Lawsuits continue to pile up for Penticton's Okanagan Extreme Home Builders

A Penticton-based construction company is facing mounting legal battles, with more civil lawsuits filed against them amounting to claims of hundreds of thousands of dollars in allegedly unpaid bills.

Castanet first reported on the legal quagmire in January. Since then, more allegations have been laid against the local business.

The latest lawsuits were filed in B.C. Supreme Court in Penticton and Kelowna throughout March by Remax, Burnco Rock Products and homeowner Randall Browning, all targeting Jason Stutzke and his business, Okanagan Extreme Home Builders (OEHB).

In addition, court records show Stutzke has now been served with a foreclosure petition, having allegedly defaulted on his mortgage.

The petition is seeking an order that the lands and any personal property of Stutzke and OEHB be listed for sale by their own conduct.

According to the petition, demand has been made for the payment of the money owing, but this money has not been paid and to date totals more than $2.5 million, plus accruing interests.

Stutzke also has had liens placed on his property from Twincon Enterprises and MGM Stone, according to court filings.

Under the provisions of the builder lien act to retain a holdback, Burnco has also caused a claim of lien to be filed in the Kamloops Land Title Office for all properties, which means the company would have the right to "keep possession of property belonging to another person until a debt owed by that person is discharged."

Stutzke and his business have faced multiple claims filed against them in the past three months for similar reasons.

Burnco filed a suit against Stutzke on Monday, which included naming the owners of the land of nine properties they allegedly supplied materials for, seeking money owed.

The lawsuits claim that a previous credit agreement stipulated that Burnco would be supplying Stutzke with goods and services, including ready-made concrete.

They allege Stutzke paid certain invoices rendered by Burnco, but did not pay a number of invoices in full, despite their agreement to be paid in full within 30 days.

Under the provisions of the builder lien act to retain a holdback, Burnco has caused a claim of lien to be filed.

In total, Burnco is claiming they are owed roughly $29,200 from six properties, plus potentially more due to contractual interest and solicitor and client costs.

In three lawsuits filed by Remax last Thursday, they claim Stutzke and OEHB have a balance owing on their compensation agreement.

According to the lawsuit, Remax claims that OEHB was to pay three per cent of the construction cost of the home plus GST to Remax Penticton Reality.

They claim that in the agreements made in January and April of 2021, the buyer was referred to OEHB by them, who then entered into a construction agreement with the builder. The build has now reportedly been completed, and Remax has invoiced OEHB and contacted them to collect for their referral.

"Remax invoiced the builder and made several attempts to collect and contact the builder for payment," their lawsuit reads.

Including filing fees on the civil claim, Remax is seeking an estimated total of $60,055 from Stutzke.

Stutzke has also been litigious.

At the beginning of February, Stutzke filed a civil claim against a Penticton homeowner, Randall Browning, seeking alleged unpaid invoices from him totalling $154,777.08.

Stutzke claims Browning initially hired him for a $500,000 project, but it grew to $1.2 million. A new agreement was made, but a key document outlining terms was allegedly deleted by a former employee.

Stutzke alleges that Browning fired his company before a kitchen installation, citing a dispute involving a former employee. Stutzke also accuses him of lying about installation dates for the kitchen and then refusing to pay further invoices or amounts owing on previous ones.

Browning filed a reply and counterclaim on Thursday, denying the allegation of money owed by him and arguing that Stutzke's failure to pay his own debts affected his home-building process.

He claims that their General Services Agreement did not stipulate that they had a flat fee of $500,000, but rather claims that was a quote provided by Stutzke for the work, should he require a bank loan.

Allegedly, they agreed for Browning to pay Stutzke on a cost-plus basis, where he would reimburse Stutzke the cost of the materials and labour on other trades in exchange for his builder purchasing pricing plus 14 per cent.

Browning says he paid a $100,000 deposit to OEHB and a $100,000 deposit to another allegedly affiliated business, and only ceased further invoice payments when work ceased on the property.

With only 80 per cent of his kitchen completed, Browning says he is not agreeable to paying the outstanding amount in the invoices because he claims the work was of poor quality and he had to hire other companies to come finish the projects.

Browning alleges Stutzke hired "unqualified" workers who failed to complete satisfactory work and failed to pay his contractors, sub-contractors, and material suppliers, causing delays.

"Stutzke assured Browning that the project would take six months at most, however, it took around 22 months to complete," the lawsuit reads.

Browning denies they ever entered into a second agreement, claiming that in December of 2022 it became clear that Stutzke was having "severe money issues" and was struggling to pay contractors, so Browning agreed to pay invoices every 15 days instead of 30.

After dealing with more allegedly late installation issues because of unpaid debts and multiple contract breaches, Browning says he terminated the GSA with Stutzke on Aug. 15, 2023.

Browning has filed the counterclaim seeking relief for general damages, loss of earnings, costs and health care services for Stutzke's breach on their contract, fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of confidence, defamation, and mental suffering.

In another instance, Stutzke has filed a counterclaim against Legacy Garage Doors, which has an outstanding lawsuit against him from earlier this winter.

Legacy Garage Doors claims that they have been contracted multiple times by OEHB, completing 18 jobs over the past six years.

They filed a lawsuit against the company for an alleged six outstanding invoices for work completed, including supplying and installing overhead doors and motors on projects in Penticton.

Stutzke claims in his reply that one of the invoices they are seeking payment for should not be made, since the work was "not adequate and had to be re-installed by a separate company."

He is seeking $2,500 from Legacy, along with fillings fees.

Court records do not, to Castanet's knowledge, show evidence at this time that Stutzke has filed replies to any of the other claims against him as of March 20.

Castanet contacted Stutzke for comment on the lawsuits. He emailed back that he has no comment at this time but then added "Keep up your witch hunt" as part of the same written response.

"Face [sic] media outlet that doesn’t know how to actually report real news," he wrote.

"My company isn’t going anywhere!!!"

By estimation of all of the court fillings Castanet has found so far, Stutzke and Okanagan Extreme Home Builders allegedly owe more than half a million dollars.

None of the allegations in the lawsuits have been proven in court, and all named parties have a right to respond with countersuits should they choose to do so.