Published: 08.28.08
Copperfield area homeowner Imran Moola had problems with vents tilting and bending, then giving way to water leaks in the house he had built and had lived in for less than two years, but a roof leak around the stove exhaust was of particular concern to him.

Several inspections showed that the roof wasn’t properly installed, and though it was under warranty for 10 years, a company representative told him that the repair was his responsibility, not Lennar Homes, the builder.

Had he not filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, he feels his problem wouldn’t have been resolved.

The Better Business Bureau has processed 28 complaints about Lennar Homes, Inc. in the last 36 months.

Daris Horn, customer care manager for Lennar Homes, said most of the complaints come through her.

“I don’t know that this is unusual for a very large company like ours that closes a thousand houses a year,” Horn said. “Most of them are resolved before we get notification from the Better Business Bureau.”

Monica Teachout, trade practices and investigations coordinator for the BBB, said the BBB receives about one complaint a month against Lennar.

“Most of the complaints received were warranty issues and workmanship issues,” Teachout said.

Lennar has an unsatisfactory rating with the BBB, partly due to outstanding unresolved complaints or outstanding unanswered complaints, Teachout said.

“Several complaints have been related to floor tile issues, but they don’t specify if it’s directly related to the foundation,” she said.

Teachout said the BBB suggests that homeowners also file complaints with the Texas Residential Construction Commission because Lennar is registered with them as well.

TRCC is comprised of nine members appointed by the governor. According to TRCC’s mission statement, they register industry members and residential construction projects; provide information and educate homeowners and residential construction industry and act as a resource for complaints, offering a neutral, technical review of alleged post-construction defects.

“If homeowners have an alleged construction defect, they are required to go through the inspection process,” said TRCC executive director Duane Waddill. “We issue a neutral inspection report that has rebuttable presumption. Neither party has to hire expert witnesses, so when they go through arbitration or litigation, all the judge has to do is decide what the award should or should not be.”

Homeowners have the right to appeal inspections, which go to a panel made up of an engineer and two code-certified inspectors, Waddill said.

“Once the panel issues their review finals, it’s final,” he said. “It’s like an appellate court decision.”

Jeryl Bennett, Lennar homeowner, has appealed to the TRCC appeal panel about a recent inspection to her home. Waddill said TRCC tries to get appeals turned around within 30-45 days.

“Our hope is that the builder will step up and take care of defects that are found wrong in her home,” he said. “This is an important case to me, so I’ve asked them to look at it as soon as possible.”

But the complaints continue.

The toilet in Kathryn Cullum’s three-and-a-half year-old Rosharon, Texas home had been seeping water from the upstairs bathroom toilet into the lower floor’s ceiling for months when she contacted the BBB.

Through work done under an extended warranty plan, a repair technician informed her that the toilet had been improperly installed.

“The initial instillation was a latent defect precipitated over time into a water leaking failure that permeated the surrounding wood,” Cullum said.

She contacted Lennar and explained that the repair should be covered by the company.

Although the repairs were made to the toilet after she paid a separate contractor for the work, there were still holes in the wall and she wanted to be reimbursed and the job to be finished.

“After us having to put a lot of time into the situation, they did fix it, but it took more than a month,” Cullum said.

Cullum said she was given the run around, but she stayed persistent. She filed a complaint, and the work was completed.

In Aaron Alexander’s year-and-a-half-year-old home, an outside door’s paint was peeling because the painters used indoor paint. Lennar agreed to correct the problem, but wouldn’t complete the job around his work schedule.

He’s filed two complaints with the BBB and still no action has been taken on the part of the builder. In addition, he found issue with the foundation in his garage where cracks were starting to form.

“The (company representative) came out and said the cracks weren’t deep enough for him to send an engineer out,” Alexander said.

The cracks will set him back between $5,000 and $6,000 for him to repair, but he’s worried that it could cost more.

In addition, the retention pond behind his house– one of the reasons he purchased the home – was sold to his neighbors and him as a future lake area, but nothing has been done with it.

“I’ve never dealt with anybody with as poor customer service as Lennar has,” Alexander said. “It’s just ridiculous. The only thing they’re concerned about is the sale. Once they’ve made the sale, everything has been downhill.”

http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2008/08/28/cypress_sun/news/090308_home_repair_23.txt