POULSBO — Almost five years after he paid $65,000 cash for it, Peter Miele has the manufactured home he bought from Golden Homes of Poulsbo.

Golden Homes had refused to deliver the house unless it received more money for site preparation, a condition Miele alleges was not in his contract. So the house sat on Golden Homes’ Viking Avenue lot, in two pieces, with plastic sheeting separating the interior from the elements. But plastic sheeting can only do so much.

Today, Miele is removing moldy sheetrock and insulation and reinstalling new, and hopes to have the house ready to be rented by July.

“We’re still in litigation,” Miele said of Golden Homes. “I’m in the hole thousands and thousands [of dollars]. I’ll probably never see a dime, but at least I have [the house]. Getting that is better than nothing.”

Golden Homes lost its license last summer and was evicted from its location at 19647 Viking Ave. In mid-December, Miele got a phone call from the property’s owner: Come get your house or I’ll have to auction it. And so he did. And what a mess he found.

Miele said he bought the house to replace an older one already on the lot. Therefore, the site didn’t prep. He said Golden Homes removed the older home and was supposed to use the proceeds from its resale to defray expenses from placing the new home on the lot.

“He came and took it and I never saw it again,” Miele said. “I never saw a dime. And I still have the title to it.” He learned from the house movers that the older house is now in Quilcene. Miele doesn’t know what his next step will be. But he wants his ordeal behind him.

He had to work an extra job to cover the costs and five years of lost rental income.

“I need to look forward,” he said.

Golden Homes’ departure makes available a large parcel ripe for improvement. Utilities are already installed, the site is being cleared of detritus from Golden Homes, and there’s plenty of room for parking, ingress and egress. But the owner’s plans are not known; the owner, Chad Winger, did not return messages left for him by phone and with one of his business tenants on the property.

Golden Homes was founded in about 1993 and was purchased by Kelly Rohr, a general contractor, in 2003. Golden Homes won “Outstanding Sales Awards” from Skyline manufactured homes in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.

Company sales reflected the economy: Sales of Skyline homes rose from $1.6 million in 2003 to $2.3 million in 2004, then steadily dropped to $1 million in 2008. In the ensuing years, Rohr was beset by court judgments, fines for unlicensed work, expired permits, and unpaid workers compensation premiums.

One former client is still waiting to be paid a settlement reached in mediation almost two years ago.

Rohr and Juanita DeLuna of Poulsbo settled Feb. 22, 2013 in mediation conducted by the Dispute Resolution Center in Silverdale.

DeLuna gave Golden Homes $20,000 down for a manufactured home and lot in spring 2012. But when she didn’t qualify for a mortgage, she went back to Golden Homes to get her deposit back.

At the time, Rohr pointed to contract provisions that state the buyer has to “actively seek financing” or he could keep a portion of the down payment to cover losses from taking the home off the market. DeLuna claimed she was not given a copy of the contract.

While the terms of the resolution could not be disclosed, DeLuna’s lawyer, Ryan Vancil of Bainbridge Island, said at the time that his client was happy with the outcome — resolution cost $300 per party. But, according to a family member and Vancil, she has not received the full amount agreed to at mediation.

In October 2013, Golden Homes took a new direction, hiring Cassie O’Hara as manager as Rohr reportedly stepped away to focus on construction work elsewhere. She did not respond to a request for information Jan. 16.

O’Hara brought experience in business and real estate, and a familiar face, to the job. She is livestock director of the Kitsap County Fair and Stampede and former youth development coordinator for WSU Cooperative Extension 4-H. She worked with her mom — a retired foreman at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard who’s owned more than 300 acres of land in her lifetime — in developing O’Hara Hills, a neighborhood between Keyport and Brownsville.

In an interview at the time, O’Hara said her goals were to make aesthetic improvements to the site, improve the signage, get more new Skyline models on the lot, resolve customer disputes, host an open house and manufactured-home tour, keep overhead down and see current projects through as efficiently as possible.

O’Hara said she wanted to get the tarnish behind Golden Homes and get sales up to four or five homes a month.

In June 2014, however, the state Department of Licensing determined Golden Homes was insolvent and revoked its business license for two years. Six months later, Peter Miele got the home he paid for in 2010.

Rohr could not be reached for comment for this story. But in earlier interviews, he denied doing anything wrong, saying losses he sustained during the economic downturn forced him to be “stiffer” with his contracts.

At that time, he said customers need to read their contracts before they sign.

“When they sign these contracts, they take them home. I tell people, ‘Take it home, read it, if you have any questions let me know,’” he said.