Strada Services says it will begin inspecting Central Florida homes that may have been fitted with substandard electrical components, and installing replacement parts to meet state and federal safety codes, following a lawsuit that accuses the company of swapping out real copper wiring for a cheaper impostor. The company was founded by Joe Strada, the Republican candidate for Florida's 11th Congressional District, a seat that covers much of Lake County, parts of south and west Orange County, and all of Sumter County.
The class-action lawsuit, filed in Osceola County Circuit Court, accuses Strada Services of substituting an unapproved electrical component in homes built during the COVID-19 construction boom and alleges the company instructed employees to lie to building department officials about the materials actually installed. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the suit alleges the company violated state and federal building codes and put homeowners at risk of fire, property damage and costly repairs. The case is being transferred to the circuit's business court.
The seven named homeowners own four homes in Polk, Osceola and Lake counties, but they claim the problem is far larger — alleging more than 35,000 homes were affected across more than a dozen counties, including Orange, Seminole and Volusia. At the center of the complaint is the grounding electrode conductor, the wire that building codes require to be made of copper, aluminum or copper-clad aluminum. Plaintiffs allege Strada Services instead used copper-coated steel-core wiring for that purpose from mid-2020 to mid-2022.
A Wire That Looks Right But Isn't
The complaint says the substitute wire looks like copper but is not, and that the impostor material can overheat, arc and fail, leaving families and property unprotected. A Substack report published July 26, 2026, on the litigation explains the technical problem in more detail: copper-clad steel wire carries only about 40 percent of the conductivity of code-compliant pure copper, yet its thin copper skin over a steel core lets it pass a routine visual inspection. Plaintiffs allege technicians kept compliant copper wire in their trucks to show inspectors while steel-core wire went into the ground.
Homeowners can check their own wiring with a simple test, according to the Sentinel: place a magnet near the thick wire that runs from the home to the ground rod. If the magnet sticks, the wire is copper-clad steel rather than solid copper. Michael Kelley, the Orlando attorney representing the plaintiffs, said he hopes as few homes as possible turn out to be affected.
Company Response and Legal Maneuvering
In a September letter, Strada Services said it is committed to addressing the matters responsibly and efficiently, without admitting liability or waiving its right to defend itself. In a September 25 letter, the company said its remediation efforts aim to protect Florida homeowners and families and restore code-compliant electrical grounding systems. But in a September 22 email, the company said it had not yet located a list of homes where the subpar parts may have been installed and was continuing efforts to identify the homes at issue — and the Sentinel reports Strada Services has not indicated how many homes it intends to inspect overall.
Company attorneys, including Indianapolis-based Monica Brownewell Smith, are also seeking to delay the lawsuit, halt discovery and postpone a potential trial. Florida law requires plaintiffs to notify a company of construction defects at least 60 days before filing suit; in a September 22 motion, the company's attorneys argued plaintiffs provided that legally required notice only two days after filing the complaint. The timeline matters beyond the courtroom, too — Florida shortened its statute of repose for construction defect claims from ten years to seven under Senate Bill 360, enacted by the Florida Senate in April 2023, meaning homeowners from the 2020-2022 construction window have a narrowing window to bring claims.
From the Bowling Alley to the Ballot
Joe Strada no longer manages the day-to-day operations of Strada Services, serving instead as executive chairman while retaining a 45 percent ownership stake, per the Sentinel. Forbes estimated his net worth at $800 million in September, noting that the 63-year-old businessman built Sanford-based Strada Services after starting his career working in a bowling alley and skipping college — and that he would likely become the wealthiest member of Congress if he wins the November general election.
Strada has loaned his campaign $5 million and committed at least $1 million to a TV ad campaign called Full of Crap. He secured the GOP nomination for CD-11 in August by a 393-vote margin over former Lake County Property Appraiser Carey Baker out of 81,775 total votes cast, a result confirmed by an automatic machine recount, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of the recount. The seat opened up after 16-year incumbent Republican Daniel Webster, previously Florida House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader, announced his retirement, a decision Hoodline covered in April.
Litigation Becomes a Campaign Issue
Federal court records show Strada entities have been named in at least ten separate Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuits filed by former employees between 2018 and 2026 alleging unpaid overtime and wage violations, according to the same Substack report on the company's legal history. James Pericola has seized on both the wage disputes and the electrical wiring lawsuit, launching a website called ScammerStrada.com in August to publicize the claims ahead of the November 3 general election. Libertarian candidate Ralph Groves is also running.
Strada secured major endorsements from House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier just two days before the class-action lawsuit was filed, with party leaders citing his private-sector business experience. Election paperwork filed in July showed Strada lives in Lake Mary in Seminole County, outside the CD-11 boundaries — permitted under the U.S. Constitution, which requires only that a House member reside in the state, not the district, they represent. Strada has not responded to or declined multiple Sentinel interview requests about his campaign and the lawsuit.
