Owners in limbo as home raising halted
Company’s finances may cost Meyerland residents thousands
About a dozen repeat flood victims in the Meyerland area could be out tens of thousands of dollars after a company they hired to elevate their homes halted or failed to start work amid financial problems, despite accepting upfront payments from some homeowners.
Some of the homeowners said they have contacted the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, fearing a calculated scam to defraud them, and say they have all but given up on getting their money back.
The president of Titan Lifetime Foundations, Bobby Fischer, meanwhile, insisted he is working to shore up his company’s finances and said he is seeking partners to help him complete the roughly 20 incomplete elevation jobs he has pending.
Titan is among six home elevation firms the city of Houston vetted and approved to receive federal grant dollars after the 2015 Memorial Day flood. The Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded Houston $14.8 million from its Flood Mitigation Assistance grant program to oversee the elevations of 42 homes in connection with that storm. Those contracts received City Council approval between last summer and January.
Six homeowners chose Titan from among a stack of city-reviewed elevation bids; two on North Braeswood, one on South
Braeswood, two on Breakwood Drive and one on Cadman Court. An unknown number of additional residents chose the firm after deciding to pay out of pocket to elevate their homes — typically a $250,000 to $350,000 job.
Among them was James Long, of the 5200 block of Caversham, who said he relied on the city’s approved vendor list in seeking quotes from companies.
Long said Titan performed no work on his home despite receiving $40,000 in payments. In numerous conversations with neighbors who also chose the company, Long said it is clear Titan was struggling when he signed a contract with them in late May.
“I feel like they committed a fraud on me, that they knew they were short of cash and weren’t able to make their payments, but they were looking for cash to keep the game going,” Long said. “I’ve lost two years of my son’s education at Texas A&M. That’s where I could have spent that money.” ‘We didn’t buy yachts’
Councilwoman Ellen Cohen lamented the situation at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, calling on Titan to “do the right thing” and immediately release owners from their contracts for the homes on which work has not begun.
“My constituents have had enough to deal with, many of them flooding three, four or five times in the past three years without this additional burden,” Cohen said. “They followed the rules and had to wait over three years for construction to begin, and now when things are finally moving forward, they’re abandoned at the last minute. This is completely unacceptable.”
She said the city is working to issue notices of default on five home elevation projects and legally transfer the work that already has begun to other contractors.
“We must make sure we do everything in our power to help these homeowners and get their homes elevated as soon as possible,” Cohen said.
Of the five homes referenced by Cohen, work had begun on two, said Carol Haddock, director of Houston Public Works. The city is pushing Fischer to let the other three owners out of their contracts so they can choose new contractors.
Public Works officials met with Fischer on Wednesday, both sides confirmed, but it was unclear what had come of the meeting.
Fischer said he is evaluating what inventory he can sell, negotiating with potential partners and considering voluntarily releasing homeowners whose jobs he has not begun from their contracts, but he said he has few concrete answers. Harris County property records show Norex Engineering, a Titan subcontractor, has filed liens against at least three properties for work it performed but for which it has not been paid.
“We had all the intentions of doing all the work that we have, and we just had a serious financial problem. Our intention is to do our best to finish the jobs, try to make everybody whole,” Fischer said. “It’s not a scam. I’m not just folding up and heading to Canada. We didn’t buy yachts. If you want to call me a bad businessman, that’s what I am. We had high overhead.”
Long said he has heard similar assurances from Fischer in repeated phone conversations but is not convinced.
“We’re all kind of just scratching our heads. Why does he keep saying this? Because I don’t know where he’d get the money unless he has some white knight standing out there somewhere,” Long said. “I may never see my money again.”
His wife’s family has lived in Meyerland for four generations, and she got her first job as an architect from the man who designed their home. Their synagogue is down the street. However, their home has flooded three times in three years, and they have blown a hole in their savings without getting the house out of harm’s way. With a collegeage son and a high school-age daughter, the family is split between the second floor of their home and a two-bedroom apartment. ‘We don’t do that well’
One of the owners participating in the elevation grant program, Aaron Rouse, said he succeeded in being released from his contract after he wrote Fischer a strongly worded letter in June, amid neighborhood rumors that Titan was bankrupt.
Rouse also demanded that his $45,000 be repaid, saying the only sign of Titan’s work was a flower pot sitting over a hole in his front yard where a subcontractor had taken a soil sample. Rouse said Fischer reset the target date for repayment several times but never returned the money.
Rouse, whose home in the 4400 block of Breakwood has flooded three times in three years, has four kids, three of whom still live at home. Paying rent and utilities on another home, renting a storage unit and higher flood insurance rates on his ground-level house cost the family $3,000 a month. Rouse said he anticipates he will need to take out a loan to complete the elevation with a new firm.
“I tell my friends Titan just stole my oldest daughter’s college education,” he said. “We do well, but we don’t do that well. I don’t have another $45,000 laying around. Some people may not even be able to lift their homes now.”