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Builder License Revoked
Wednesday, 31 January 2007

Indian River County revokes builder's license
A Sebastian home builder lost his county license Tuesday and a Stuart aluminum contractor got 30 days to save his.In an 8-0 vote, the county Construction Board of Adjustment and Appeals permanently revoked Eligha Lewis Pryor Jr.'s home-building license in Indian River County after several angry customers — and even his onetime loyal office manager — lined up to accuse him of taking deposits and failing to complete contracts.

Eligha Lewis Pryor Jr. left string of angry customers; contractor Bruce Hurley has 30 days to save his license

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A Sebastian home builder lost his county license Tuesday and a Stuart aluminum contractor got 30 days to save his.

In an 8-0 vote, the county Construction Board of Adjustment and Appeals permanently revoked Eligha Lewis Pryor Jr.'s home-building license in Indian River County after several angry customers — and even his onetime loyal office manager — lined up to accuse him of taking deposits and failing to complete contracts.

"It should be" revoked, former customer Gene Cornell said. "If it was just me, that's no great deal. But you heard the number of people who spoke."

Cornel and has wife, Linda, formerly of South River, N.J., described themselves as homeless while waiting for a home to be built in Sebastian so they could retire near their daughter. Instead, they said, they have to live with their daughter because the home Pryor contracted to build in May 2005 remains a shell.

"It has a roof and windows — but the wrong windows," he told the board.

He said he paid Pryor $204,000 toward construction of the $254,000 home in Sebastian.

Mary Kestner, Pryor's former office manager, said she quit his company in December after watching her boss let customers' building-permit applications sit in his office for months after he should have filed them with the county.

Since then, she said, she is suing him for about $18,000 in unpaid overtime.

Kestner in November 2005 cited Pryor's satisfied customers and begged the board not to revoke his license amid earlier customers' complaints. The board, in fact, reversed its course the following month and gave him a second chance.

"Now I'm asking you to take his license away and never give it back," Kestner said.

Pryor said he has dissolved his company, referring new customers to Vero Beach-based HCH Builders Inc. His attorney, Russell Petersen, said Pryor intends to use his masonry license — which remains in effect — to repay angry customers.

After the vote, he said he isn't worried about future income.

"I'll go to the Bahamas," he said. "I have two Popeye's Chicken restaurants in Gainesville that will take care of me."

HURLEY BUILDERS

In an unrelated case, the board gave 30 days to the embattled Hurley Builders & Developers Inc. to repair its crew's technical mistakes on Oslo area resident Sandra Jansen's pool enclosure.

In the same vote, the board ordered Bruce Hurley, the company's secretary-treasurer, to refund customers who put money down and never saw any work.

"I'm not very happy," Jansen said. "He is not a man of his word."

The board's action leaves Hurley's license suspended, as it had been since March. The company can complete 83 unfinished contracts, but not sell new contracts.

County officials said the company has been able to make good on 14 of the 83 contracts since March.

Hurley said he didn't know how many contracts he still needs to finish. Most of the customers, he said, have dropped off the list, either by suing the company in court, hiring another contractor or giving up on their projects.

Complicating the job is an identity-theft case the state began investigating last year. Hurley has said he discovered the alleged identity theft in October 2005 after people he had never met called him about contracts they supposedly had with the company.

In fact, a Stuart man who fraudulently used the name "Hurley Builders" to legitimize his company — but failed to complete nearly $30,000 in work — was sentenced to probation Tuesday.

Martin County Circuit Judge Robert Belanger sentenced Steven Carl Klix, 45, to three years supervision for third-degree grand theft, contracting without a license and contracting without a license during a state of emergency.

Klix, who failed to appear for a prior court hearing, turned himself in to bailiffs just before pleading no contest to the charges and being sentenced.

Hurley said he would gladly refund anyone who has a legitimate contract with the company.

"But the fraudulent contracts will not get refunds ... unless ordered by the court," he said. "A refund implies we have the funds to begin with."

Jansen said she signed a $12,339 contract with Hurley in April 2005 to repair damage from hurricanes Frances and Jeanne to the pool enclosure at her home on Sixth Avenue Southwest.

Jansen said she put $4,339 down and later paid an additional $4,000, when the company finally got to her project in August 2005.

Then she became outraged when subcontractors used caulk, a brick and a piece of chewing gum to fill a gap left by pieces of aluminum that didn't match.

That was the last straw, she said. She said she isn't even allowing the Hurley crews on her property anymore.

"I'd just like my money back so I can start over with a new company," she said Tuesday.

Staff writer Megan Winslow contributed to this report.

PRYOR HISTORY

Eligha Lewis Pryor Jr.'s business positions include three Vero Beach companies:

• President, Pryor Homes Inc., formed in April 2002.

• Manager, ENS Enterprises LLC, formed in February.

• President, SNE Construction Inc., formed in December.

Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations

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