The Dohn family has begun rebuilding their new home on East Center College Street. A previous iteration of their new home had been partially built — later demolished — by an out-of-town contractor. (Photo by Lynda Highlander)
Demolished Yellow Springs home sheds light on Ohio law
- Published: November 1, 2024
Word gets around in a small town.
You have likely already heard about the house that started going up on East Center College Street — and then, before it was finished, was torn down. You may also have heard that the home was partially built by an out-of-town contractor, and later had to be demolished by another, local contractor.
Amy and Christian Dohn, who own the land on East Center College Street and whose future home is being rebuilt there, told the News this month that, if you’ve heard those things, they’re all true.
But there’s more to the story, they said — a cautionary tale they hope will help villagers learn about the risks involved for those who want to build a home in Ohio.
The Dohns met with the News at Dino’s. It’s a favorite meeting spot for the couple, who currently live in Cincinnati — where he runs a commercial photography and video studio and she works in data analytics at Procter & Gamble — but who said they’ve been visiting the village for years, particularly during the first years of the pandemic.
After lockdown restrictions were lifted in Ohio, the Dohns said they often came to Yellow Springs specifically because they “knew it would be safe.”
“We knew people would wear masks — there was that giant ODOT sign [on U.S. 68],” Christian Dohn said.
With the couple’s adult children having moved out of the house, they said they started thinking about settling somewhere new. Their post-lockdown trips to the village inspired them to consider moving their Cincinnati roots a little ways north.
“Our heart is here, in Ohio,” Amy Dohn said.
“And we’ve always liked it up here [in Yellow Springs],” Christian Dohn added.
The Dohns began looking for a residential building contractor two years ago. The one they ultimately chose — a regional, but not a local company — had signs up advertising their services throughout the village. (For a variety of reasons both personal and legal, the Dohns declined to name the contractor on the record; the company is no longer operating.)
But it wasn’t just the signs around town that convinced them, they said. They checked reviews with the Better Business Bureau, went to two build sites to review the contractor’s work, and met with a homeowner who was working with the contractor at the time — none of which raised any red flags.
“We did our due diligence,” Christian Dohn said.
The couple spent a year designing what they called their “dream home” on East Center College Street, and the contractor they hired broke ground on the home in September 2023. It was expected to be completed by June 2024.
In February, the house had been framed and had its roof, doors, windows and subsiding installed. But by the end of that month, the couple said, they learned there was a hitch in the plans for their dream home.
“We got some calls from vendors saying they hadn’t been paid [by the contractor],” Christian Dohn said. “Within a week, it was like grabbing a loose string on a sweater — the whole thing just unraveled.”
The Dohns held the money for the construction of their home in an escrow account, from which their contractor would request withdrawals to pay subcontractors — a common residential construction practice in Ohio.
“The subcontractors were doing the work, and [the contractor] was drawing out the money — but was not paying the subcontractors,” Amy Dohn said.
The Dohns, naturally, reached out to the builder about the issues with payments, hoping there had been a misunderstanding or miscommunication.
“And we got a one-line email that said, ‘We are shutting down as of today, and here’s the number for our attorney,’” Amy Dohn said.
The couple were shocked, but reached out to the contractor’s attorney. They said the attorney has thus far refused to speak with them, or with the attorney the couple hired on their own behalf.
The overwhelming feeling, at first, was confusion, the Dohns said. What was happening, and why? And why wouldn’t anyone give them answers to those questions?
“We weren’t sure what to do,” Christian Dohn said. “We wondered, should we just take the loss and walk away?”
In the weeks that followed, a lot of local residents reached out to check on the Dohns, and to express their dismay at their situation — expressions of kindness that they said helped them move forward.
“People I don’t know went through a lot of trouble to find my number, call me and ask me if I was OK,” Christian Dohn said. “That was the thing that kept us going.”
In particular, they said local realtor Sheila Dunphy, who sold the couple the land for their home, reached out and recommended they contact Michael Spencer, of Spencer Building Group, to get their house in order, both metaphorically and literally.
Spencer, a longtime Yellow Springer, joined the Dohns at Dino’s as they spoke with the News. He’s been working on houses since his teen years, learning under well-known local contractors, including Bob Zearfoss, Chris Moore and Bruce Parker, and built his first house at age 21 more than 30 years ago. He left the village for a number of years, and was a licensed contractor in California before returning to town. He opened Spencer Building Group, now headquartered in the Millworks industrial park, in 2015.
Spencer met with the Dohns and came on board to help continue their home build in spring, but quickly noticed that the partially constructed house had significant structural issues. Due to the way the subsiding had been installed, he said the house was “literally falling apart.”
“It was affecting the lateral strength of the house, and because the subsiding was installed so poorly, it was damaged,” he said. “The south side of the house was pulling to the south, and the north side of the house was pulling the opposite way.”
He added: “Windows were installed incorrectly, and taking the house all the way back to the skeleton, there were major framing issues.”
The Dohns and Spencer said they went over every inch of the previous construction in an attempt to try and save what had already been built, bringing in structural engineers to fully survey the state of the house. In the end, they all came to a painful consensus: The Dohns would have to tear down what had already been built and start from scratch.
“They would have been chasing issues for years down the line if we hadn’t,” Spencer said.
Starting over meant that the Dohns had to scale back on the plans for their dream home; they had already spent tens of thousands of dollars on construction that had to be torn down. They sold their home in Cincinnati to provide equity for the second build, since there was no assurance they would get back the initial money they had spent any time soon — if ever.
“In Ohio, there are really no protections for the homeowners,” Amy Dohn said. “So everybody, including our own lawyer, has said, ‘Your money’s gone.’”
The Consumer Sales Protection Act, or CSPA, established as law in Ohio in 1972, provides some protections against fraudulent or unethical business practices by allowing consumers to pursue up to triple financial damages and recover attorney fees and costs from businesses that violate contracts.
However, in 2012, the Ohio House passed a bill that exempted residential contractors from the Consumer Sales Protection Act; that bill was later signed into law.
The protections for consumers of residential contracts now codified in Section 4722 of the Ohio Revised Code have a lot less bite than those included in the CSPA; they don’t allow consumers to collect triple damages, only allow up to $5,000 in “non-economic” damages and only allow for attorney fees to be paid if it can be determined that a business violated policy knowingly. Contractors are also not required by Ohio law to furnish receipts proving they have paid subcontractors.
According to the law established in 2012, in cases of possible violations from residential contractors, the Ohio Attorney General acts as the governing authority. The Dohns said they contacted the Ohio Attorney General’s office in May this year — but got no results.
“[The AG’s office] said they reached out to the builder and he didn’t return their calls,” Amy Dohn said. “So they said they were closing our case.”
Spencer added that, in Ohio, general contractors are not required to be licensed — a difference from his experience as a contractor in California.
“I think a lot of the problems in Ohio could be solved if you had to be a licensed contractor,” he said. “If something like this happens in California, you instantly lose your license.”
Because there may be potential legal action involved, there wasn’t much the Dohns could say on the record about where they’re headed next in terms of seeking restitution, but they said there are currently “other government entities” looking into their plight. In the meantime, though, the Dohns said they hope their story will help educate others who may be considering building a home in Ohio.
“It’s important for people to know that there are not adequate stop-gap measures within our government and legal system to stop this from happening,” Christian Dohn said.
Amy Dohn added: “How do we get Ohio to change the law? I don’t know how to do that, but eventually I’ll put some time into figuring it out.”
The couple said they’re now focusing on their new dream house — and trying to do so with a sense of humor whenever possible. Christian Dohn said that, when a structural engineer began listing all the issues with the original partial construction, he laughed — a reaction that surprised the engineer.
“I told him, ‘Well, what else am I gonna do?’” he said.
Though their plans changed in a way they never anticipated, the Dohns said Spencer and his company — and the villagers who have reached out in support — have been a boon and a balm for their experience.
He added: “It’s turned our lives upside down — but I don’t think Amy and I can impress enough just how important and critical and helpful [Spencer] has been, and those people reaching out and checking on us have reaffirmed why we want to be here.”
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