Kim and Dapper Davidson are the owners of the house on Estero Boulevard that fell off its pilings during Hurricane Milton in 2024. The home was being built after the original Davidson home was destroyed by Ian. The builder was Joe Orlandini and the Davidson’s have filed a lawsuit against Orlandini for breach of contract.
According to court documents, the Davidson’s signed a $325,000 contract with Orlandini to build them a house on Estero Boulevard using wood pilings. In February of 2024 they say they paid Orlandini $40,000 to get the build rolling. In April of 2024, they paid him another $75,000 for framing materials, lumber and trusses. And in August of 2024, they wrote Orlandini a check for $80,000 for construction work.
Court documents state that “During construction, the residence collapsed as a result of defective construction performed by or on behalf of Orlandini including, but not limited to, underground and above ground piling installation that caused the interior and exterior walls of the residence to become severely racked, and damage to the wood floor beams, floor joists and floor sheathing.”
The Davidsons claim that after the home collapsed, Orlandini attempted to mitigate the damage of its defective construction by moving the residence approximately 16 feet back to where it was originally constructed. However, they say, he refused to perform any further remedial work to bring the residence back to its pre-collapsed condition.
Then in July of 2025, the Town of Fort Myers Beach revoked the permit for the build and requested the structure be demolished. The town’s building inspector Joe Specht found the structure to be unsafe and prohibited further use or occupancy of the residence. The lawsuit says, “Orlandini’s material breach of the contract has resulted in the residence collapsing and rendering it completely unsalvageable and usable.”
The Davidson’s are nearly $200,000 out of pocket and have nothing but a broken house sitting in the dirt to show for it.
The Davidson’s are being represented by the law firm of Knott, Ebelini and Hart in Fort Myers. They have already spent tens of thousands of dollars to try to get their money back from Orlandini and have launched a GoFundMe HERE to try to help pay their legal fees. Orlandini is represented by Kubicki Draper in Fort Myers.
The case is scheduled for a Zoom mediation in front of Judge Keith Kyle on March 3rd at 9AM.
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A category 3 hurricane should not make a newly built house with new updated Ian codes fall to the ground even with wood pylons. That is sad. Inspectors any comment?
Shame on you, Joe. I thought you were better than that.
I would be so angry. The owners are taking this in a very calm way. The lord couldn’t give me enough strength.
But I do have a few questions… why wood pilings? (We all know what happen to all the homes on wood pilings that close to the water) Why not cement pilings? Whose idea was it to choose wood? And why would that be approved? It’s is permissible in velocity zone V? (And is that lot in V or A?)
Many houses built properly with wood pilings survived the storms just fine.
Not many wood piling homes that were that close to the water. That’s the V velocity zone. I’m on the edge of that zone, and the wooden homes were completely taken off of thier pilings. (Another 8 lots deep to the middle of the island, into zone A AND AE)
Joe Orlandini, the man with the plan, sure went from hero to zero quickly. He may have passed Carmine and Terry as the most hated man on FMB. He should probably move away.
Nah, Terry remains at number 1