FRANKLIN, North Carolina—
A state licensing board has made a civil complaint saying that a former minister who now builds cabins lied about being a licensed general contractor.
Some of his clients say it’s a fake. They want to know why he hasn’t been charged with a crime. News 13 has learned that it is more common than you might think for a qualified contractor’s name to be used to get permits without their knowledge. It tells people that the permit process is safer in some areas than in others.
ANOTHER DREAM BREAKS
It’s only a little over an acre of land in Macon County, but Raysa Perez, Camila’s mother, has worked on it for decades.
“After losing everything, we chose to come here and start over,” Perez said. “And she did it, she did it.”
The family planned to build a mountain house when they moved from Cuba to Spain and then to the east coast of Florida last year.
“That was one of our dreams, you know, that we could enjoy this together, and then they’ll have this cabin that came from their grandmother and is now theirs,” Perez said. “So there are also a lot of things going on in this.”
It was a dream that was recently broken.
“We believe this takes place in other types of countries where there are no laws and people are not protected.” “I don’t understand why this guy is still on the streets doing the same thing to more people when it was so easy for them,” Perez said.
Putting a face on a contractor
More than 30 people have signed contracts with Jason Speier, who used to be a minister and is now building cabins. Raysa is one of them. Because of her contract, the North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors has asked a judge to stop Speier.
The North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors says Speier has never had a license to work as a builder. For the permits to be valid, he needed the name of a qualified contractor to build the cabins that he was selling for more than $40,000. The case says that Speier owned KI Enterprises at the time, but that the company signed contracts under the name of qualified general contractor Terry Wray Bowling. The autograph on Raysa’s contract is here, and this is Bowling’s real signature. Bowling told Camila in a text message, “His signature was forged,” saying that Perez was telling the truth.
It wasn’t just the deal her mother made. Brad Jones also got in touch with Bowling, whose name was on his deal. He got this answer: “Just a simple one-word answer, definitely not my signature,” Jones replied.
In fact, it’s pretty usual for someone other than the contractor to sign the project’s permit.
What Director Bob Haynes of Buncombe County’s Permit & Inspections Office said about the situation was more useful.
News 13 asked, “Some people have said that’s a fake. Does that happen often?”
Haynes replied, “It happens a lot. A lot of people come in to get their permits. When we ask for their workers and subcontractors, they might not know who they are, so they’ll just list someone.
HOW TO MAKE SURE YOUR PROJECT IS DONE
To keep your project on track, here’s how you can check in on it:
The difference is that in Buncombe County, these things happen:
“If you’re a licensed contractor in our system database, you get an email telling you that your name is on a permit,” Haynes said.
In some places, that’s not the case. News 13 checked with six other mountain counties, but only two had the same process.
What does it matter? A qualified contractor needs to have insurance and a bond. If something goes wrong, they have liability insurance. Bowling wrote a letter criticizing what Kabens did.
People like Camila Perez told the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office about the problem, but they said she was ignored.
She said, “I had to talk to a boss and file a complaint, but no one is paying attention to me.” “I’m talking about $90,000, I’m talking about a forgery.”
Her case is one of four that have been seen. The Federal Bureau of Investigation called her not long ago. There was also worry about her mom, she said.
“My mom’s mental health is ruined,” Perez said.
She lost $90,000 and doesn’t know if she’ll ever get it back.
“This is like a nightmare, but it’s not a nightmare; it’s just crazy,” Perez said. “This is crazy, crazy.”
The Wake County case is still open and has no meetings planned.
News 13 tried to get in touch with Jason Speier by email and text message, but after a few days, they hadn’t heard back.
