'He never finished the work.' Hudson Valley families accuse luxury builder of taking $380K
Several homeowners say they’re speaking out now because they don’t want anyone else to fall victim to what they describe as a contractor “scam.”
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Several Hudson Valley homeowners are coming forward to News 12 claiming a luxury home builder took their money, abandoned their projects and left them with half-finished houses, unsafe living conditions and mounting financial losses.
One of those people is 81-year-old Nora Hamond-Gallardo, of the Hamlet of Wallkill. She says she paid Orange County luxury builder John Falvella $35,000 in 2021 to build what she hoped would be her retirement home — but claims he never started the job.
“He did not do anything from the very beginning,” she said. “When I asked for my money back, he refused. He cut off contact.”
Several homeowners say they’re speaking out now because they don’t want anyone else to fall victim to what they describe as a contractor “scam,” and many say they’ve been fighting for years to get their money back.
Others tell similar stories.
Lisa Singh hired Falvella in 2021 to build a home in the Town of Newburgh. She says she and her mother paid more than $172,000 and still ended up with what she calls unsafe, incomplete work.
“For almost a year, John didn’t do any work,” Singh said. “He kept asking for more money, and there was no progress.” Her parents spent months living in her grandmother’s basement while waiting for the house to be finished. A civil judgment later awarded Singh $172,114.71 — money she says she has never received.
Lisa Roisland, speaking from Oregon, says Falvella was hired to build her family’s home in Maybrook. Two years later, she says they still don’t have a certificate of occupancy. “He took a ton of money from our construction loan with work that never got finished,” Roisland said, adding that she had to hire others to correct what she describes as faulty or incomplete work.
Michael Wojtusiak, of Beacon, tells News 12 he paid Falvella a $20,000 deposit for an addition so he could bring his mother home from assisted living.
“He never returned and never did any work whatsoever,” Wojtusiak said.
Court documents show he won a civil judgment for $143,352.35, which included his mother's assisted living expenses during the alleged delay, that he says has also gone unpaid.
As part of News 12's investigation into the homeowners' claims, News 12 went to an address listed online for Falvella’s business — a large mansion on a hillside property in Montgomery. A woman answered through a video intercom, and when told why News 12 was were, she said, “We really don’t want that getting out.”
Altogether, court records show more than $335,000 in civil judgments against Falvella and a separate felony grand larceny case in the Town of Newburgh, where he’s accused of taking more than $50,000 from the Singh family for additional basement work that was never done.
Falvella, 63, denies the allegations. He says the cases are the result of disputes over final bills and change orders and claims he performed behind-the-scenes work such as drawings and attending town meetings. He also blames his former attorney, who he says “committed legal malpractice” and allowed cases to become default judgments.
In a written statement to News 12, he said in part:
“At the advice of my former attorney, I liened their properties and in return they filed lawsuits. I will get the default judgments overturned, which is why no payment has been made.”
Falvella also says the criminal case stems from what he calls a “glitch” in the law and believes alleged victims “jumped on the anti-contractor bandwagon.”
He told News 12 he has since closed his business.
News 12 confirmed with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office that the felony case remains open.
