Warning !!!
Premier Buildings, Inc. Barn Builders Lic# CB C060083
These pages and photos are intended to help other consumers make an informed decision about selecting a builder for their outbuilding or barn.
Here is our 'finished' barn.
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In October of 2005, we signed a contract with Premier Buildings, Inc. to build a 3 stall horse barn on our property. This barn was to attach directly to our back yard, close to our house and we hoped to be a showpiece for our Arabian horses and to enhance our 5 acre property on Sugarloaf Bluff (at Sugarloaf Mt.).
This is not an attack on Premier Buildings, Inc. it is simply a statement of the facts and events that have occured. Every date, photo and comment stated here can and has been backed up with photos, dated documents including letters, contracts, cleared checks, e-mails and photos. All of this has been supplied to Premier Buildings,Inc. for their review and to attempt to get them to complete this project. All of this information has been filed with the State of Florida and Lake County. All we ever wanted in this process was a 3 stall pole barn on our property and I cannot imagine a much simpler building to build. We are baffled as to why it is easier for Premier to go through any legal issue than to spend 2-3 days completing a project, unless they are no longer a finacially viable company. We dealt specifically with Howard Freeman, and 'Cindy' with Premier, though Tom Fears is who signed for our Permit and is listed as company President. None have responded to the correspondence shown below.
(Update! When we were selecting a company to build our barn, we wanted everything done turn-key, wanted them to handle the proper drawings, permiting and everything. What they actually did for permitting, without our knowledge, was do an agricultural waiver on the permit. So there is no permit, no inpections to be sure their work is up to code, or that anything they have done is proper. What that does, is take our building OUT of any County Residential Zoning and Inspection processes. It means our only recourse is via the legal system, as the county inpectors do not have jurisdiction over agricultural buildings.)
Partway through the build of our barn, Premier abandoned the project, and ignored any and all communication attempts from us. As this is written, the process has taken from October 2005 to March 2006, and our barn is still not completed, not only that, but some of the work that has been done, is going to have to be 'redone'. That makes this a bigger issue than Premier Building, Inc. simply walking away. We are going to probably have to pay out thousands of extra dollars, (after paying them over $20,000) to correct what they have done wrong, do what we have already paid them for that they did not finish, and to clean up after them. Photos below will explain.
Attached are several documents, some are e-mails that were sent to Howard Freeman, who 'sold' us this barn. None were acknowledged, nor did Howard or any officer of Premier Buildings, Inc ever come out and check this work
This is a letter (Link to Letter) that was... (Included with letters, faxes and e-mails were all the photos you see on this site.) |
1) mailed via US Mail to two different addresses for Tom Fears 2) e-mailed to Howard Freeman 3) Faxed to the Premier Building, Inc fax number 4) filed with the State of Florida and Lake County |
Not one person at Premier Building, Inc. acknowledged the letter above, nor any of the issues addressed in it.
| To the right are links to e-mails that were sent, along with pictures to attempt to get a response and to get Premier Buildings, Inc. to come complete the project properly. In addition to the letters and e-mails, were countless attempts via phone, leaving pages and messages. | Link to Email to Howard Freeman on January 30, 2006 |
Here is a link to a one page printout, if you would like to print and distribute to your local equestrian businesses, boarding facility or show grounds.
Here are just some photos of how Premier Buildings, Inc. left our property after working on building this 3 stall barn from December to March.
The first 3 photos show the concrete 3 days after being poured. The above letter describes the day they poured the concrete and they quit late in the night, Cindy saying they would come back early the next morning and finish it. They left with a check for completing the concrete work. It was dark when they left and we didn't know the job was done THIS poorly. They did not come back to our property to work for 10 days. You can click each image to get a higher resolution version.
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 They only brushed PART of the concrete, and you see how well that was done. |
This is wet from spinkler, you see is is holding water, (holds much more than that) they ran an edger along, creating a groove, and that is how the concrete set. You see the other areas and how it is just left with the initial smoothing, no real finishing or brushing. This is supposed to be our wash area and it's slick as ice in places. This photo is 3 days after pouring in January, looks the same in March. |
 This is the same area as that to the left from the opposite side, and taken two months after they poured the concrete. Yes, that is water, and yes that is hard set concrete ridges. |
This is how they left our Barn. The doors for the tack room do not fit the frame so we will have to buy additional doors. We already paid them for finished stalls, but do not have the dividers between stalls or in front of stalls. |
 This is just a small part of the trash that was left behind. There are currently piles of broken ladders, broken saw-horses, leaking gas cans and oil, and garbage re-bar and visqueen behind the barn. |
At this stage, we are contacting other contractors to get estimates of what it will take to correct the existing problems, and complete our barn. We plan to file everything with our attorney to file suit against Premier Buildings, Inc. to recover the additional funds we have to pay to have their work corrected like the concrete work, to bring it to the standard we paid for, to have the new tack room doors installed, which we paid for but do not fit the frame, to have the stalls completed with the dividers, which we already paid for, and to have the trash and broken equipment removed that they have left behind.
We believed this would be a 2-3 week build as was told us by Howard Freeman and by Cindy, and we housed our 3 horses accordingly, in very temporary situations for a few weeks. Now 3 months after starting the build, we still do not have a proper place to keep our horses. This has been an absolute nightmare for us, and we still are not finished with it.
We do not believe Premier Buildings, Inc. who runs full page advertisments in many Florida equestrian publications, should be taking advantage of customers as they have us. We are contacting advertisers, tack and feed stores, horse show grounds, boarding barns, and equestrian bulletin boards to get the word out to others. If you have had a similar experience with Premier Buildings, Inc, send us an e-mail and we will post your experience here. Here is a link to a one page printout, if you would like to print and distribute to your local equestrian businesses, boarding facility or show grounds.
We currently are pursuing this matter in Small Claims Court, to attempt to get back enough money for the unpaid work to correct the issues with the concrete.
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Seems we are not the only folks having this problem with Premier. Below is correspondence from another unhappy customer.
I don't have a problem at all with you putting my situation
with them. I found them in the publication Horse and Tack and couldn't find
any complaints against them from the Better Business Bureau. What a scam
if you can't contact them and find out the truth. I thought that is what
they were here for? I think that there should be a disclaimer in the "Horse
and Tack" magazine as so many people read that and it is such a guidance
tool for many (including me).
I had daily calls into Tom, Howard and Cindy and her crew after having the
contract with them in April of 2005 and having them not complete until after
May of 2006. I thought that the horrible follow-up and situation and dealings
with them were because they knew that I am single and a woman and trying
I hope that your barn now is a pleasure and turned out looking
the way you want.
If I can be of any assistance and to back you up let me know.