Victims say dream homes have turned into nightmares; Georgia construction workers charged – WSB-TV Channel 2

FANNIN COUNTY, Georgia – A home builder promised families he would build their dream homes in the mountains of North Georgia.

But homeowners said they had unfinished homes and unpaid bills.

The contractor has raked in millions of dollars, and now families want to know what happened to all that money.

Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray has learned that police in several counties and states are investigating Jason Bryson and his company Higher Ground Builders.

While Gray was covering this story, Bryson was arrested and charged with crimes that could result in decades behind bars.

Rodney Jones showed Gray his half-built house. He and Chuck Capo were scheduled to live in their retirement home in the mountains of north Georgia more than a year ago.

But in April 2022 the work simply stopped.

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“We know we were ripped off,” Jones said.

“It was our retirement dream turned into a nightmare,” said Howard Wells, a retired Florida police officer.

“There was nothing but open studs,” Wells said, showing Gray around his mountain retirement home.

Wells and his wife Judy had to learn how to hang drywall while they worked on finishing the house themselves.

“I saw my wife cry because she didn’t know what we were going to do and how we were going to get through this,” Wells said.

Both homeowners hired Higher Ground Builders and its owner Jason Bryson to build their dream homes.

Dozens of others did too.

“He’s a villain,” Wells said.

The census includes more than 20 families who say Jason Bryson and Higher Ground Builders took their money but never finished their homes.

“In my opinion he just saw too many zeros in his bank account,” said Tom Brice.

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Brice and his wife planned to escape the heat and bugs of South Georgia.

“In the end I went to the building authority and found that there were 24 violations. Big violations,” Brice said.

Homeowners who paid Bryson hundreds of thousands of dollars also learned something else — they paid higher ground builders for products and materials, but the sellers didn’t always get paid.

“We were served civil papers saying they were going to sue us and they were going to take this house and sell it,” Wells said.

He and his wife have multiple liens on their home from unpaid sellers for more than $27,000.

Chuck Capo and Rodney Jones also have thousands of dollars in liens against their property.

“It was one excuse after another. But the truth is, no one wanted to work for Higher Ground because they weren’t paying them,” Jones said.

In March, Bryson was arrested in Fannin County. A grand jury charged him with 13 felony counts of converting payments for real estate improvements and theft of services.

Bryson is currently out on bail.

He also faces felony crime in Cherokee County, North Carolina, where Howard Wells’ home is near the Georgia and Tennessee borders.

“I walked up to him and said, ‘I don’t know how you sleep at night,'” Wells said.

Gray attempted to reach Bryson at his Blue Ridge home and a construction site where he had worked in the past.

“We wanted to ask him about all the houses he’s building but not completing. Can we leave him a message?” Gray asked the person who answered the door at Bryson’s house.

Gray captured cell phone video of Bryson in his pickup truck speeding away from Channel 2 Action News when he saw Gray coming.

Bryson has filed for bankruptcy, listing nearly $3 million in liabilities.

For families stuck with half-finished homes, the cost of all of this is overwhelming.

Brice estimates it cost him 80% more than he originally estimated to complete his home.

“The expense was enormous,” he told Grey.

According to bond documents, Bryson blames inflation and claims several witnesses actually owed him money.

Jones and Capo are still looking for a way to cobble together enough new money to finish work on their retirement home.

But they still come inside every day to plant flowers or just enjoy the view.

“All we can do is come here and look around at what it’s going to be and know that hopefully we’ll fix it soon,” Jones said.

Bryson still has his contractor license. His wife, who was listed as an officer and registered agent of Higher Ground Builders, formed a new LLC called Stand the Gap Construction.

But part of Bryson’s bond agreement is that he won’t build until his trial.

To protect yourself from bad builders, the Georgia Secretary of State website recommends asking people you trust for recommendations, obtaining written estimates from multiple contractors, and obtaining and verifying references from your contractor.

Once you’ve chosen a contractor, get a written contract, agree and put start and finish dates into your contract, set up payments associated with completed phases of the job, and don’t pay for uncompleted work.

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