DueAll to begin more work on more Willowbrook homes

EAST COUNTY — Seven months into repairs at the East County’s Willowbrook townhome community, where residents have endured moldy living rooms, rotting walls and collapsing balconies, the contractor making repairs says it has learned the skills required to finish the job.

Sal Ventimiglia, owner of DueAll Construction, the nearly four-year-old company Willowbrook’s homeowner’s association selected in October to make repairs on 51 units, says the project has been more difficult than anticipated.

With the first three buildings nearly fixed, Ventimiglia described the repair process as “investigative in nature,” a slow-moving learning experience for DueAll, a company whose experience and competency has been called into question (see sidebar).

“We are working on ways to get more efficient,” Ventimiglia said. “We didn’t expect to find some of the damage we’ve seen. The process will move more fluidly from this point forward.”

DueAll’s work began after residents pressured KB Home — Willowbrook’s developer — to correct the structural issues with their homes.

In February, KB Home agreed to pay for the temporary relocation of Willowbrook residents whose properties required repairs and were deemed unlivable.

KB Home set aside $2 million for repairs and relocation costs.

Most of the delay in the repairs comes from a complex approval process. Before DueAll can make the repairs, three engineering firms, one each hired by DueAll, the homeowners association and the county, must agree on what specific repairs are necessary and how to fix them.

If one party disagrees on a component of the damage, DueAll cannot make the fix.

“When we were first contracted to do this, we thought we were only doing work on the back deck of buildings, but we found out we had to fix the sides and front of the buildings,” Ventimiglia said. “It changed the scope of our work.”

Ventimiglia said DueAll will begin fixing the first four-unit building June 10.

“We had our suspicions about DueAll, and we looked into it,” said Brandon Crismon, Willowbrook’s HOA president elected in January. “But it’s hard to find fault with DueAll’s pace. I’m confident in them. We all just want this to be over.”

Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected].

+ Defamatory claim
DueAll Construction is suing two of the community’s residents for defamation.

Gainesville-based attorney John D. Campo filed the suit on DueAll Construction’s behalf May 16, in Manatee County Circuit Civil Court, against Willowbrook residents Andy Smith and Armando Oyola-Delgado.

Smith, a Willowbrook resident since 2006, created and runs a website, www.thekbhome.com, as a way for homeowners to dialogue about their experience with KB Home.

In April, a post on the site said DueAll had misrepresented its ownership, because residents only knew Sal Ventimiglia as the owner of the company and did not know about co-owner Anthony Robbins.

The post alleges DueAll hid Robbins’ ownership in the company because of his prior criminal conviction.
Robbins was sentenced to seven years probation in 2007 for trafficking cocaine.

Ventimiglia said Robbins is only a “partner” in the company.

Smith says he can’t trust DueAll to repair his home correctly.

“I am not going to be intimidated, and I am not going to take down the truth,” Smith said. “You shouldn’t be intimidated for doing the right thing.”

The suit states that Smith is “trying to discredit DueAll and its owners by portraying them as dishonest and lacking in moral character as a result of Robbins’ criminal conviction.”

It continues: “Smith’s assertions are without any merit or factual basis.”

“DueAll is not the story here,” Ventimiglia said. “We have done so much for that project (Willowbrook). Andy has a different agenda. He doesn’t want the project to succeed.”

The suit alleges that DueAll has suffered damages as a result of the publication of those statements and is entitled to recover them.

Oyola-Delgado is included in the suit because he created a banner, detailing Robbins’ conviction, that hangs on the tailgate of his pickup truck.

Oyola-Delgado received a cease-and-desist letter April 26 warning of legal action for “casting DueAll in a derogatory and improper manner.”

The suit comes after KB Home, developer of Willowbrook, filed a lawsuit against the 41 subcontractors it used to build the homes. DueAll is not one of those subcontractors.