HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – A Pulaski County contractor accused of building a Garland County couple’s home without a license, then watching it collapse after a night of rain, was jailed Thursday on a civil contempt order after ignoring a $216,579.60 judgment against him.
Adam Pearce, president of AP Renovations Inc., which did business as Pearce Construction, was handed over to Garland County deputies at 7:41 a.m. Sept. 24 for transport to the Garland County Detention Center, according to a sheriff’s service return filed with the circuit clerk the same day. The return states a Garland County deputy met Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office personnel to take custody of Pearce.
Circuit Judge Lynn Williams signed the arrest order June 25 after Pearce failed to appear at a June 23 contempt hearing. Court records show Pearce was served notice of the hearing May 14. The order directs that Pearce be held in the county jail until he files a sworn schedule of all his real and personal property, including money, bank accounts and other assets, and identifies any property he claims as exempt. A provision setting bond was struck from the order.
The judgment stems from a lawsuit filed Oct. 7, 2025, by a married couple who hired Pearce to build a home in Garland County. The couple, represented by Hot Springs attorney Hank M. Felton of Legacy Law Group, signed a $364,250 construction contract with AP Renovations on June 20, 2024, and financed the project through a VA loan with American Financial Resources.
According to the complaint, the bank approved Pearce as general contractor in April 2024 based on proof of an active contractor’s license. The Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board revoked that license the following month, the suit alleges, but Pearce never told the homeowners or the bank and began construction in July 2024 anyway.
The bank released $12,000 to AP Renovations after the foundation was completed and another $32,000 for framing in August 2024, the complaint states.
In September 2024, the homeowners toured the site with a friend who had construction experience and found the foundation was not level, had no piers and did not match the approved blueprints, according to the suit. The next day, after overnight rain, the partially framed house collapsed under the weight of waterlogged lumber. A structural engineer later determined the entire structure had to be torn down and rebuilt.
The complaint says Pearce admitted he had poured the foundation himself because of subcontractor delays but promised future work would be done by subcontractors. The couple, still unaware the license had been revoked, allowed him to resume with the bank’s approval. The bank released a further $16,250 in March 2025 after the first phase was rebuilt.
A formal inspection by Dylan Erwin of Arkansas Home Report Inspections found uneven floors, stem walls in the wrong location, wooden piers standing without footers, a poured foundation too small to support the framing and “found materials” used to fasten structural components together, the suit states. A licensed contractor, Phil Webber, confirmed the problems in a written letter, after which the homeowners terminated the contract and learned from the licensing board that the license had been revoked in May 2024.
The couple alleged Pearce never produced receipts for the draw money and always told them it had all been spent. They said they later discovered Pearce and his company had been named as debtors in multiple other lawsuits and alleged he was using their loan draws to pay unrelated personal debts. The complaint also states the Arkansas Secretary of State has revoked the corporation’s charter and that Pearce had since dissolved the company without maintaining the bond required by the licensing board.
The suit sought damages for breach of contract, negligence, fraudulent misrepresentation and violations of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and asked the court to pierce the corporate veil to hold Pearce personally liable. The homeowners put their direct losses at $153,177.09 plus more than $16,000 in loan interest penalties that began accruing in January 2025 when the home was not finished on schedule.
Pearce and his company were served with the lawsuit Oct. 13, 2025, and never filed a response. The court entered a default judgment against them Nov. 21, 2025, and after a March 6 hearing awarded the couple $216,579.60 in damages and attorney’s fees on March 9. The homeowners filed their motion for contempt April 29 after the judgment went unpaid. Court records show no filing by Pearce or an attorney on his behalf at any point in the case.
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