Homeowners who hired Derek Thomas to construct accessory dwelling units say the work was left unfinished.
Jeff Klein walked us through the basement of his home in Boston's Brighton neighborhood and pointed to what will eventually be a bathroom and a kitchen in the renovated space.
His gaze fixated on a large pile of dirt, and he joked it will serve as a nice coffee table while watching TV.
WATCH ANYTIME FOR FREE
 |
Stream NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are. |
It is not exactly how Klein and his wife, Rachel Shuler, envisioned decorating the basement more than a year after construction began.
"I feel anger and rage when I'm down here," Klein said. "I want to punch a wall, but there are no walls."
Get updates on what's happening in Boston to your inbox. Sign up for our News Headlines newsletter.
Back in 2023, the couple applied for a City of Boston program that provides up to a $50,000 interest-free loan as gap funding to help homeowners construct accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, on their properties.
Klein, a landscape designer, and his wife, a school teacher, thought the program sounded like a great way to generate some rental income or give their aging parents a place to stay during visits instead of cramming into limited upstairs space with them and with their two kids.
"It was really exciting, because $50,000 goes a long way on a project like this," Klein said.
After having an architect draw up the blueprint, the couple hired Derek Thomas of Incremental Developers LLC to construct the ADU in their basement. The contractor's website portfolio boasted several completed ADU projects and he seemed to be familiar with building officials in Boston.
When construction began in January 2024, Klein said the process hummed along as Thomas and his crews tackled demolition and framing inside the basement.
However, after providing a large progress payment, Klein said the pace of the work changed.
"It just stopped," he said. "It was so abrupt."
Already $78,000 into the project, Klein said a lengthy delay followed with minimal progress. He and his wife resisted handing over more money toward the $132,000 overall price tag.
Thomas sent the City of Boston an invoice for payment, but the housing department overseeing the ADU program sent the contractor a punch list of items that would have to be completed or corrected before any public funds were released.
Over the holidays in December, a plumbing subcontractor showed up at the house and said he planned to remove tools and equipment because Thomas had not paid him for the work he completed.
"We kind of new something was just wrong," Shuler said. "Something was fishy."
That is when Klein thought of our "To Catch a Contractor" series and reached out to the NBC10 Boston Investigators about his situation.
Issues with other ADU projects surface
Before long, we connected with Nil Silva and his wife, Sarah Fisher, who also hired Incremental Developers to construct a basement ADU at their Dorchester home.
"I feel conned and robbed," Silva said.
The couple told a similar story about their project getting off to a promising start before progress waned and communication from the contractor grew sparser.
Still, as the couple with two kids surpassed $100,000 of spending, their project was closer to the finish line. In early 2024, Fisher said they paid $13,000 for a required electrical upgrade.
She said they never heard from the contractor after handing over the money.
"Just ghosted," Fisher said. "I feel overall angry and defeated that we still have no resolution to this at all."
Rosalba Solis knows the feeling.
The retired Boston public school teacher and her husband thought it was time to downsize from their Jamaica Plain home. They decided to pursue the city's new program and turn their garage into a detached ADU.
Just like other homeowners, Solis said she ran into lengthy delays and little communication from Thomas.
"It was a horrible experience," Solis said. "The guy was not answering any phones. You could not find him anywhere."
At one point, Solis even filed a report with Boston police after a subcontractor threated to destroy the sheetrock work he had completed because Thomas had not paid him.
"He's doing bad to all of us," Solis said.
Lawsuit in Swampscott over failed ADU project
So what went wrong with these projects?
An online review shows Thomas and his Incremental Developers business as active participants in the ADU dialogue in Massachusetts, which implemented a new state law last year that could alter the housing landscape across the Bay State.
Thomas was quoted in a recent Boston Globe article and he appeared as a guest speaker at a town meeting in Swampscott about ADU projects last October.
During the meeting, the moderator asked Thomas if he had done any ADU projects in Swampscott.
"We've been through the permitting process," Thomas responded.
What he did not tell the audience is that earlier in the summer, the Swampscott homeowner had sued him for the failed project.
Instead of a backyard ADU, court documents say the homeowner paid more than $40,000 for a demolished barn and a weed-filled hole.
During that same town meeting in Swampscott, the moderator asked if Thomas had any success stories he would like to share with the audience.
"Yeah, all of them," Thomas responded.
Investment property under scrutiny
According to court records and interviews with customers, a property on Bridge Street in Salem could offer an important clue as to why recent projects have gone awry.
Property records show Incremental Developers purchased it as an investment property in April 2023 for $520,000 and then took out a mortgage for $527,000.
City permit records and online rental listings show the property has been "meticulously renovated" since then, while being converted from a single-family to multi-family property. It is also getting a basement ADU of its own.
There is now a $48,000 lien on the property tied to the lawsuit from the Swampscott homeowner, and customers believe money on their projects helped pay for all the upgrades.
Property records show Thomas and his wife also purchased a home in Salem for $715,000 in early 2023.
"It's really frustrating to know that he's just investing in his own properties, and we're just sitting here trying to pay out of our own pocket to scrape enough together to finish our project downstairs," said Fisher, the Dorchester homeowner.
Court records show Incremental Developers was also sued by an insurance company for more than $10,000 in missed payments and taken to small claims court by a West Roxbury homeowner in 2023. Both of those cases settled, according to court dockets.
In the past five years, land records reveal Thomas has paid roughly $50,000 to clear outstanding federal tax liens.
Contractor responds to allegations
When we contacted Thomas to discuss his projects, the business owner declined an on-camera interview.
Through his attorney, Thomas said the investment property in Salem was independently funded and had no financial connection to any client funds.
"The allegation that money from other property owners was used for this development is categorically false," said Thomas' attorney, John Entner.
Because of the pending litigation, Thomas and his attorney declined to discuss the project at the Swampscott property.
When asked about homeowners who fired him from projects around the Boston area, Thomas pointed to confusion and a lack of transparency over the how city officials oversee the process and administer funds.
"The permitting process in Boston is widely known to be unpredictable and slow, which often creates project delays, unexpected costs, and frustrated clients," Thomas wrote in an email. "Unfortunately, when city employees interfere with private contracts, rather than sticking to their intended role, it only makes these challenges worse."
City of Boston will not approve future public financing
According to Boston's Office of Housing, there have been 14 completed ADU projects that utilized the public financing program since Mayor Michelle Wu took office.
Incremental Developers completed three of those projects — all in 2022.
Another 22 ADU projects receiving taxpayer financial assistance are currently in various stages of the design, permitting and construction phases.
According to a City of Boston spokesperson, the ADU loan program does not distribute payments to contractors until all work is completed and has passed inspection.
A Mattapan homeowner who is receiving public financing has chosen to continue working with Incremental Developers until his basement ADU project is finished, according to city officials.
However, Thomas' work with the city's ADU program might be coming to an end after that.
"While we do not recommend contractors to homeowners, for work that the city funds, we do have standards that we expect contractors to adhere to including timelines, completion of work, and customer satisfaction," a city spokesperson said. "Based on the performance of this contractor, we would not approve him for funding in future projects."
We submitted a public records request more than two months ago to the City of Boston for invoices, payments and any communication with Thomas and are still awaiting those documents.
Thomas said he also has repeatedly sought records and answers from the City of Boston and is awaiting a response.
Homeowners file complaints against contractor
Meantime, several homeowners have submitted complaints to the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation against Thomas' home improvement contractor registration. Those cases are pending and could result in fines or discipline, depending on what a hearing officer decides.
The contractor has responded with strong language to customers who have voiced their complaints online.
Fisher, the Dorchester homeowner, left a one-star Google review for Incremental Developers about her unfinished project.
"Your statements are false defamatory, and legally actionable," the business responded. "You are now on notice that we will take all necessary legal steps to protect our business from your false and malicious claims."
Solis hired other workers to eventually finish her garage ADU in Jamaica Plain. Her project remains posted on the Incremental Developers website, although she said the interior photo that depicts a finished space is definitely not her home.
Klein and Shuler in Brighton are now digging deep financially to work with another contractor to bring their ADU to completion.
"We're just really grateful that you are doing these kinds of stories," Shuler said. "We don't want anybody taken advantage of the same way we were taken advantage of."
