All Forum Posts by: Stephen Smith

Quote from @Kimberly Johnson:

Quote from @Kyle Wegg:

File a criminal complaint and send it to the DOJ. Jeff Beach seems to have a lot of money from clients. 

 Does anyone have an online link where we could all do this?  

 If the property is within the City of Cape Coral, report it to the Cape Coral Police Department. If outside the City of Cape Coral, Lee County Sheriff Financial Crime unit.

Cape Coral Police Department are aware of BTC and Jeffrey Beach and would be happy to hear from you.

FYI, 

13 motions for default have just been filed by two previous customers of BTC, totaling around $ 420k.  In addition, a motion for default was filed against an outstanding mortgage for another $ 367k which was personally guaranteed as well.

Keep watching the Kiyo v BTC and Dream CQ Holdings V BTC cases as both of these have a potential basis for piercing the corporate veil.  Also, May Holiday V BTC has a claimed fact "In January 2024, Blacktip’s president, Jeffrey S. Beach informed May Holiday that there are no funds to start the construction let alone finish construction on the Property."

Things are starting to get really tight for them now, and starting to come to a head.

Quote from @Benjamin Sampson:

Good morning. 

I have a new build with Blacktip. It is 58% complete and just passed the end of the build contract last week (24 months). 

For over the past month I have not been able to get ahold of Jeff Beach, he will not reply to email, text or phonecalls. 

I also received a letter from the county saying that my property is in violation of several health and safety codes. 

I have around $130k in this project so far and am worried that I am going to have to take a huge loss on this project. 

Any advice welcome. 

Talk to a Florida construction attorney ASAP.  Blaxktip is in serious trouble with a warrant just about to be issued for contempt of court.

A garnishment of his bank account happened the other day wiping out his Chase bank account balance.  This is the second time this has happened as the same happened to his bank of ozarks bank account.  The worst thing here is people who he recently took money from - yes some people are still being conned out of their money - lost it all to the court.

I can see him working on 4 houses at the moment, and each ia having work performed out of sequence with 3 of the 4 still having no front entrance door installed, but they have still finished the internal walls and laid the flooring.  Crazy !

Protect yourself and speak to an attorney.  He is still not paying vendors and subs.  Yesterday I was talking to and architect and engineer who is owed money.  The list gets longer and longer.

Quote from @Kyle Wegg:

We have been informed, and verified, that Blacktip has approximately 30 cases in litigation in Lee County, and approximately $150,000 in accumulated judgments against it. Of the cases pending in Lee County, there is an active case, whereby the Plaintiff is alleging approximately 5 million dollars against Blacktip, and one alleging $150,000.

There may be more cases, judgments, or settlement agreements that we are unaware of.

Two of these cases are worth watcching closely.

The first is case 23-CA-005823 KIYOS CONCRETE INC Plaintiff vs BLACKTIP CONSTRUCTION GROUP INC et al Defendant. Kiyos is a shell contractor who performed over a million dollars of shell work and never got paid. What makes this one interesting is that $ 367k of this relates to work on 8600 Belle Meade Dr, a property that BlackTip owned, then transferred into another LLC after the suit was filed into Jeff's personal name. IMHO, clearly pierced the corporate vail here. This case is due to go to depositions in August.

The second is case 23-CC-005098 Sherwin Williams Company Plaintiff vs Blacktip Construction Group Inc Defendant.  A final judgment was issued in the case on 2/14/2024.  A motion for contempt of court was filed on 4/2/2024 as BlackTip had no attorney and failed to file the court-ordered financial information sheet after the judgment.  Following a hearing on 7/2/2024, BlackTIp was given 30 days to appoint an attorney as well as file the FIS sheet.  The court made it clear if neither of these things happened, a warrant would be issued for his arrest.  To date, neither item has happened, and the deadline is 8/1/2024.

It is also interesting to note that Jeff filed his own "Answer and Affirmative Defenses" in a number of cases this month and signed these as "Counsel for Defendant".  I don't believe he is a member of the Florida Bar.  Only attorneys are allowed to represent corporations and LLCs  in Florida.

Going to be very interesting to watch these cases move forward.

You are correct, this can happen, however, if your application is full and complete this is an expectation.  Also, if you know the supervisor to speak to when you get an issue, this helps ;-)

With private provider plan review, this is indeed an option, and the building department is required to reduce the permit fee.  I find this option best if you are on a tight time frame and need to save a couple of weeks.  I wish the Department of Health would accept private provider plan reviews for septic tank permits.  They are currently 10 weeks, and required before you can make a permit application for a house.

Hi Joe,

Here is a link to the Florida statute regarding a local building department issuing permits within 30 working days.  I also enclose below the text of the relevant section for ease.

https://www.flsenate.gov/laws/statutes/2020/553.79

QUOTE

(14) A building permit for a single-family residential dwelling must be issued within 30 working days of application therefor unless unusual circumstances require a longer time for processing the application or unless the permit application fails to satisfy the Florida Building Code or the enforcing agency’s laws or ordinances.

UNQUOTE

The previous link to the City of Cape Coral citizens portal lets individuals see permit details for a specific property address, the progress with applications, and if not using a private provider the status of inspections.  Building departments are obligated to provide these services online.

You can also see code compliance issues using the same search facility.

Hope this helps,

Steve

 It has been a learning experience, for sure.  I will say, the city of Cape Coral's permitting was painfully backed up at the time, and then they shifted to a new system which caused other delays.  Still not 100% sure what I will do at the end of this (we are a long, long way from the 3.5% rates and hot, hot sellers market of December 2021/Jan 2022 when I started looking into this).  I am hoping a small profit is still on the table, but time will tell.

If anybody tells you the delays are due to permitting within the City of Cape Coral, I would argue you are being misadvised.  Florida statute is clear, upon receipt of a valid permit application, the building department must issue the permit or deny it with valid reason within 30 business days.  For every day after the 30-days, the permit fee is reduced by 10% of the permit fee.  Hurricane Ian did delay things slightly, but we are not talking about long delays.  Also, private provider plan review is an option and reduces the lead time for getting a permit.

You can check the status of your permit applications using the City of Cape Coral web portal, link below.
https://energovweb.capecoral.gov/EnerGovProd/selfservice#/ho...

Just to give you an update.

This week, a judgment was issued against Blacktp Construction Group in Lee County, Florida, for over $33k payable to a local stucco company. In Lee County Florida alone, they now have 26 lawsuits filed.

Also, in Harris County, Texas, a garnishment order was issued against Blacktip and various other parties for their Bank of Ozarks bank accounts. So this would explain why new payment requests are on a Chase Bank account.

Remember to get releases of liens from all vendors and subcontractors before making payments. Liens are being filed regularly against Blacktip-involved properties. Also, now that garnishments are being filed, any money Blacktip receives could end up going to somebody unrelated to your project, resulting in more liens for you.

Protect yourself.

Just to give you an update.

This week, a judgment was issued against Blacktp Construction Group in Lee County, Florida, for over $33k payable to a local stucco company.  In Lee County Florida alone, they now have 26 lawsuits filed.

Also, in Harris County, Texas, a garnishment order was issued against Blacktip and various other parties for their Bank of Ozarks bank accounts. So this would explain why new payment requests are on a Chase Bank account.

Remember to get releases of liens from all vendors and subcontractors before making payments. Liens are being filed regularly against Blacktip-involved properties. Also, now that garnishments are being filed, any money Blacktip receives could end up going to somebody unrelated to your project, resulting in more liens for you.

Protect yourself.

FYI, Blacktip Construction Group may be in big financial difficulty. They have multiple pending legal issues totaling over $1.5 million. These relate to unpaid sub-contractors, loan defaults, and mortgage defaults. Over the last 12 months, 70% of their job sites have seen liens filed. Many of their sites have materials missing or have unfinished work with materials being exposed to weather past acceptable time spans. This results in additional expenses being incurred by the owners. Even worse, some job sites have potential mold growth internally.

I have discovered that most of their current job sites appear to have been abandoned or close to being abandoned. Various sites have been red-tagged due to code compliance violations, including permits not being issued before the commencement of work, construction debris and trash lying around the worksite, plus other reasons.

Below is a link to my Microsoft One drive, where I have made available PDF copies of publicly available information regarding their financial position. https://1drv.ms/f/s!AqyCYIHLUkl8i-EuZlpPUgC6eBljgg?e=pnKjwj<... have started writing letters to parcel owners to make them aware of the issues generally and a QR code for photos of their specific projects. Anybody wishing to know more or have questions, please message me for my contact number.

My original post was for removed by an administrator as they classed it as a promotion of business.