Contractor undone
by failure to finish

Company bankrupt; Prosecutor’s Office investigating

BY SHERRY CONOHAN

Staff Writer

A Little Silver contractor who counted many of his neighbors among his clients now faces investigations at municipal and county levels in response to complaints he failed to fulfill his commitments.

The failure of Sterling Builders and Robert Socha, the man behind the company, to finish the jobs the company took on has thrown several families into financial chaos as they reach deeper into their pockets to pay other contractors to finish the job that Sterling failed to complete.

Laura Pair, who lives on Kings Road within sight of Socha’s home at the corner of Queens Drive, said Socha demolished the garage at her house in preparation for putting on an addition with a family room and master bedroom, but then walked away with $77,000 of her and her husband Greg’s money. She said he put in the new foundation and the framing and left.

"He’s very good at tearing down and not so good at putting back up," she said.

The story of the Pairs and two of the other local victims of Socha will be told on Fox Channel 5’s Problem Solvers segment at 10 p.m. Monday, by consumer reporter John Deutzman.

Laura Pair said she contacted Fox Channel 5 for help and to protect other potential victims.

"Mostly what I wanted to do was to get his name out there so that he doesn’t do this to anybody else in the tristate area," she said.

Socha, contacted at his recently remodeled home at 78 Queens Drive, said his problems resulted from his effort to grow his company.

"I had a business plan to expand my business," he said. "I bought a lot of vehicles and took on a heavy work schedule. And I wasn’t successful in the business plan."

Socha said that four months ago he was the most-sought-after builder in the area. He said he had a great reputation, attested to by all the people in the neighborhood who had hired him.

But since the collapse of his company, he said, "My family and my life here really have been destroyed."

At the urging of his wife, Socha referred all further questions to his lawyer, Jon Marshall, of Red Bank.

Marshall, contacted later at his Red Bank office, said Socha’s problem was simply the failure of a business.

"There’s nothing more to it than that," he said. "There’s nothing illegal.

"It’s really a situation where a guy who was reputable bit off more than he could chew and the cash flow didn’t follow," he added.

Marshall said another lawyer was representing the company and the couple in the bankruptcy action, so he knew little about it. He said Socha came to him because the people he did work for were talking about going to the pros­ecutor.

Reports that borough police received on Jan. 9 of a helicopter flying low and hovering over the town, which were traced to Fox 5, were related to the sta­tion’s filming of the area for its report on Socha that will be aired on Monday, according to Pair.

Pair, who says — not entirely in jest — that she has made a part-time job of documenting the damage Socha has wreaked on those with whom he has contracts, said she has learned that Sterling Builders, Socha, and his wife, Stacy Bear, the president of Sterling, have filed for bankruptcy. She also has been in touch with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. She said a detective from the Prosecutor’s Office has contacted her.

"The Prosecutor’s Office is taking this very seriously," she added.

Little Silver Police Chief William Wikoff confirmed his department had received "a number" of complaints about Socha and was investigating them. He said he expected the evidence about him collected from the borough to end up in the county Prosecutor’s Office.

Pair said Socha has been living in Little Silver for at least five years.

"What he’s been doing is buying houses, moving into them, and fixing them up and selling them," she said. "He also was doing small improve­ments on other people’s houses.

"Last year, he started taking on large jobs," she said.

Pair, who has three children ages 15, 3 and 1, said Socha took their deposit for a planned $101,000 job after telling them he had a hole in his schedule after another job fell through and pressured them to seize the moment.

"Then he turned around and did his house, with a new kitchen that he brags cost $85,000, with marble countertops and new appliances," she said. "It was just blatantly extravagant."

Nancy Langan, who lives across the street from Socha at 71 Queens Drive, just moved back into her house with her family on Saturday. She and her hus­band Mark, who have three children ages 3, 4 and 6, had contracted to have a second floor put onto their one-story ranch. The work on their house was supposed to be done by Aug. 1, Sept. 1 at the latest. They moved in with her fa­ther-in-law in Middletown for what they expected would be a three to four month stay and wound up spending nine months there. They’re only living now on the first floor and basement levels of their house after contracting with Phil Bellaviva, another Little Silver contrac­tor, to finish the job.

The Pairs also turned to Bellaviva to finish the job at their house. They say they have been satisfied with his work.

Nancy Langan said they went eight to 10 weeks in the summer with no con­struction happening and finally sent Socha a letter, essentially firing him, on Labor Day. She said their contract with Socha was for $200,000 for the addi­tion and renovations, of which they paid him $125,000.

"It’s horrible what he did," she said. "He took deposits and never came back. That’s stealing."

"My husband had to take numerous days off work in New York to deal with this garbage," she added. "He seems to think we owe him $2,000. We think he owes us $5,000. Probably we’re about even."

She said they wouldn’t file a lawsuit against Socha because that probably would cost $10,000 to $15,000 and they know he’s "flat broke" and in bankruptcy.

Langan said she had called the Bet­ter Business Bureau before she and her husband went to contract with Socha and was told that "everything looked clear" on him.

"It seems like from May to October his whole world crumbled and we crumbled with him," she said, then added, "You’ve got to stop him from burning all these people."

Susan Grant, of Park Avenue in Shrewsbury, said she and her husband David, who is known as Rusty, agreed in their contract with Socha to pay $155,000 for an addition and renova­tions to their house. She said from March to August they had paid him $107,666 of that amount.

"We estimated that of that $107,000 that he put 40 percent of that into the house," she said. "So we lost a lot of money. We hired another contractor to finish the house.

"It became clear as time went along that he wasn’t paying his subcontrac­tors, he was not paying Builders Gen­eral (for materials)," she added. "We’ve made some settlements with the electrician and the HVAC guys so that they won’t be coming against us."

In addition to not finishing the work they had contracted for, she said, the work Socha did do to the roof wasn’t done properly, allowing rain to pour in and cause water damage.

Grant said she and her husband and their two young children, ages 5 and 2, have been out of their house since June, living with her in-laws, and planned on being back in the house by Septem­ber.

They now have a tentative finish date of the end of February from an­other contractor they hired to complete the job. She said she and her husband have borrowed money from both her parents and his to pay for the work.

Grant contacted the Monmouth County prosecutor’s office and said they have since been contacted by several de­tectives from that office. She said they have opted not to file a civil lawsuit be­cause they have been advised it would cost $20,000 to $30,000.

"We’re just hoping that something happens with him," she said of Socha. "If he just changes the name and starts a new company, he can just keep on do­ing the same thing."