Pool company faces legal action after Live 5 News Investigation

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Following a Live 5 News Investigation of a Lowcountry pool company, new legal and financial developments have come to light.

Indigo Pools, founded by Josh and Ashley Ingram in 2020, served hundreds of customers by building what should have been their dream pools. A Dec. 5 story by Live 5 News revealed customers who had experienced large delays in installations, bad communication from the owners, dangerous hazards within installed equipment and large amounts of money still unpaid.

A class-action lawsuit against Indigo Pools was filed by Anastopoulo Law Firm including one customer originally, which has now grown to 74 customers seeking legal action against the company. As of Tuesday, Judge Maite Murphy of Dorchester County approved the continuation of a temporary restraining order against Josh and Ashley Ingram.

Lawyer Roy T. Willey with the Anastopoulo Law Firm, explains the order prevents them from moving, selling, destroying, damaging or otherwise concealing Defendants’ assets and the Plaintiff’s funds.

“They are not able to liquidate cash reserves, bank accounts, operating accounts, sell any equipment, move any equipment, or anything of that nature,” Willey said.

The initial temporary restraining order was granted on Dec. 30, but hours later, Dan Anessi, one former customer in the class-action lawsuit, drove past Indigo Pools shop, where he witnessed Josh Ingram moving assets out of the shop and loading them into the trailer, according to an Affidavit.

“I work right around the corner and was going for lunch when I drove past the shop and saw Josh’s truck and trailer backed up to the shop reloading stuff,” Anessi said. “I turned around and went back for a picture because we have a real fear they’re going to leave and run. "

Amidst taking on more pool installations and proceeding to not complete other projects customers claim, Josh and Ashley Ingram purchased and moved into a $900,000 home in Summerville in the summer of 2022.

Since the original story, additional customers have filed separate lawsuits throughout Dorchester and Charleston counties against Indigo Pools, including a concrete company that says they were never paid back for their work.

Brandy Sutherland, who was the original customer on the class-action, claims Indigo Pools installed a faulty pool heater, which another company inspected and claimed as a combustion hazard. She hopes the customers will receive a judgement against Josh and Ashley at some point.

“I really want Josh and Ashley to be held accountable. I want them to have to answer the things that they did. I want them to suffer in a way, like we’ve suffered; we’re all suffering financially and emotionally,” Sutherland said. “I want them to go through a little bit of that too, if they haven’t already, because we didn’t deserve this, we held up our end of the bargain.”

Josh and Ashley Ingram did not respond to request for an updated comment, but said the following on Dec. 5:

As of today, we have not been served with a class action lawsuit. We were made aware just a few hours ago that this lawsuit has been announced. Leading up to this point, we had agreed to work with every single customer to address their concerns, and we are saddened to hear that customers feel they need to pursue litigation. We had a written plan in place which was communicated to every customer who had concerns with their project and were diligently working to address those concerns. The allegations that have been filed in the Complaint are not true and we are working to continue fulfilling all contracts. Customer satisfaction has been, and remains, of paramount importance to us.

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