Developer, real estate brokerage face lawsuit over failed tiny-house project

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A recent lawsuit claims a promised refund has yet to be issued to an individual who paid a $4,000 fee for a tiny house that was never built in west Charlotte.

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Prospective buyer Lindsay Wetzel filed the suit against several Keyo Park entities and Savvy & Co., a local residential real estate brokerage, over $4,000 that she paid to reserve and begin designing a tiny house in a planned community billed as Keyo Park West. Wetzel claims she has yet to receive a refund after several attempts to contact the developer, despite promises made last year that refunds would be issued after the project failed to break ground.

Keyo Park West was initially touted by homebuilder Kelvin Young as an alternative, more affordable for-sale option in Charlotte. Young had planned 56 tiny homes, ranging from 490 to 1,000 square feet, on a roughly 20-acre tract of undeveloped land between Cathey and Tom Sadler roads in the Coulwood neighborhood. But, as the Charlotte Business Journal reported in August 2017, most of the land — except for two small parcels on Cathey Road — was never owned by Young. Questions about zoning, partners on the project and required city approvals also circulated about the project.

“Several homebuyers paid the $4,000 for their lot reservations and design contracts,” the recent lawsuit says. “There was only one problem: Mr. Young and Savvy were knowingly selling lot guarantees for land that Mr. Young had not sub-divided and that Mr. Young did not, in fact, own.”

John Snyder, representing the LLCs that are registered to and managed by Young and attorney Justin Ckezepis, said he and his clients don’t agree with “a single thing in the complaint” and that an offer for a refund was made to Wetzel in recent weeks. The lawsuit was filed in Mecklenburg County Superior Court on May 20.

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