Charlotte developer Action 9 reported on for years sentence to prison

CHARLOTTE — Angie Outen, Lindsay Wetzel, and others complained to Action 9 about Kelvin Young and his company, Keyo, since 2019.

They say they paid him for those trendy tiny houses you’ve probably seen on TV shows, but he never started (or started and never finished).

Young was advertising at least two neighborhoods at the time: Keyo East in Matthews and Keyo West in the Paw Creek part of Charlotte. The first neighborhood never got off the ground. The second: two homes.

Action 9 found five people suing the developer around the time the pandemic started, but didn’t hear any more complaints. That was until 2023, when another homebuyer contacted Action 9.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Another homebuyer says Keyo Tiny House didn’t do the work

Fast forward two years. A woman—who asked not to share her identity—says she hired Young last year to build a traditional house, not a tiny one, and gave him $10,000 to get started. She says he never started.

“Definitely upset about it, but the bright side is I didn’t lose more than that,” she said.

At some point, investigators charged Young with obtaining property by false pretenses. It’s not clear if the case was tied to a tiny house or a traditional one.

According to court documents, “Kelvin Young did unlawfully, willfully, feloniously, knowingly, and designedly with the intent to cheat and defraud obtain United States currency from Brandi Young by means of a false pretense, which was calculated to deceive and did deceive. The false pretense consisted of the following: representing that he was using the money to purchase an investment property, but failing to invest the money and purchase the property, and instead using the funds for personal expenses.”

Jurors found him guilty. The sentence: 6-17 months behind bars.

Action 9 emailed and called Kelvin Young’s lawyer for Young’s side of the story. No one responded in time for this report.

Attorney Jason Stoogenke says this is a good opportunity to talk about ‘any’ time you hire a builder.

Pay as little as you can up front.
Use a credit card if you can.
If the project goes south, you may be eligible for money from a pot he’s told you about before.

If you have problems with any major home project:

You may want to talk to a lawyer.
You can report the company to the North Carolina or South Carolina licensing board.

If you exhaust all your other options and live in N.C., there’s always the N.C. Homeowners Recovery Fund.

The N.C. Homeowners Recovery Fund:

The project has to involve your home, not a commercial building.
It can be your primary residence or a second home, as long as you don’t rent that home out.
The project has to be attached to your home, so not a pool or detached garage, for example.
The contractor has to be a licensed one or one pretending to be licensed.
You have to exhaust all your other legal remedies first. That means you have to sue the contractor and win a judgment, and the contractor still doesn’t pay.
Where does the fund get its money? $9 of every permit pulled in the state goes into the fund.
The maximum you can get is 10% of the total. But the Board has to maintain $250,000 in the pot at all times.
The Board has hearings twice each year.

South Carolina, however, does not have a comparable program. The state has a surety bond requirement for all licensees whereby the board can seize and award some or all of the bond if a licensed contractor is found to be in violation.

VIDEO: Another homebuyer says Keyo Tiny House didn’t do the work