TAMPA, Fla. — A 10 Tampa Bay viewer reached out to us after seeing our story about a homeowner who paid $60,000 to a pool contractor, and his pool is nowhere near finished. Belinda Robles tells 10 Investigates she hired the same contractor JE Clear Pools and has been waiting a year and a half to be able to swim in her backyard. She says it's an insurance issue that could cost the Robles family their home as she gave us a tour of the property.
"This is all we're left with. We do have most of our pavers, but there's debris all in the hot tub and the pool," Robles said.
Belinda Robles is emotionally attached to her home. She and her husband have lived here in Tampa for more than two decades.
“We have three children that were raised in this house, and our oldest son had muscular dystrophy. And he passed away in our home when it was the old home before we built a brand-new house,” Robles said.
Robles says they wanted to build their dream pool for their grandchildren.
“We signed the contract in September of 2022, and we started the dig in January of 2023,” Robles said.
Now, the couple says they've paid over $95,000 on the project, but for the past seven months, Robles says it has looked pretty much the same.
“Mosquitoes are all over the place, and it's hazardous,” Robles said. “We had received many or several notices from our insurance company. I presented them to Jose, the owner of the pool company. He says, he assured me, don't worry about it will be done in time. We'll be done in time.”
But time is not on her side. Last July, her insurance company came out and looked at her property. The company has since issued her a non-renewal notice because her pool is empty and under construction. The insurance company will drop their coverage July 13.
“I've also called the insurance broker, and he says it's just a warning. If you can get the pool done by then, you'll be fine. But I want to let you know that no insurance in the state of Florida will cover you with that open pool. So, you will no longer have homeowner's insurance,” Robles said.
If Robles can't find coverage on her own, her mortgage company would get her what's called force-placed insurance. 10 Investigates asked Mark Friedlander at the Insurance Information Institute what that would entail.
“They will place you with an insurance carrier at their choice. Two big issues with that one is can be very expensive, compared to you buying insurance on your own and two typically, it is a much barer policy than what you would typically purchase meaning you're not going to get as robust a level of coverage as you would if you bought a standard home insurance policy on your own in Florida,” Friedlander said.
He said force-placed insurance can run 40-100% higher than the cost of a standard home insurance policy.
“The insurance broker told me it will be thousands and thousands of dollars higher. So, we are faced with we might end up losing our home because we might not be able to pay for this,” Robles said.
The purpose of force-placed or lender-placed insurance is so the lender can recoup the property if there’s a problem.
“They want to make sure if that home gets damaged or destroyed by a hurricane, a tornado or tropical storm, a structure fire, they will get the funds to pay off that mortgage,” Friedlander said.
So now the Robles are hoping that somehow their pool is finished in time to get their own property insurance coverage.
“Best case scenario, Jose will bring a full crew here to work on the pool persistently, consistently and get it done before my deadline,” Robles said.
10 Investigates reached out to the owner of JE Clear Pools, and he said the pool will be done in three weeks, so we’ll follow up with them next month.
By the way, the homeowner from our first story said he has had workers back on-site since our story aired. We’ll keep checking in on the progress.
The Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board met in Fernandina Beach in mid-March. According to the meeting minutes, the man who is listed as the holder of the construction license for JE Clear Pools through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, John Harvey White, was ordered to pay restitution to two homeowners for their projects. The Board also ordered two years probation and an additional seven hours of continuing education related to contracting under Florida Statute. He also has to pay administrative fines within 6 months.
You can learn more about how to file a complaint against a contractor and other resources by checking out this story.
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