DENVER — A person who had been convicted of bilking traders out of 1000’s of {dollars} and who professed his love for God whereas promoting tiny houses on-line swindled homebuyers out of their life financial savings for dwellings that had been by no means delivered, three alleged victims stated in lawsuits filed in federal and state courts.
Developer Matt Sowash, founding father of the Colorado-based nonprofit Holy Floor Tiny Properties, promoted the small residences on social media, together with to his 80,000 TikTok followers, with brief movies portraying an upbeat, God-fearing man promoting the American Dream — inexpensive houses with financing and no credit score checks.
“For those who can’t pay for a home , we are able to finance you. Holy Floor Tiny Properties. Get yours as we speak,” Sowash stated in a single TikTok video.
“Nice home, out there now, round $45,000 is what this goes for. Are available and take it away,” he stated in one other video, sporting a T-shirt adorned with “Religion Over Worry.”
Sowash stated in an interview that he by no means got down to make the most of homebuyers, however he’s unsure he’ll have the ability to construct the 250 houses already paid for, in full or partly.
He acknowledged that due to provide chain issues and the rising prices of development supplies, his nonprofit is as much as three years delayed. The houses are made at a warehouse in Arapahoe County, Colorado, the place he employs no less than 25 employees.
“A sensible businessman would have filed for chapter, after which he’s off the hook and might begin contemporary once more,” Sowash stated. “Then all these individuals lose. I’m clearly not a sensible enterprise man, as a result of I can’t sit again and watch all these individuals lose houses.”
A plaintiff in one in all three lawsuits filed in opposition to Sowash stated in an interview that the builder’s persuasiveness and Jesus-loving persona satisfied her to half together with her hard-earned money.
“That’s a part of what offered me. He’s charming, convincing and I imagine in God,” stated Clara Virginia Davis, 24, an elementary schoolteacher in upstate New York.
Davis wired $42,000 to Sowash in January for an 8-by-28-foot modular residence with an open flooring plan, entrance porch and wood-burning range. It was presupposed to be delivered by Aug. 1, in time for the primary day of college, but it surely by no means arrived.
“I gave him my life financial savings,” Davis stated.
Davis filed a lawsuit in opposition to Holy Floor in August in U.S. District Courtroom in Colorado, searching for a refund and different damages.
She stated she resides in a camper with out insulation and except her home arrives earlier than winter, she’ll be pressured to stop her new job and transfer in with one in all her mother and father in New Jersey.
“I’m simply extraordinarily determined,” Davis stated.
Sowash stated he tried to name Davis about her residence however by no means heard again till her lawyer reached out a few weeks later wanting to barter a settlement. Sowash stated the house was not scheduled to be accomplished till subsequent month however development was presupposed to have began three weeks in the past.
In one other lawsuit filed in June in Arapahoe County District Courtroom in Colorado, Robyn and Mark Bellamy, who reside in Oregon, stated they paid Holy Floor practically $70,000 final yr for 2 modular houses they by no means obtained.
The Bellamys and their lawyer couldn’t be reached for remark, however the lawsuit lays out their case:
Robyn Bellamy paid $47,924 in February 2021 for a house that was scheduled for supply 5 months later. When the deadline approached, Holy Floor knowledgeable her that supply could be delayed. Then it was delayed time and again and once more.
She was final knowledgeable her residence could be delivered in Could, however she nonetheless has not obtained it. She demanded a refund, however Holy Floor stated it might give her the cash again provided that it was capable of promote the unbuilt construction to another person, in keeping with the swimsuit.
Mark Bellamy stated he agreed to pay Holy Floor $32,477 in installments over 12 months for a tiny residence of his personal two months after his spouse purchased hers. However as uncertainty in regards to the firm turned obvious due to his spouse’s experiences, he stopped making funds after having already dropped $21,600. He demanded a refund however was by no means given one.
“We’re nonetheless within the course of with that swimsuit,” Sowash stated. “They had been on our construct checklist. I had known as them as much as begin engaged on their (flooring) plans they usually stated to remain in touch with their lawyer.”
Sowash has confronted loads of authorized issues previously. He was sentenced in 2009 to 5 years in jail for bilking greater than $470,000 from traders who gambled on an novice poker league he had based and for stealing $140,000 from three different traders who thought he was searching for funding alternatives for them.
He ended up serving about two years of his sentence.
Sowash was additionally the goal of a 2007 homicide plot devised by a dissatisfied league investor and a personal investigator the investor had employed, in keeping with legislation enforcement officers in Colorado.
The lads deliberate to kidnap Sowash, pressure his legs right into a field with toxic rattlesnakes till they bit him after which take him to a mountain climbing path the place he could be left to die. The plot was by no means carried out and every man pleaded responsible to 1 rely of extortion.
Sowash, who’s at present on parole, stated he “discovered God” whereas serving his jail sentence 13 years in the past.
“I used to be saved in a jail cell again in 2009 and from that time on, God gave me a imaginative and prescient to like and serve the group,” he stated. “I believed constructing tiny houses could be a good way to supply funds for that.”
A self-proclaimed lifelong handyman, Sowash stated he constructed his first tiny residence out of his storage in 2019, promoting it for $12,000. From there, requests for houses started rolling in, he stated.
The constructions are all 8-feet vast however will be so long as 14 ft, with the common price being about $29,000, he stated.
His newest authorized bother got here on Sept. 2 when lender Kinetic Direct Funding filed a lawsuit in opposition to him and his nonprofit, Revelations in Christ, in state court docket in Brooklyn, New York.
Sowash stated he took out a $400,000 mortgage from Kinetic to construct the tiny houses, however he couldn’t sustain with funds due to a excessive rate of interest.
“I simply couldn’t do it,” he stated.
Kinetic Direct Funding officers didn’t return telephone calls searching for remark.
Sowash knowledgeable his clients in an Aug. 31 letter that residence deliveries had been as much as three years delayed.
“The previous a number of months have been very exhausting when it comes to the struggles related to ensuring everybody both will get the house they ordered” or receives a refund, Sowash wrote.
Sowash stated within the letter that Holy Floor has delivered greater than 250 houses previously 20 months, however practically 100 had been offered at lack of $8,000 to $10,000 every due to excessive materials prices.
For Theresa Meggitt of Lakewood, Colorado, who paid $14,000 for a tiny residence in February 2021 that she by no means obtained, Showash’s rationalization doesn’t lower it.
“No person will do something, and I’m pissed off,” stated Meggitt, 54. “They nonetheless haven’t began on my residence, and I don’t suppose they’ve intentions to.”
Meggitt stated she hasn’t filed a lawsuit as a result of she’s nonetheless holding out hope her residence will probably be constructed.
“She’s positively one of many ones on our construct calendar that’s developing very shortly,” Sowash stated.
Alexandra Maes, 28, of Greeley, Colorado, stated she was touched by Sowash’s professed love of God and speak of utilizing a few of the proceeds to construct a sober residing heart for individuals in restoration. She used her and her associate’s life financial savings of $25,000 to purchase their dream residence, she stated.
It arrived in November, six months late, however there have been holes within the partitions all through the home, which she marked with blue tape, and one other gap that was coated up with items of wooden, amongst different defects, she stated. Sowash refused to make repairs, she stated.
Sowash stated he didn’t bear in mind Maes however that he has all the time repaired houses if there may be structural harm upon supply.
“There’s by no means been a buyer that we now have refused to exit and care for,” Sowash stated. “I might love to have the ability to look into that additional.”
Maes stated she will be able to’t afford to file a lawsuit or restore the home.
“I don’t have the cash,” stated Maes, a psychological well being counselor. “It’s been a nightmare from the start. He ropes you in on faith. He proclaims to be a Christian man serving to individuals with restoration.”
