EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah — Last summer, a salesman from HavenHub knocked on Tiffany Velez’s door.
Velez had recently closed on a brand-new house in Eagle Mountain. The backyard needed to be landscaped. And HavenHub’s website advertises that it can “Transform your home today.”
“We hired them to do the entire backyard,” Velez said of HavenHub.
Velez paid $42,885. After the job was finished, she received confirmation from HavenHub that her balance due was zero.
Yet, a subcontractor has filed a legal action against her seeking payment.
At least 11 other homeowners across the Wasatch Front have received similar notices, according to records obtained by FOX 13 News. The notices are from two different subcontractors who say HavenHub did not pay them everything they are owed.
Called mechanic's liens, the notices can be filed at a county recorder’s office against a homeowner’s title by contractors who say they are owed for labor or materials. Subcontractors can also file them against a homeowner — even if their agreement wasn’t with the homeowner.
“It's horrible,” said Velez, who says she feels stuck in the middle of a pay dispute between HavenHub and the company it hired, “just because we did everything we were supposed to do.”
“It's been eight months with no sleep,” said Aubrey Kruitmoes, a Mapleton homeowner who also hired Haven Hub.
Besides having a lien on the title to their home — which could prevent them from selling the real estate, borrowing against it or refinancing any loan — Kruitmoes and her husband have been dealing for months with what they say was poor construction and landscaping by a HavenHub subcontractor they blame for a flood in their basement.
HavenHub is based in Newport Beach, California. Its CEO, Mohamed Youssef, called FOX 13 News after learning its investigative team was inquiring about HavenHub.
Youssef denied any fault in the mechanic's liens that have been filed against HavenHub customers.
“I welcome anybody to come and look at our accounting,” Youssef said in the phone call.
After being asked for that accounting, Youssef told a FOX 13 reporter he wouldn’t be able to understand it and that he hoped the station’s story would be accurate anyway.
‘These homeowners have paid’
Nine of those mechanics liens — including those against Velez and Kruitmoes — have been filed by a company called Harter Contracting.
Its owner, Patrick Harter, provided FOX 13 with a spreadsheet alleging HavenHub owes his business $318,199.
“This summer, we did a whole bunch of work for landscaping” for HavenHub, Harter said in an interview.
While HavenHub paid his business some deposits and invoices, Harter says the outstanding balance includes $16,000 for landscaping Velez’s backyard — the amount he listed in the mechanic's lien.
“It's a moral dilemma that me and my wife struggle with, honestly, like, every day,” Harter said, choking back tears, “because we know that these homeowners have paid.”
Another landscaping company, ProBuilders, has filed mechanics liens against at least three Utah homeowners. The liens also say the work was done on behalf of HavenHub.
Why file what amounts to a legal action against homeowners like Velez and Kruitmoes?
It’s in order to get paid by Utah’s Residence Lien Recovery Fund. It’s for residential subcontractors who do not receive what they’re owed by the general contractor.
In other words, the fund is a way for subcontractors to get paid without making homeowners foot the bill twice. The fund is financed by fees the construction industry pays the state.
But the fund’s rules place a burden on the homeowners. Velez, for example, will have to show the state that she paid HavenHub the amount she agreed to.
She’ll also have to show that the job has been finished, that she owns the house, and even pay a $30 fee to have the state consider an application to remove the lien. If she doesn’t, the lien stays on the title to her house.
Velez said she was considering taking an extended loan against her home that she could borrow against as needed, but while the lien is on her title, “that’s going to be impossible.”
Harter could even try to collect by foreclosing on her, though he says he has no plans to do that.
Balance due
The Kruitmoes’ situation is more complicated than Velez’s.
Like Velez, the Kruitmoes family signed a contract with HavenHub after receiving a knock from a door-to-door salesman.
“He's showing pictures, and ‘We can do this,’” Kruitmoes, in an interview with FOX 13 News, recalled the salesman saying.
The contract called for a concrete patio, decorative rock, sod, stepping stones and drainage, as well as 133 feet of vinyl fence and a gate — all for $25,000.
But Kruitmoes and her husband, Jonathan Kruitmoes, said problems began soon after the subcontractor started work. Their fence was uneven — forming a sort of “M” shape — and heavy rains pooled in their backyard rather than draining, the couple says.
Then water rushed through a backyard, ground-floor window and into their basement. The Kruitmoeses discovered that the subcontractor had poured the new concrete over a sprinkler.
HavenHub sent Harter Contracting to replace the first subcontractor, both the Kruitmoes family and Harter say. Harter says all fixes cost him more than the $25,000 that the Kruitmoes agreed to in their contract. In his mechanic's lien, he’s seeking $39,000.
But the Kruitmoes family has not paid HavenHub the balance of what they agreed to. The couple says they don’t consider their backyard done. Among other things, they want the concrete repoured so it slopes away from the house.
Besides, the couple said, even if they paid HavenHub, they are worried money won’t be forwarded to Harter. They are considering their options.
“Am I excited that I have a lien on my house? No,” Jonathan Kruitmoes said. “But to Harter's credit, had they not developed a relationship with us like they did, I would be much less inclined to pay the subcontractor directly.”
Evicted in Utah
In that phone interview with FOX 13, Youssef contended that HavenHub has paid Harter Contracting more than $850,000, that Harter was “advanced money” and actually owes HavenHub. Youssef accused Harter of “slander” and “defamation.”
Harter denies being the one who owes.
“We have never intended for it to get this far,” he said. “We have only ever wanted to get paid for the work performed.”
When asked about the second company that has filed mechanic's liens against his customers — ProBuilders — Youssef replied, “I don't know anything about ProBuilders.”
Youssef did confirm that HavenHub received a subpoena from the Utah Division of Consumer Protection. So far, no Utah regulator has issued any citation.
Meanwhile, HavenHub appears to be out of business in Utah. It did not renew its contractor license when it expired in November.
The owner of HavenHub’s offices in Woods Cross sued to evict the company, saying in court filings that HavenHub hasn’t paid its lease in months. A judge last month ordered HavenHub to pay $30,159 in back rent, fees and damages.
Meanwhile, Velez still needs to file her application with the lien recovery fund to help Harter get paid and remove the lien from her home title.
Not that she feels like the recovery fund is working for her.
“I don't think the homeowner should be placed in the middle,” Velez said.
Tips for homeowners looking for a renovation or landscaping contractor:
- Verify that the contractor has a license. Among other benefits of using a licensed contractor, the Residential Lien Recovery Fund only reimburses licensed contractors.
- Seek multiple bids.
- Read reviews and get recommendations from friends and families.
- Get a contract. The Utah Department of Commerce has a standard construction agreement online.
- Do not pay money any sooner than the written agreement calls for.