LAKE COUNTY, Fla — A Lake County couple said building their dream home turned into a nightmare.
Stephen DeMatties said, “It’s brought a tremendous amount of stress on our life.”
He and his wife Brittni hired a contractor in July of 2023 to build the home they believed would take around ten months, but two years after signing a contract, they said the home wasn’t even close to being finished.
Do you have a consumer complaint or need help from Jeff Deal and Action 9? Click the banner below to submit a tip.
They bought a sprawling rural property with a small lake in Altoona.
DeMatties said, “I wanted to move my family out here. There’s cows and chickens, and wanted to get them outside of the city life.”
For them, it was a great location. With a baby on the way, they signed a contract to have their home build by Michael Olm, a licensed Florida contractor. The contract shows the house was to be “substantially completed within 215 business days.”
“Our dream was ten months away whenever we got permits, that’s what we were thinking,” Stephen DeMatties told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal.
Stephen said even though the builder was taking draws on the construction loan there were delays and excuses.
“There was always, like a common excuse of, like, medical issues or health problems or something,” he said.
Around $170,000 was taken out on the $280,000 project. A lumber supplier placed a lien on the property claiming they weren’t paid. The DeMatties said they had to pay out of pocket to have the lien removed and they paid other subcontractors, too.
They aren’t the only clients with complaints. In February of 2025, another couple, Ivan and Maria Rodriguez sued claiming it was well past the 215 business days required in their 2022 contract and Michael Olm failed to substantially complete the project. The lawsuit also alleges multiple subcontractors Olm hired put liens on their home after he failed to pay them.
Action 9 caught up with Michael Olm at his Lake County business address.
Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal said, “We’re with Channel 9. We received a consumer complaint.”
Olm told Deal, in both situations, the property owners requested changes that caused the delays.
Olm claimed he did complete the Rodriguez family home and said he would have finished the DeMatties’ home if they gave him a chance.
He said, “We had to stop the house, get construction plans all done, and get it redone again, and go from there.”
Olm has been sued for debts over the years and even faced criminal charges. In 1996, after pleading no contest to grand theft he was he was sentenced to 8-years of probation and ordered to pay $215,000 in restitution. A year later, he was sentenced to 10-years of probation after pleading guilty to knowingly and intentionally providing a false written statement about the payment status of subcontractors or suppliers on a construction project.
Olm voluntarily relinquished his contractor’s license in 1998.
“I paid everything back. I got my rights back. I got everything just like I’m supposed to. Got my license back,” he told Action 9.
Olm said the past criminal cases have nothing to do with these latest claims.
Jeff Deal asked, “You don’t feel like you owe them anything?”
Olm answered, “I don’t owe them anything.”
While the DeMatties have now hired another builder, they want to warn others to do their homework, including background checks before hiring anyone to build their dream home.
Stephen DeMatties said, “Not having a home with a baby and a wife as a husband, it, it tears me apart.”
The Rodriguez lawsuit is still open. A concrete supplier is also suing Olm related to the Rodriguez project claiming he hasn’t paid them for supplies.
©2026 Cox Media Group
