The founder of a central Florida home services company, who is running for Congress this year, said the firm will inspect and replace electrical ground wires that may not meet building code, after homeowners filed a lawsuit.
Joe Strada, founder and part owner of Strada Services, based in Sanford, Florida, said remediation efforts are underway, although the Orlando Sentinel reported that a lawyer for the firm had earlier indicated that homes with the alleged subpar wire had not been determined.
Strada is running for the District 11 Congressional seat that covers parts of Lake, Orange and Sumter counties. If elected, he would be the wealthiest member of Congress, Forbes magazine reported last month.
The lawsuit, initially from four homeowners in central Florida, alleges that during the COVID-19 pandemic years, when building materials were in short supply, Strada crews may have substituted copper-clad steel exterior grounding wire for fully copper wire. Steel wire is not approved by most building codes and can overheat and potentially cause fires, the suit contends, the Sentinel reported.
The Strada campaign could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Strada company’s attorneys have argued that the lawsuit did not provide the statutorily required 60-day notice of construction defects, before filing suit.
The litigation was filed with about a year to go before Florida’s construction-defect statute of limitation would bar at least some of the complaints. The installations were reportedly made between 2020 and 2022. A 2023 Florida law changed the statute of limitations, giving property owners and insurers seven years instead of 10 to file suit.
A Florida real estate broker and general contractor said the steel wire can be hard to spot, even for inspectors.
“If you’re buying something built between 2020 and 2022, ask about the exterior grounding wire by name and pay an electrician to look at it.
A general inspector is not the right tool for that job,” said Alan Atchley of Atchley Realty in Sarasota.
He also recommended that homebuyers keep any paperwork from the builder, which may prove crucial to a lawsuit later. The Sentinel article noted that magnets will not stick to a true copper wire, but will be attracted to a steel wire.