Colorado tiny homes builder, Matthew Sowash, owes customers $6M after spending money on lavish lifestyle

A builder in Colorado owes $6 million to customers who never received their promised tiny homes after he allegedly blew the cash on race cars, real estate and lavish trips, according to new bankruptcy filings.

Matthew Sowash, the president and CEO of Holy Ground Tiny Homes, failed to deliver tiny homes to 189 buyers while spending hundreds of thousands on seemingly personal purchases, KDVR reported.

The nonprofit company spent more than $400,000 to buy and repair race cars and other vehicles in addition to $35,000 in real estate in Colorado and Alaska, according to an 81-page report filed Friday and obtained by the local Fox affiliate station.

It spent another $32,000 on meals and $55,000 on travel to Las Vegas. Just $10,000 of the travel expenses “appear to be related to the delivery of the tiny homes,” according to the court filing.

Sowash’s legal team claimed the Vegas trip was part of an “employee appreciation benefit.”

The spending spree happened between October 2020 and August 2022, the same time the nonprofit was collecting deposits from customers for tiny homes they never received, KDVR reported.

Holy Ground Tiny Homes filed for bankruptcy in October 2022 and Sowash now has until Sept. 22 to submit a plan for how he will turn the company around, according to the outlet.

Attorney Joli Lofstedt, who was assigned to the bankruptcy investigation, said the business “would need to almost double the sales price of the tiny homes.

“Trustee does not have information or expertise to evaluate whether there is a market for the tiny homes at such increased sales prices,” the station reported.

The tiny home company was operating at a loss, according to the report. It spent $4.4 million on materials to construct homes it then sold for just $2.6 million in 2021 and did even worse the following year — spending $5.3 million on materials for homes sold for $2 million, the filing states.