Caledonia family wants refund for unfinished construction project

The Brief

• A Caledonia family hired Affordable Builders LLC for a new addition in 2023. They say despite paying $80,000 they’ve been approached by subcontractors about possible liens on their property for unpaid bills.

• Racine County Circuit Court records show their contractor, James Ferdon, owes more than $200,000 in judgments to former customers, a loan provider and suppliers.

• Ferdon faces a retail theft charge in Lake County, Illinois, and a criminal charge for issuing a worthless check at a Menards in Mount Pleasant. Racine County has issued a warrant for his arrest.

CALEDONIA, Wis. – Delays, excuses and unpaid workers. One Caledonia family says they’ve heard it all during their home renovation.

Next to Jerry Dinda’s house is an unfinished construction site. It’s a giant reminder of his remodeling project gone wrong.

“This was supposed to be a really beautiful master suite,” said Dinda. “I’m sorry for my neighbors… it looks like crap.”

Dinda says there’s been no progress on his project since June.

Contact 6 first met Dinda and his wife, Sonya Maier, in August. They’d signed a contract with James Ferdon of Affordable Building LLC in July 2023.

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The family was supposed to get a new addition constructed including two bedrooms and a bathroom.

“My uncles who live in Menomonee Falls, I wanted them to come stay with us,” said Maier. “Please Jimbo. Give us our money back.”

The couple says Ferdon started by building a shed on their property in August 2023. Today, Dinda says the shed is still unfinished and needs gutters, electricity and door locks.

Maier and Dinda say no further work was done on their property until February of 2024 when excavation of the addition’s crawl space began. They say that work was followed by more months of delays and missed deadlines. Maier’s uncles were unable to move-into the addition in July 2024, as planned.

“[Ferdon] said he was having problems getting permits or problems getting a surveyor out here,” said Dinda. “My belief is the money I gave him never went to any of this.”

Eventually, Dinda and Maier heard from Ferdon’s subcontractors that they weren’t being paid. Their first conversation was with the man who did their excavation work.

“He said, “I’m sorry, but I’m gonna have to put a lien on your property,” Dinda recalled.

That conversation left Dinda and Maier wondering: what happened to the $80,000 they paid Ferdon?

“Not more than three weeks later, here shows up the concrete guy who did the crawl space,” said Dinda. “He hasn’t gotten paid either.”

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Racine County Circuit Court records shows Ferdon owes more than $200,000 in judgments to former customers, a loan provider and suppliers. Among those judgments is approximately $10,000 to Carol and Dan Pansch.

“I had to text him every single day to find out if he was coming,” said Dan Pansch. “He would never show up.”

The Pansch family hired Affordable Building for a 300 square foot addition. They say its construction was riddled with costly problems.

“The roof for one thing,” said Dan Pansch. “It was leaking into our window here, into our vents, into our HVAC system, all over our floor.”

In August, Ferdon was extradited to Lake County, Illinois, where he’s charged with retail theft. A warrant says Ferdon stole a tool worth less than $300 from Menards store in Antioch.

Ferdon ran into more problems at another Menards in Mount Pleasant. In late November, he was charged with issuing a worthless check. The criminal complaint says he wrote a check to Menards in June for $3,121.44 but the account had insufficient funds.

A warrant for Ferdon was issued in connection with the Racine County case. The warrant remains active.

“He said “most of the money is gone,” Carol Pansch recalled. “I said, “how can it be gone? We paid you $88,000 for this room.”

Ferdon is a licensed contractor in Wisconsin. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) Serving Wisconsin has five complaints about his business in three years alleging incomplete work and poor workmanship.

“The biggest thing that we are seeing with these complaints is that the consumers have put down a large amount of money up front,” said Lisa Schiller of the BBB.

Ferdon did respond to Contact 6’s emails but wouldn’t answer questions about his projects. Contact 6 tried visiting listed addresses for him but he wasn’t there.

In August, the Racine County District Attorneys Office declined to pursue a criminal charge for Dinda’s case. Its letter states “our decision should not affect the merit of any civil lawsuit that might be warranted.”

Affordable Building did respond to a BBB complaint filed by Dinda. It states “this project had many hoops to go through the get the permit approved … Since the addition has started, we had to go through additional work to get the approval from the inspector. You can read the company’s full response.

Maier’s uncles, who planned to move into the addition in July, had to renew their lease and stay put.

“We would have liked this done so my uncles can move in ASAP,” said Maier. “Take care of their needs.”

So far, no subcontractors have filed a lien on Dinda and Maier’s property. Dinda says he’s scheduling another meeting with the DA’s office after the holidays.