. \u201cWe\u2019re all holding the bag,\u201d Miller said in 2024. When NBC Bay Area visited his abandoned, half-built ADU, he said his family was out $80,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, it\u2019s just catastrophic,\u201d he said in 2024. \u201cThey haven\u2019t told us where our money went.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The complaint says the Paulhus brothers took more than $653,000 from company accounts \u201cfor expenses and activity unrelated to company projects.\u201d However, the complaint does not lay out a money trail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Colton Paulhus has said his customers\u2019 money is gone. Currently, he and Austin Paulhus are seeking bankruptcy protection in federal court. Lucas is eager to see what evidence the DA presents in state\u00a0court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping they are somehow able to uncover where all that money is,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
We asked the Sacramento District Attorney\u2019s office for an interview. A rep said, \u201cWe do not discuss pending cases.\u201d We also reached out to attorneys for the Paulhus brothers, but did not receive a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back when Anchored Tiny Homes closed its offices, Colton Paulhus sent me a text message that said, \u201cIt was a failed business and I hate that it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lucas winced. \u201cHe\u2019s right, it is a business that failed. But it was never going to succeed because of how they ran it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Paulhus brothers\u2019 case is on the docket in Sacramento Superior Court next week. NBC Bay Area plans to be in the courtroom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A reminder for you: State law is clear, the maximum a contractor can take from you up front is $1,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They promised to build tiny homes and help families weather the housing crisis, but prosecutors say some California…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[7,32521,191472,3283,121,123,122],"class_list":["post-490867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-california","tag-investigative-unit","tag-nbc-bay-area-responds","tag-responds","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}