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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nFlorida attorney general’s lawsuit alleges construction company, others preyed on hurricane victims<\/p>\n
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n
According to a news release on Friday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a lawsuit against Evolve Construction, LLC, Evolve Construction & Restoration, Inc., and six principals and officers, accusing the companies and people of using unfair and deceptive practices on consumers who needed roof repair, replacement and water and mold remediation after Hurricanes Ian and Milton.<\/p>\n
The complaint was filed in the Twentieth Judicial Circuit in Lee County and alleges the defendants operated as a common enterprise, the news release said.<\/p>\n
At least 80 consumers from Lee, Charlotte, Sarasota, Hillsborough, Polk, Osceola, Manatee, Volusia, St. Lucie, St. Johns and Broward counties filed complaints, and more than 60% of them are seniors.<\/p>\n
Consumers reported paying more than $1 million for work they did not receive as promised. In addition, insurance payments ranged from $5,000 to $80,000 per property, and the complaint accuses the defendants of collecting funds in full while leaving work unfinished or not started, the news release states.<\/p>\n
According to the complaint, homeowners were reportedly solicited in their home right after the storms and the quality, scope of work and timeline of repairs were misrepresented, the release said.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the complaint notes sales representatives, not licensed contractors, reportedly offered free roof inspections and claimed they were experts. The complaint further alleges the representatives never held sales permits required by state law, and the state accuses them of taking consumers’ insurance benefits and failing to perform the work.<\/p>\n
More allegations from the complaint say that defendants reportedly required consumers to sign a “Contingency Agreement” that did not provide a good-faith itemized estimate of costs, did not include cancellation language required by state law, had an unlawful cancellation penalty deemed as “liquidated damages,” and functioned as an unlawful assignment of insurance benefits.<\/p>\n
Consumers claimed that when they tried to cancel or obtain refunds for work not done, the defendants reportedly refused, the news release said. Some consumers reportedly received partial or poor work that failed inspections and caused more property damage as well.<\/p>\n
Another allegation in the complaint is that the defendants reportedly threatened to place liens on homes, and in some cases recorded liens, including for inaccurate amounts, and pursued foreclosure, even when no work was performed and no materials had been purchased, the news release said. Representatives were also sent to homes to collect payments, which left some consumers reportedly feeling physically threatened.<\/p>\n
The news release said the corporate defendants are Evolve Construction, LLC, a Florida limited liability company organized in 2021 with its principal place of business in Naples, and Evolve Construction & Restoration, Inc., a Florida corporation formed in 2023, also based in Naples.<\/p>\n
The individual defendants named in the complaint per the news release include the following:<\/p>\n
Patrick Antoine of Lee County, an authorized member of Evolve Construction, LLC and secretary of Evolve Construction & Restoration, Inc.Ahmed Darkawi of Hennepin County, Minnesota, an original registered agent, authorized person, and former manager of Evolve Construction, LLC Jarret Gross of Martin County, an authorized member of Evolve Construction, LLC Aleksandr Guldshtadt, also known as Alex Gold, of Los Angeles County, California, former CEO of Evolve Construction & Restoration, Inc. and a former authorized member, registered agent, and manager of Evolve Construction, LLCJohn Vincent of Los Angeles County, California, manager of Evolve Construction, LLC Jaser \u201cJay\u201d Zaabri of Los Angeles County, California, a manager of Evolve Construction, LLC and chief financial officer of Evolve Construction & Restoration, Inc. <\/p>\n
The lawsuit is bringing two counts against the defendants under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, according to the release. One is against the corporate defendants for reported unfair, deceptive, or unconscionable practices in the marketing, sale, and provision of residential construction and restoration services. The other is against the individual defendants for their reported direct participation in, knowledge of, and ability to control those practices.<\/p>\n
The news release said Uthmeier is seeking an injunction to stop the reported conduct, restitution to consumers, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, civil penalties and attorney’s fees and costs.<\/p>\n
Anyone in Florida who believes they were harmed by these companies or similar contractors can file a complaint at MyFloridaLegal.com<\/a> or call 1-866-9-NO-SCAM.<\/p>\n DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida attorney general’s lawsuit alleges construction company, others preyed on hurricane victims TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 According to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[163047,4535,6511,163040,1917,79179,31392,163034,163035,28,7912,163039,30,29,32611,163045,320,1802,163036,163037,3638,163041,4260,356,163042,7447,163046,36888,163044,5387,541,7834,21476,163043,163038,1328],"class_list":["post-411060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-authorized-member","tag-california","tag-complaint","tag-construction-lawsuit","tag-consumer","tag-consumer-complaints","tag-defendant","tag-evolve-construction","tag-evolve-construction-restoration","tag-florida","tag-florida-attorney-general","tag-florida-deceptive-trade-practices-act","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-foreclosure","tag-former-manager","tag-home","tag-hurricane-milton","tag-hurricane-victims","tag-hurricanes-ian","tag-inc","tag-insurance-benefits","tag-james-uthmeier","tag-lee-county","tag-liens","tag-llc","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-mold-remediation","tag-myfloridalegal","tag-naples","tag-news-release","tag-restoration","tag-roof-repair","tag-senior-consumers","tag-water-remediation","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}