'Not a dream anymore': Couple forced to finish Naples dream home after builder goes bankrupt

More than 30 years ago, Boris and Lucy Deriy left Russia to live the American dream.

They arrived in the United States in 1992 with five suitcases and two children in tow, eager to start over in a new country. They worked hard, raised a family, and created a good life together.

After living and working in the Chicago area for decades, where they both built successful careers in science, they relocated to Southwest Florida.

They fell in love with the charm and culture of Naples after their first visit on vacation in 2014. They saw the tropical, laid-back area as an ideal spot to retire, or at least slow down, in their golden years.

First, they bought a small condo in the city. Later, they purchased a single-family home in the gated community of Valencia Lakes in North Naples. In December 2021, they signed a contract to build their dream home on their dream lot in Golden Gate Estates.

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They selected Metro Home Builders as their contractor after discovering its model home by chance on an exploratory drive in the neighborhood. The Deriys loved what they saw and what they heard in a sales pitch after walking inside the house, sitting off Weber Boulevard, parallel to Collier Boulevard, south of Vanderbilt Beach Road.

From the day they signed on the dotted line, their new house became the center of their lives – and their conversations with family and friends. "It was like an adventure," Boris recalled.

He and his wife, who are in their 70s, visited the construction site almost daily as they looked forward to its completion with excitement.

In May, their excitement turned to frustration, disappointment and skepticism, when construction abruptly stopped, and never restarted.

Metro Home Builders has since ceased operations and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, leaving the Deriys and dozens of other customers in limbo.

"It is very sad," Lucy remarked. "In Russia, you expect something like this. Not in the America we know."

The couple say they expected more from Metro Home Builders and its owner, Alberto Hernandez, whom they trusted with their time, money and lives.

"It's like he died, he's dead," Boris said of Hernandez, who hasn't responded to his questions and complaints, and has refused to meet with him and his wife about the ordeal.

They last heard from Hernandez on Aug. 1, when he told customers via email that his company had been forced to file for bankruptcy.

Earlier: Metro Home Builders of Naples files for bankruptcy, with dozens of unfinished homes

And: Metro Home Builders in Naples is out of business. Here's what we know.

Bankruptcy characterized as unavoidable

In the email to his customers, Hernandez said he felt a deep sense of regret, personal embarrassment and frustration over the situation, which he characterized as unavoidable, given the circumstances and challenges he faced.

"Despite our continuing and repeated efforts to reorganize and restructure the company's debt position, there are simply no practical alternatives that would allow for the company to continue operations without causing additional harm to its creditors," he wrote. "Above all, inflation and material and labor shortages have led to the financial demise of Metro Home Builders."

The bankruptcy filing reveals nearly 60 houses have not been completed. The houses are in various stages of construction.

Most of the claims, or liabilities, listed in the filing are for pending construction work, owed to customers.

"What's important is that regardless of our stories, backgrounds, ethnicity, age or level of education we all find ourselves in the same situation. And we all are helpless," Lucy said.

In the Deriy's case, Metro Home took more than 75% of the money for their new house and left it not even half built. They estimate their losses at more than $100,000.

They signed a contract for nearly $551,000, including $92,000 in upgrades.

"It was a dream home. It doesn't look like a dream anymore," Lucy said.

The home wasn't just for them. They planned to share it with their youngest son and his wife and their two kids, who were eager to relocate from the Chicago area, but may not move here after all, due to the uncertainty the bankruptcy has caused.

With an engineering background, Boris has taken over the construction of his house as an owner-builder. He's not sure how long it will take him to finish it, or how much it will cost, but it's already causing him headaches.

His first priorities? To install a garage door and a front door, to stabilize the foundation, and to clear the overgrown construction site.

With hurricane season yet to reach its peak, Boris wants the house buttoned up as quickly as possible. Besides storm damage, he's worried about mold from rain if the house remains open to the elements any longer.

Summer rains started washing away the sand under the foundation.

The house is still missing most of its most basic features, including water, electricity, air conditioning and a septic tank.

Feels like a 'terminal diagnosis'

When the Deirys learned of Metro Home's bankruptcy, they felt as if they'd received a terminal diagnosis, and they've heard the same from others in their shoes.

Reading from a complaint the couple filed with the Florida Attorney General's Office, Lucy said: "We are all devasted and going through classical psychological stages outlined for such a case – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. But before we come to the acceptance phase, we want to understand the mechanism that brought us to this point."

The Deirys have many unanswered questions. Their biggest: Where did their money go?

"We need a full audit," Lucy demanded.

The couple says the builder took three out of four draws, valued at $360,000, and received an additional $17,000 for change orders that never got done. They paid in cash, thinking it would speed up the construction process, using money they'd squirreled away over many years, so they could live in a house built just for them, instead of a cookie-cutter one.

Now, they wonder if their money went to other projects.

"Our payments appear to have been misused and utilized for other projects, as the company was working on over 50 projects simultaneously," Lucy said.

After a visit to Naples Lumber, the couple discovered that some of the doors for their house were paid for and delivered to a former superintendent for Metro Home, then "disappeared," while others weren't paid for at all, so they never reached the job site. As a result, they had to pay for the order again at full price, costing them more than $9,000, Lucy said.

Curiously, she said, the invoice for Naples Lumber had Yonerky Perez as the delivery contact, not Alberto Hernandez.

When Hernandez sent the email to customers about Metro Home's bankruptcy, he promised to take "concerted efforts to attempt to minimize the impact" on their projects from the company's closing, and offered up Yonerky Perez, his former employee, now with Line Construction, as a "local contractor that may be of assistance in the completion of your home."

State records show Perez established Line Construction in May of last year. He serves as its president.

The Deriys question how Perez, as a new builder, can help in a situation where an experienced one failed.

The couple reached out to Perez, to see if he could help them, but the price he quoted them to finish their house shocked them. The estimate: $291,900, on top of what they've paid so far.

First, Perez did not provide an itemized estimate. When pressed for one, it came with errors and omissions, Lucy said.

The contractor's offer didn't feel like help, she said, but rather like an "invitation to the same trouble." It would have increased the cost of their house by more than $179,000.

Perez could not be reached for comment.

Bankruptcy draws ire, scrutiny of builder

While Hernandez cited labor and supply shortages and inflation as the primary reasons for Metro Home's downfall, Lucy pointed out that when a company takes on too many projects that it cannot "digest," it's likely to lead to delays and price changes as time goes on.

The clearing of the couple's lot didn't start until 10 months after they signed a contract, she said.

After doing a bit of research, the Deriys discovered that the cost of some supplies had fallen since they signed a contract, most notably lumber.

Earlier this year, Hernandez completed a new multimillion-dollar home on Ridge Drive in North Naples. Started six months after the Deriys signed a contract with Metro Home, the sprawling home in Pine Ridge Estates took less than a year to build, seemingly unaffected by the factors the builder blamed for his bankruptcy and inability to finish customers' projects, Lucy said.

"Alberto didn't walk away from his own house. But he put our houses on hold," she lamented.

The Collier County Property Appraiser values Hernandez's new house at nearly $3 million.

According to property records, WSC Homes, another construction company owned by Hernandez in Naples, purchased the residential property for $1.18 million with a house on it in 2020, then later demolished it to build a larger one.

WSC sold the finished home to Hernandez for $1.8 million in March.

According to Metro Home's bankruptcy filing, the company has more than 65 creditors, with liabilities of more than $3.3 million.

Meanwhile, assets are only valued at about $82,000, made up mostly of machinery, equipment and vehicles.

The builder owes money on credit cards and to employees, utilities, suppliers, vendors and advertisers. The largest claim is for $248,422, owed to Hernandez himself, for a loan he provided to fund operations, as a shareholder and principal.

The filing shows Hernandez received a shareholder distribution of more than $503,000 in March, and a repayment of $623,000 in June.

The company listed operating losses for the past three years, without specific amounts.

The builder reported gross revenues of almost $14.8 million this year (before ceasing operations). That compared to revenues of nearly $9.8 million in 2022, and about $11 million in 2021.

The Deriys question why the company has such little assets, and why it continued to take on new projects if it was losing so much money.

Metro Home sold its model home, but not itself, to another builder

Property records show Majestic Builders, established in 2007, purchased Metro Home's model home on Weber Boulevard through an affiliate for $1.3 million in May, so it's no longer an asset. The custom builder only acquired the real estate, not the business, but it has faced Metro's angry customers, who have come to it looking for answers.

In the bankruptcy filing, the Deriys and other customers with unfinished homes are listed as nonpriority, unsecured creditors. Such claims are often discharged in bankruptcy.

"We're last in line," Lucy said.

The couple has asked the Attorney General's Office, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and local authorities to investigate what they see as a "serious misuse" of their and other customers' money.

"What we need is to get our money back," Boris said. "Our money that has not been (properly) appropriated."

After they filed a fraud report with the Collier County Sheriff's Office, an officer turned it over to the financial crimes unit, and it's still under investigation.

Andrea Jones, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, confirmed as much.

"The case is active, so we won't be able to comment at this time," she said in an email.

The Department of Business and Professional Regulation would neither confirm nor deny an investigation.

The Deriys are angry about how the builder treated them and other customers, some of whom could lose their homes because they don't have the experience or financial wherewithal to finish them.

"Through bankruptcy, he can essentially go away untouched," Lucy said. "It's not right."

They've talked to a local attorney about their woes, but they've decided not to hire one, as they could lose even more money, with no guarantees of winning their case.

As for the bankruptcy case itself, Gregory Champeau, Metro Home's attorney, said in the next phase a court-appointed trustee will "marshal the assets of the business, and monetize them for distribution to the creditors."

"Only assets of the business are included in the liquidation process," he explained.

The trustee and customers will have an opportunity to question Hernandez about the company's assets and where its money went at a 341, or creditors, meeting. All debtors are required to attend the meeting.

Asked why customers aren't treated as priority creditors in the bankruptcy filing, Champeau said simply: "Only certain creditors under the bankruptcy code are entitled to priority status. When the creditors file a claim in the case, they can assert priority status, if they believe they are entitled to the same."

While they're not counting on it, the Deriys still hope to get at least some of their money back. They hope others will too.

"The money allocated to a specific project should be used exclusively for this project," they stressed in their complaint to the Florida Attorney General's Office. "It's hard not to see the misuse, at least in our case, when we paid a full price of the base model without even basic features performed or delivered."

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Naples couple scrambles to finish dream home after builder bancruptcy