Homeowners who rent out their home along the North Carolina coast said a Holly Springs man owes them thousands of dollars.
Many of the homeowners said their property management company, Stellar Beach Realty and Rentals on Ocean Isle owes them $10,000 or more. The company is owned by Holly Springs resident John Kozak.
“We’re upset, you know,” Danielle Boukedes said. “Everyone trusted him and trusted our money was safe, and at the end of the day it wasn’t.”
“This year is going to be tough. I don’t know how we’re going to get through the winter months when we don’t have bookings, we don’t have income coming in when, you know, that’s what that money was for,” Lyndsey Gibson said.
Gibson lives in Durham but said it has been a family tradition for her husband’s side of the family to vacation at Ocean Isle for 50 years. When they had the chance to buy their own home on Ocean Isle and not only enjoy it as a family, but also rent it out for income, it seemed like the perfect combination.
For three years, she and her husband used Stellar to manage their beach home, and all was fine until September 2024.