AG sues builder of ‘tiny houses’

The office of Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has sued a builder of “tiny houses” on fraud and other charges, claiming he has bilked customers in Arkansas and other states of more than $115,000.

Scott Stewart and Slabtown Customs, based in Mountain View, failed to finish homes and didn’t return money paid to him as deposits, Rutledge said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

“No matter how ‘tiny’ the job is, contracts must be fairly followed and projects completed,” Rutledge said in a news release. “Families made an investment in their future that Stewart could not deliver. I don’t want another customer taken advantage of with the hopes and investment in a new home that never becomes a reality.”

Stewart’s work, which specializes building homes of about 300 square feet, has been featured on HGTV’s

Tiny House Hunters and Tiny House Nation.

Rutledge’s lawsuit said her office had received eight complaints since 2014 from consumers in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, New Mexico and Pennsylvania alleging that their tiny houses were never built and that Stewart never sent refunds as sometimes promised.

The lawsuit said that Stewart and Slabtown Customs had been evicted in March from property that was foreclosed on by a bank.

A telephone number for Stewart was listed on a document filed as part of the lawsuit. Calls and messages to that number Wednesday went unanswered and unreturned.