Incredible Tiny Homes Lawsuit Update: Fraud, Ponzi, Stop-Work

The Incredible Tiny Homes lawsuit picture, as of early 2026, has two tracks: a pending criminal case brought by the State of Tennessee against the company’s land-holding affiliate, Incredible Properties LLC, for land-use violations in Cocke County, and a growing set of consumer complaints alleging lost deposits, undelivered homes, and defective construction. The next court date in the criminal matter is March 25, 2026. No civil class action has been reported, and no criminal fraud case has been filed against founder Randy Jones or the builder itself.

Where the Criminal Case Stands

On December 4, 2025, the State of Tennessee charged Incredible Properties LLC in Cocke County General Sessions Court with “violations of regulations of building/structure/land usage.”¹ Under Tennessee Code Annotated 13-7-111, each violation is a Class C misdemeanor, and each day of continued noncompliance counts as a separate offense.

The charges concern two residential developments, “The Mountain” and “Buffalo Creek,” where the county says the company built without submitting required site plans under subdivision regulations dating to 1978.¹ The company has argued that certain zoning provisions were grandfathered in. The county has rejected that reading.

The initial hearing before Judge Mark Strange was set for December 15, 2025. It was postponed to January 28, 2026, and then again to March 25, 2026. If you have seen sidebar headlines on the Newport Plain Talk’s site referring to a “no contest plea” or Incredible Properties being “found guilty of regulatory violation,” those refer to material that predates the current case. As of the most recent reporting in January 2026, no plea had been entered and the hearing had not taken place.²

The Stop-Work Order on Tiny Towne

A separate enforcement action hit the company’s main Newport site earlier. On August 15, 2025, Cocke County Floodplain Administrator Kathleen Alarcon issued a stop-work order against the “Tiny Towne” development at 850 Industrial Road.³ The property sits in a Special Flood Hazard Area, and the county required elevation certificates for every structure on the site to satisfy FEMA permitting and establish flood insurance baselines. The order halted work, business operations, and occupancy pending compliance.

Alarcon gave the company 90 days to complete elevation certificates through a licensed land surveyor, engineer, or architect, with potential fines of up to $50 per day per infraction for noncompliance. Alarcon is the affiant in the December 2025 criminal case as well. By September 2025, Incredible Tiny Homes had closed its on-site sales office and directed customers to phone or email contact.³

Newport Utilities also agreed not to provide water or sewer service to any future homes at the development until the site plan received proper planning commission approval.⁴ For buyers holding reservations at the site, that utility freeze is often the more immediate obstacle than the criminal charges themselves.

Deposits, Lot Leases, and Undelivered Homes

The Better Business Bureau profile for Incredible Tiny Homes Inc. shows 22 complaints filed in the past three years, with nine closed in the most recent 12 months. The BBB lists the top categories as delivery problems (eight), sales and advertising disputes (four), and customer service issues (three).⁵

Most of the money disputes involve “key money” or “seed money” deposits for lot leases at Buffalo Creek. Customers reported paying $10,000 to $20,000 to reserve lots, then finding the development stalled under stop-work orders and permitting disputes. The company’s contracts label these payments nonrefundable, though in several cases it agreed to refund a buyer if and when their lot was resold. Multiple complainants said promised refunds were delayed for months or ignored until the BBB intervened.⁵

Individual losses have been substantial. One buyer reported paying $172,018 for a home marketed with a “long-term, transferable lease” at Buffalo Creek and later learned that city and county officials had not authorized the company to offer that lease. Another paid $20,000 in seed money in 2022; the home was completed in March 2025, but the buyer had to find and pay for a different location.⁵

The company’s standard contracts state that estimated completion dates are “not legally binding” and that buyers agree to hold the company harmless for construction delays.⁵

Defects in Delivered Homes

Buyers who did receive homes have documented a range of quality problems. Reported issues include sewage backing up into the shower when the sink drained, a non-functional hot water heater on move-in day, interior water damage from rain entering through inadequately caulked seams, and a completely non-functional solar system that left the unit without climate control. Cosmetic and finishing complaints include nail heads protruding through flooring, crude holes cut in ceilings for drain pipes, cardboard stuck to walls, unfilled nail holes, and missing deadbolt keys.⁵

In BBB responses, the company has said many of these homes were sold as “Grab-N-Go” units on an as-is basis with a “very short term and very limited warranty.” In other cases, it attributed defects to the buyer’s failure to properly set up the home before powering it on.⁵

Fraud and Ponzi Allegations

Customers and a former employee have publicly accused Randy Jones of running the operation as a Ponzi scheme, though these are allegations, not charges. At a February 2025 Cocke County Legislative Body meeting, former employee and customer Will Labrie said Jones used payments from new customers to fund homes owed to earlier buyers, and claimed Jones had pre-sold roughly 200 lots at Buffalo Creek at $10,000 per lot, with some customers waiting since 2020.⁶

Speaker Roobah Fox urged the county to forward the matter to the district attorney and raised concerns about the alleged “intermingling of funds” between Incredible Tiny Homes and Incredible Properties LLC.⁶ Available reporting shows no indication that the district attorney has opened a formal investigation or issued any public statement in response. The county’s vote directed the county attorney to pursue zoning and subdivision enforcement, not a criminal fraud referral.

Resident Michael Ridgeway, who runs a Facebook group for affected buyers, told a March 2025 commission meeting that the company used “inauthentic documents” and collected $30,000 to $40,000 in deposits from successive buyers for the same lots. Ridgeway said he had been involved in multiple court cases with the company and expected more.⁷ Other residents reported being hit with “reverse legal fees and other sanctions” in prior proceedings against the company.

The Two-Entity Question

A structural issue runs through the customer complaints. In BBB responses, the company has maintained that Incredible Tiny Homes Inc. and Incredible Properties LLC are legally separate entities: the builder sells homes, and the property company manages land and leases. On that theory, the builder has no responsibility for the lot-lease failures at Buffalo Creek, and the property company has no responsibility for construction defects.⁵

Complainants have pushed back, noting the two entities are marketed and managed together. This same distinction matters for the criminal case: the charges name Incredible Properties LLC, not the builder.

What Affected Buyers Have Done

Reporting indicates that some buyers have pursued the company in court individually, with mixed results that in at least a few cases produced sanctions against the buyers.⁷ Others have filed BBB complaints, which in some cases produced refund agreements tied to the resale of the reserved lot rather than immediate repayment.⁵ A Facebook group for affected buyers has organized around the case. No consumer class action has been reported.

If you have money at stake, the useful markers to watch are the March 25, 2026 hearing in Cocke County General Sessions Court, any change in the utility-service status at Buffalo Creek or Tiny Towne, and whether the district attorney publicly responds to the fraud referral requests residents have made.

1
Newport Plain Talk. Incredible Properties LLC Charged With Land-Use Violations
2
NewsBreak (Newport Plain Talk). Court Hearing Delayed Again
3
Newport Plain Talk. Stop-Work Order Issued to Incredible Tiny Homes
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NewsBreak (Newport Plain Talk). County Planners Discuss Tiny Homes and Stop-Work Orders
5
Better Business Bureau. Incredible Tiny Homes INC Complaints
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Newport Plain Talk. Cocke County Legislative Body Votes to Take Action Against ITH
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Citizen Portal (Newport Plain Talk). Residents Press County Over Incredible Tiny Homes