Owners say ''dream'' home became anything but
Sean Regan began noticing problems in his home, near Pretty Lake in Norfolk’s Ocean View section, a couple of months after moving in, including doors not closing quite right, cracks appearing in walls and pieces of exterior siding falling off.

Owners say ''dream'' home became anything but

Sean Regan began noticing problems in his home, near Pretty Lake in Norfolk’s Ocean View section, a couple of months after moving in, including doors not closing quite right, cracks appearing in walls and pieces of exterior siding falling off. STEVE EARLEY PHOTOS/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

Just a couple of months after moving into the $575,000 home in March 2005, however, they began to notice doors not closing quite right, windows not aligned properly, cracks appearing in walls and pieces of exterior siding dropping off.

What had begun as a dream soon turned into a nightmare, the couple says.

To top it all off, they learned that someone else owned a strip of land between their home and Pretty Lake.

In court documents filed June 5, Regan and his wife, Lara Kain, said Norfolk Code Official Lynn Underwood failed them by issuing a certificate of occupancy less than four months before finding 33 code violations in their home.

The court filing is the latest turn in a protracted dispute between Regan and Kain and their builder, Jim Barletto of Academy Enterprises LLC.

A support for a balcony is nailed to a side wall of Sean Regan and Lara Kain’s house.

Among the code violations cited in July 2005: inadequate flood vents, the use of wood not intended for exposure to weather, improper support for decks and the lack of flood-resistant materials below the flood line.

Brenda J. Marks, whom Regan and Kain have hired as a home construction advocate, has taken the couple's case directly to the Norfolk City Council with an e-mail complaint and said she might address the council today. She has demanded action for Regan and Kain and other homeowners in the same neighborhood with complaints about Barletto's company.

"I just feel no one's monitoring - it's just build, build, build," Regan said.

In an interview last week, Underwood and Deputy City Attorney Cynthia Hall declined to respond to specific questions about the couple's home.

Underwood cautioned that there are limits to what he is allowed to force a contractor to do and that a certificate of occupancy does not mean a home is free of all defects.

Regan and Kain say Underwood first let them down by issuing a certificate of occupancy March 28, 2005, the same day they closed on their home.

Less than four months later, on July 11, 2005, Underwood ordered the builder to correct 33 code violations.

Underwood sent follow-up letters to Barletto in August and September, before formally issuing a notice of violation in September citing 23 code violations and reporting him to the state Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation.

In December 2005, Barletto signed a "consent order" with the state, acknowledging that he had hired three unlicensed subcontractors to work on Regan's and Kain's home. He was fined $1,650.

The state also noted that Barletto completed remedial education for contractors at Tidewater Community College in September 2005.

In early November 2005, Underwood ruled that all of the code violations had been corrected, and the state closed its case on the home.

However, Regan and Kain said problems remained and that a handful of the issues still are being addressed.

Barletto has declined to comment, referring all questions to his attorney, Todd Fiorella of the Norfolk law firm Fraim & Fiorella. Mayor Paul Fraim is Fiorella's partner.

"There's no way you're ever going to make these people happy," Fiorella said of Regan and Kain. "This is not about getting their house repaired. Everything is a major catastrophe as far as the Regans are concerned."

Fiorella said the city attorney had issued an opinion stating there is no conflict of interest for Fraim's firm to be involved in the case. He said Barletto has "bent over backwards" to accommodate Regan and Kain, and defended Underwood as well.

"From our perspective, Mr. Underwood has done everything he is supposed to do," Fiorella said.

Fiorella also represents Keith Hurley of Hurley Properties International LLC, the development firm that sold the home to Regan and Kain. Hurley referred all questions to Fiorella.

Along with facing the list of construction-related problems, Regan and Kain say they bought a home that was marketed as "waterfront" property but turned out not to be.

Hurley knew nothing about the ownership of any land between the couple's home and Pretty Lake, Fiorella said.

Alice Sheldon of Judy Boone Realty represented Regan and Kain, while Susan S. Williams, with Re/Max, listed the property for Hurley, according to state records.

On April 19, 2005, less than a month after they moved into their home, Regan and Kain learned from the city's real-estate assessor's office that Clark Investments LLC owned a piece of property between their home and the water, according to state records.

An informal fact-finding conference of the state Real Estate Board recommended a $2,500 penalty for Williams in April 2006, but the full board voted May 11 to close the file with a finding of no violation.

Reach Robert McCabe at (757) 446-2249 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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