Md. Home Builder Ordered to Pay More than $1 Million

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced that his Consumer Protection Division has issued a final order requiring a builder and his companies to refund payments of $762,494.90 collected from consumers in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties and pay penalties of $516,000.

The Division reportedly found that Jeffrey Bryant and his companies, Advanced Building Solutions Inc. and the Precision Group Inc., violated Maryland’s Custom Home Protection Act and New Home Deposits Act by failing to place money paid by consumers into an escrow account or having a surety bond to cover the deposits; violated the Home Builder Registration Act by acting as a home builder without being registered with the Division’s Home Builder Registration Unit; and violated the Consumer Protection Act by failing to build homes as promised.

The Division reported that Bryant and his companies collected substantial advance payments from at least 32 consumers toward new homes, failed to protect those advance payments as required by Maryland law, and failed to complete, or in many cases even begin, construction of the homes, and that Bryant failed to pay refunds to any of the consumers.

The order bars Bryant, Advanced Building Solutions Inc. and the Precision Group Inc. from acting as a home builder in the State of Maryland unless registered as a home builder under Maryland’s Home Builder Registration Act, requires payment of restitution of the $762,494.90 they received from consumers for new homes that were never built or completed, payment of civil penalties in the amount of $516,000 and payment of costs in the amount of $7,120.53.