‘He shattered our dreams’: Homeowners, investors accuse contractor of fraud

RIGBY – All Marc and Michele Bolleurs wanted was to remodel their home. A year later, they’re out $133,000, and they’re accusing their former contractor of construction fraud.

“No one deserves this. He shattered our dreams,” Marc tells EastIdahoNews.com about his former contractor. “We don’t have the money to finish our project. We took the last of our $20,000 to finish our bedroom.”

In 2020, the Rigby couple began a two-year search for the right contractor to remodel their 1,600-square-foot home. For years, they’d wanted a larger bedroom, a new deck, shop, driveway and mailbox.

During their search, they crossed paths with Brad and Brittney Honken, who own HD Construction and multiple property management companies in Rigby. The Bolleurs blame them for leaving their home a construction disaster, and have since learned they are not alone. The Honkens deny any wrongdoing in court documents.

Initially, Marc says Brad sold himself as someone who had 20 years of experience in the industry. He promised he’d be able to complete the project ahead of schedule at a much lower price than competing companies.

“He made everything sound amazing, like he knew what he was doing. He even promised that he’d have the job completed two weeks ahead of schedule,” says Marc.

After multiple conversations with him, there were other things the Bolleurs liked about the Honkens. Both couples had a faith in common, and the Honkens also lived in Rigby. The Bolleurs liked the idea of supporting a local business.

Due to major life events, Marc and his wife needed the remodel completed by the end of June. Brad drew up a contract, which the Bolleurs ended up signing in March 2022. They refinanced their home to pay for it.

“Brad Honken understood that’s how we were getting the money,” Marc says.

The Bolleurs made an initial payment of about $69,000 and a second payment of about $43,000, for a total of about $112,000. They felt good about their investment and eagerly awaited the completion of their dream project.

But things didn’t turn out as they had hoped.

Weeks went by before any work got underway. Marc says it was mid-April before he saw Brad again.

“He showed up once or twice and didn’t come back again until May,” Marc recalls. “In June, they did a little bit of work on the addition. They did some framing on a wall here, put a bunch of holes in the walls and floors.”

At the end of the summer, nothing was complete, and the work that had been done was shoddy at best, Marc says. The deck wasn’t level. The wood framing had been built for the shop, but there weren’t any enclosed walls.

“I wanted a really nice shower. My wife wanted a 6-foot jetted tub. He didn’t come through with that. He brought in a 5-foot-whatever-it-was. The french doors were not installed properly,” Marc says. “He did about $35,000 worth of work (in that time), and it wasn’t even halfway complete.”

And when Marc asked him to fix it, Brad claimed that Marc owed him another $1,245 before he could move forward with the project.

At that point, they fired Honken and used the remaining $20,000 in their account to finish the bedroom. This brought their total financial loss to about $133,000.

Disappointed and unsure of what to do next, the Bolleurs sought legal advice.

Others make similar claims

During this process, Marc and his wife learned they weren’t alone in what they had experienced. They discovered others who had similar dealings with the Honkens, many of them with outcomes that were worse — including Brad’s father-in-law, Steve Larsen.

Larsen, who lives in Texas, accuses Brad of stealing money from him over several years on multiple investment projects. Larsen’s attorney advised him not to speak with us due to pending litigation against the Honkens.

But in a 14-page lawsuit filed in June 2021, Larsen says he had four rental properties scattered throughout Utah and Wyoming with rental income for each at about $10,000 a month. They agreed Brad would invest the earnings in a 12-unit apartment complex that would be built in Sugar City.

“Honken said that Larsen and he would have to invest money for a couple years so they would have enough money to build the apartment complex,” the lawsuit says. “Defendant Honken managed the houses through his personal rental management corporation called Blue Stone Management LLC.”

About a year later, according to the lawsuit, Honken told Larsen his rental properties were not earning enough money for the Sugar City project. They opened a joint account, where Larsen says he “began putting nearly every penny he earned.”

In 2019, Honken allegedly told Larsen even more money was needed, and Larsen needed to sell one of his rental properties. At Honken’s advice, Larsen executed a power of attorney and named Honken as his agent.

Court documents show Honken sold one of Larsen’s properties in Wyoming for $300,000 and put it in the joint account. Honken is reported to have later withdrawn that amount and used the power of attorney to withdraw an additional $30,000 from Larsen’s personal account without letting him know.

For about three years, Larsen alleges Brad told Larsen to trust him and that he would make him rich. Honken told Larsen for two years that construction on the Sugar City project would “break ground the following week,” Larsen says in court documents.

Honken continued to collect rent on the property before telling Larsen in 2020 that he could no longer manage it because Larsen had not been paying taxes on the property. It was sold at a tax sale immediately after Honken told him about this, according to court records.

“Larsen had given Honken hundreds of thousands of dollars as investment money, and Larsen still has no accounting of where this money has gone,” the lawsuit alleges.

Larsen says Honken stole roughly $945,000 from him, and only $300,000 has been paid back. The Sugar City property was never built, and there is no record of ownership for it, he says. Larsen is seeking “all money subject to any loan agreement at the agreed 15%” interest rate.

In a 15-page response and counterclaim, Brad denies most of the allegations and says that he and Larsen entered into a business agreement that required Larsen to make a $10,000 payment to acquire a parcel of commercial real estate for $1.2 million.

“Larsen agreed to secure $1.2 million in additional financing and loan it to Honken to help fund the transaction. Honken agreed to pay Larsen 10% interest on the money borrowed,” court records say.

Without the additional funding, Brad says the project fell through, and Larsen forfeited his $10,000 payment.

“Larsen was not approved for the $1.2 million … because his reported income was less than he had represented to the lender,” Brad alleges in his response.

Brad acknowledges in court records he and Larsen did have a joint account and that funds were withdrawn under power of attorney, but he denies Larsen’s claim that it was without his knowledge or consent.

Brad also alleges Larsen has made defamatory statements about him in conversations with other people, which has negatively impacted his business.

“Honken and Larsen have since had a falling out and decided to end their business relationship,” Brad says in his response. “Since that time, Larsen has contacted multiple people to make accusations about Honken’s character and integrity, including Honken’s wife, Brittney Honken (Larsen’s daughter), and religious leader.”

Brad says he was in a business deal with his uncle, Phil Larsen, that would have resulted in a $30,000 annual profit for Brad. Phil’s demeanor towards Brad allegedly changed after Steve spoke with Phil.

Phil and his wife, Sharon, live in Henderson, Nevada. In January, Sharon told us that in 2018 they invested $150,000 in a house that Brad allegedly fixed up and flipped. Once it had been sold, Brad told them about another potential investment project. They agreed to rollover profits from the previous sale to reinvest in another project.

On Nov. 5, 2018, Sharon says they got a signed letter from Brad stating their total investment return of $234,375 would be disbursed on Jan. 17, 2022. More than a year later, they still haven’t seen any money.

In the lawsuit, Brad says Steve’s failure to come up with the $1.2 million puts him in breach of contract. He requests damages “in an amount to be proven at trial.”

A trial is set for Oct. 23. It could last up to five days.

EastIdahoNews.com reached out to the Honkens for comment. They declined to speak with us “due to ongoing litigation.”

EastIdahoNews.com spoke with several other parties with similar concerns about the Honkens and HD Construction. They declined to tell their story on the record, also citing pending civil litigation. So far, Steve Larsen is the only party with an active court case.

‘I can’t trust again’

Marc Bolleurs is working with other homeowners to file a lawsuit against the Honkens. Financial losses have made him unable to afford it right now.

In September, Donald Carey, an attorney with Carey Law in Idaho Falls, wrote a letter to Brad on the Bolleurs’ behalf, officially putting him on notice of “construction defects.” The letter requests the defects be fixed “before suit is filed.” He also requests receipts, invoices and timecards to account for the Bolleurs’ investment on the project.

In an emailed response to Carey, Brad accuses Marc of “slandering and defaming HD and us personally” on social media and making “documented physical threats against” his employees, which prevented an inspection and the completion of the remodel.

Marc is working steadily to repair the defects Brad allegedly created.

The couple hopes the Honkens have to face their accusers in court.

Marc says he’s learned an important lesson throughout this ordeal, and he offers some counsel for those looking to remodel or buy a home.

“I’ve always trusted people, and after having my dreams shattered like this, I can’t trust again,” he says. “The day we hired (Brad), he printed out a contract for us. I had him put in the completion date and when we were done talking to him, he said, nonchalantly, ‘I’ll email you the contract later.’ We didn’t think twice about it. When he emailed the contract to us, the completion date was taken out.

“Get a paper copy of your contract with signatures and dates. Make sure you have everything in detail as far as what you expect from your contractor.”