CHARLESTON – A Charleston man says a house-flipping company hid problems with a home it had sold to him.
Jonathan Brown filed his complaint in Kanawha Circuit Court against Building Appalachia LLC.
According to the complaint, Brown purchased his home in August 2018 from Building Appalachia. Shortly after moving in, he says he began noticing problems with the upstairs bathtub. A plumber removed large amounts of building debris from the pipes, which then began leaking into the kitchen below.
“The plumber noticed that the drain had been packed with sponges and other materials indicating that the original contractors knew of the problems,” the complaint states.
Brown then saw water accumulating in the laundry area of the house downstairs. The plumber returned and found more building debris in the pipes.
“The plumber discovered a crushed pipe which halted their removal of building debris,” the complaint states.
Brown says sewage began to back up into his carpeted living area as well, resulting in more plumbing work. He also discovered the ventilation from the dryer was fed into the interior walls rather than outside.
“All of these ‘building’ issues were created by Building Appalachia’s contractors during the ‘flipping’ process,” the complaint states. “Building Appalachia failed to disclose that there were any issues with the home.”
Brown accuses the defendant of violating the West Virginia Home Improvement Rule and the state Consumer Credit and Protection Act, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and negligence.
He seeks compensatory damages, general damages and specific damages as well as damages for undue and reasonable harassment, oppression, abuse, aggravation, annoyance and inconvenience. He also seeks damages for inflation, punitive damages, interest, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
He is being represented by Troy Giatras and Phillip Childs of the Giatras Law Firm in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Tera Salango.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 20-C-635