Military families battle home builder over problems
Military families in Kentucky are trying to protect their home front after they paid a local home builder hundreds of thousands of dollars for new homes. But they say those homes are filled with problems. The builders aren't backing down, standing behind their homes and their response to the concerns of the military families. But the soldiers we've talked with say they've fought these issues for months, and can't afford to stay quiet any longer.

Military families battle home builder over problems
                View WFIE Report By Eric Flack    
                           

FT. KNOX, KY (WAVE) - Military families in Kentucky are trying to protect their home front after they paid a local home builder hundreds of thousands of dollars for new homes. But they say those homes are filled with problems.

The builders aren't backing down, standing behind their homes and their response to the concerns of the military families. But the soldiers we've talked with say they've fought these issues for months, and can't afford to stay quiet any longer.

"Where am I supposed to go, what am I supposed to do?" asked Staff Sergeant Nathan Lease, who bought a home from Mike Jones Built Home in a Vine Grove subdivision outside of Ft. Knox.

Lease and his wife paid $245,000 for the home, but just 10 months after they moved in, the Leases say the home is coming apart at the seams.

The couple showed us loose railings, cracking caulk, poor trim work and creaking floors.

"They cut holes in the ceiling of the basement to try and see where this noise was coming from," said Nathan's wife Melissa. But Mike Jones Built Homes still hasn't fixed the creak, or the holes in the ceiling.

The home was also built with a home theatre with no cable connectors, and the door to the water valve doesn't close.

The Leases say they've got problems inside and outside the home, and they're not the only ones.

Sergeant Gerald Kirkendall lives across the street, and has complained about trim work, nail pops, and caulking issues.

"A man shouldn't have to fight a builder from Afghanistan to try and get his home right that they spent a quarter of a million dollars for," Kirkendall told us.

Staff Sergeant Enrique Rios lives one street over, and says he can't get Mike Jones to address drainage issues outside his home.

"All the water puddles up right here," Rios said pointing to his backyard. "If it rains hard, the water will stay there for days."

Retired Staff Sergeant Orlando Evans moved in to a Mike Jones home down the street a month ago, but the driveway and front yard remain unfinished.

"I want my house finished," Evans said.

All of them bought Mike Jones Built Homes. All of them complain of shoddy workmanship. All of them say they can't get the company to come back and make things right.

So we tracked down Mike Jones and his partners, Jimmy Hardesty and Shannon Shelton.

"As far as our quality, it's second to none," Jones said.

Jones says some issues, like the Rios's flooding concerns, aren't their responsibility because they're outside the home. And he says interior problems will be corrected as long as they're covered under the company's warranty.

But Sergeants Lease and Kirkendall are tired of waiting. Both filed complaints with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the government agency that backed their loans. The VA says it's gotten three complaints from military families about Mike Jones Built Homes, and says it will remove the company from the agency's approved homebuilder list if they don't address the soldiers' concerns.

But Jones and his partners told us they're the ones getting unfair treatment.

"I think it's an injustice that's transpired," Shannon Shelton said. "I think it's a witch hunt."

They printed off Internet articles about new home "settling" problems which they blame for many of the soldiers' issues; a process which they describe as wood shifting in the first year because of moisture.

"In that first year that is when things move," Jimmy Hardesty explained. "It's called the four seasons."

Jones says they will fix any issues covered under the company's warrantee, but want to wait until that settling process ends before making the repairs.

The company also asked satisfied customers to write and call the Troubleshooter Department, contending the soldiers we spoke with are in the minority.

"If they have concerns we need to have documents of the concerns, of the service orders, and we'll get those issues fixed," Jones said.

Jones and his partners say the company has done everything it can to make the soldiers happy.

"There is no one out there that bends over more for his customers, than this man right here," Hardesty said, referring to Jones. "And it blows me away to be sitting here with the Troubleshooter right now."

But Sergeant Nathan Lease says the soldiers paid for, and deserve, better.

"The last thing I would want to do is expose that an asset that I have is not worth what I owe for it," Lease said referring to his Mike Jones Built Home. "But it's come to the point where I don't want the same thing to happen to anybody else. And especially not soldiers, especially not guys that I serve with."

But the criticism certainly isn't slowing construction.

According to building records obtained by the WAVE 3 Troubleshooter Department, Mike Jones Built Homes started construction on 23 new homes around Ft. Knox last year alone. That's about 20% of all new home permits in Vine Grove in 2010.

Jones showed us awards from community groups, and told us he raises money for USA Cares, a non-profit that helps support military families, in an effort to show the criticism they are facing from this group of soldiers is not representative of the company's reputation.

http://www.wfie.com/story/13992214/military-families-battle-homebuilder-over-problems