Jason Speier, DBA KABENS K I enterprises Company owner agreed to build a log home on my property, but never started grading the land in over a year and a half. Arden NC

In January of 2022, I along with my domestic partner purchased a plot of land through a real estate agent.  The agent suggested we meet  his friend , who he claimed was a building contractor that specializes in log homes.  We were led to believe that his "friend' was a legitimate, licensed contractor with the state of North Carolina.  We met Jason Speier, the supposed contractor at a coffee shop with Colin Sheehan, our Real Estate agent, making the introductions.  We were presented with plans to have a custom-built log cabin  installed on our property.  After the initial meeting, we had subsequent meetings involving exchanges of our personal checks , for upfront deposits for building materials, and permits and sub-contractors.  The entire period from the beginning until we cancelled our build, and fired our " Contractor", spanned an entire year, and a half.   We called, e-mailed, and texted Jason Speier, the Owner, of Kabens, with requests for updates, since it was taking too long, and absolutely no work done on the property, save putting plotter flags out to map where the house was going to be built.  We had had enough, when we figured out we have been lied to on several occasions regarding planned ground breaking dates and times, along with false information regarding the pulling of the permits required to start the process of permission to build.  On July 13th, 2023, I William Ehrlich, personally Called Jason Speier to cancel our build, and demand the return of all monies deposited with Kabens.  Jason, at first complied by saying it would take between 7 and 10 business days to have a check made out to myself for refund.  I agreed to wait the time period.  On the 10 the day, I called Jason back.  He never picked up my call.  He did text me saying, No, the check was not ready, and he would have to update me on Monday, since this was on a Friday that I called.   Monday came, and nothing.  I called him, again he refused to pick up the phone.  So, I again  sent him a text,  " What is the status of the Check?"  He responded at first, that the money went to buy lumber, and pay sub-contractors, and for computer aided drawings, so they have to deduct these costs from the money we paid him.  I told him he could just eat the costs and chalk it up to the cost of doing business as the customer is always right.  He replied, I would forfeit the whole $ 85,000.00 investment because we had a signed contract with his company.  (This last part is a lie, as we didn't have anything in a way of a document spelling everything out and signed.  All we had were drawings, and an original estimate, and it was not signed either.  We had to change the floor plan, make it a little smaller due to cost increases, and affordability issues. Part of the problem with this whole situation was that Jason claimed he would do in-house financing, because we were having trouble getting  traditional lenders to fund a construction build loan  We only want our money back.  We demanded a copy of the "Signed Contract" which up to now has never been produced, ( Because there isn’t one!). We consulted a lawyer, and the firm was familiar with Jason and Kabens.  The advice was to go the legal channels.  I am here to also warn others to stay away from Kabens.