VENICE, Fla. — A Venice veterans group faced going through hurricane season without a roof after they claimed a contractor hired to replace their building’s roof never finished the job.
Last year, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 8118 watched their already aging roof take a hit during Hurricane Milton. While the post used its clubhouse to cook meals and provide supplies and aid for hurricane victims, its building needed attention.
“We had a shingle roof that was in bad shape,” said post Quartermaster Danny Schumann.
WATCH: VFW post claims contractor left veterans without a roof
The post hired Family First Roofing Group, LLC, a company based in Port St. Lucie. Family First Roofing quoted them $75,000, which included removing the old roof, replacing the underlayment, and installing a new metal roof.
Schumann showed how the post paid $40,000, money he said veterans and their families pitched in, along with donations from the community.
Schumann said crews removed the roof, then put up the underlayment, but nine months later, they still hadn’t returned to finish the job.
“He said 6 to 8 weeks he’ll have our roof on and he’s never been back since,” Schumann said. “I’ve called him about 20, 30 times.”
“Every dollar that we waste on roof is less we can spend for veterans in need.”
On top of that, Schumann said the work the roofers did needs to be fixed.
“There’s nails sticking through it, there’s still rotted wood,” Schumann added.
A few towns over, Hiland Weaver hired Family First Roofing after he saw them at the VFW.
“I was looking at a partial repair and then decided let's go with a whole roof,” he said. “The job total was $28,000 and I paid $14,000 by check and they cashed it within a day.”
He said workers removed his roof in December and put up the underlayment, but haven’t returned since.
“You stripped the roof and then you left me high and dry, and you keep giving me excuses, that’s not getting the roof done,” Weaver added.
After waiting for six months, Weaver sued the owner of Family First Roofing, hoping to get repaid for the work that wasn’t done. Since he didn’t want to go through hurricane season without a roof, he paid another company to finish the job.
ABC Action News stopped by Family First Roofing’s Sarasota office and found the door locked.
Consumer Investigative Reporter Susan El Khoury spoke with the owner, Reinaldo Duarte, on the phone. During the call, he claimed he closed the Sarasota office because an employee embezzled around $500,000. Duarte said he couldn’t talk about Weaver’s case because of the lawsuit. He said he’d look into what happened with the VFW then get back about an interview.
Duarte never responded to ABC Action News again, but two days after that phone call
an announcement showed up on the company’s website along with a social media video that stated in part, “Family First Roofing LLC will no longer be accepting new business as our full focus will now be completing outstanding roofing projects we have already committed to.”
The announcement also stated, “In our efforts to grow rapidly, we expanded too quickly and, unfortunately, placed our trust in the wrong individuals to manage new locations.”
Out $40,000, Danny Schumann said the post didn’t know where to turn.
“We’ve tried making police reports out on them, and they said it’s a civil issue,” he said.
Attorney Natalia Ouellette-Grice focuses on business law. She isn’t involved in this case but said contractors could be sued for civil theft.
“Triple damages is statutory for civil theft, that is the damages you are entitled to if you prove it,” Ouellette-Grice said. “Law enforcement is not likely to take a case-by-case basis unless you have an overwhelming amount of evidence that they intended from the very beginning to just run away with your money.”
The VFW members again pooled their money and collected donations to pay another company to install a roof, something Schumann said is costing more than $100,000.
Things are changing at the VFW. You can see crews are working on putting up a new roof – but that’s because the post hired another company. And they’re having to pay more than $100,000.
“We’re not here to make a penny, we’re just here to support veterans,” Schumann said. “Without the local VFW’S a lot of them don’t know where to go.”
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