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Please let us know what has happened to you, and let us know if you would like to help us make buying new houses safer.
Tell us your story.
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Amy
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posted 30 March 2005 10:53 CET
Anyone heard anything about Richmond American Homes??> |
Cindy Mizsak
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posted 29 March 2005 08:36 CET
We built a home with Trinity Homes which is now Beazer Homes. The same people are with Beazer that we were dealing with when it was Trintiy. The house built March to July 1998 had a wet basement. We noted concerns with Trinity / Beazer before during and after construction. While we never had standing water in the basement, it was extremely black and that would flucuate depending on how much rain there was. We noted the problem in our 45-day, the one-year and beyond. We decided to gather evidence from professional to document the problem because Trinity / Beazer Homes insisted that there wasn't one. An engineering company, 2 different plumbers, and a widely respected home inspection company in the Indianapolis area all noted and documented for us that the construction of the basement was flawed.
There was standing water in the hole in the ground before the basement floor was poured. The workers drained the water, dumped the pea gravel in (without making sure it was compacted first) then poured the concrete floor! (Ever see water poured into sugar or sand and see how it disperses the granules?) A technichian from OLSHAN told us that the underside of the floor is probably pourous and since the pea gravel dispersed, the area where the floor is the wettest is where the water just has no where to go. (That is the purpose for the cross floor drain that they put in!)
In spite of having 3 pieces of literature from Trinity / Beazer Homes that interior drains were constructed on the inside walls of the basement, a plumber with a video scope could not find any. After 5 years of watching our basement turn all shades of black (except for 3 dry corners, which exemplified the contrast, and the problem), we decided that we had to get the basement floor fixed, because the highly respected home inspector said that we would not be able to sell our home unless the problem was fixed. If we tried to sell it, we would have to disclose the problem to the potential homebuyer, and lose the value of our basement because they would be forced to make the repairs. We searched now for "How do you fix this". We opted to go with OLSHAN. There fix was to put in interior drains and to put a long cross drain in to a more powerful sump pump. Water movement is constant. We chose to contact a lawyer in order to document what we were doing and ask the builder to reimburse us for the expenses to repair the basement. He suggested we do our own moisture testing to document the problem further. The builder did do a moisture test in January of 2003 (one of the coldest January's on record in Indiana). They used a company who used only 2 test kits, one of which was not pre-weighed. The technician went to the post office and weighed the test granuals and then converted it to grams. We used a company called Patriot Engineering who used 3 test kits, performed the test in early April, and had everything pre-weighed and ready to be placed. Their results showed where the wet and dry areas were in the basement.
There is so much more unpleasant details to this, but the sad story is that Trinity / Beazer Homes won't admit that they did anything wrong or that there is a problem. A representative from Trinity / Beazer Homes recently pretended to be a vice-president of the company and talked to me for about 20 minutes agruing the details of our case. I, for the second time asked that they put in writing, their reasons for not fixing our basement or reimbursing us, and he said he would send the letter out. I haven't received anything (not surprised).
The lawyer we had wrote 2 very powerful letters asking the builder to take responsibility for the shoddy construction. He advised us that we could go to arbitration, probably win, but never see a dime from the Trinity / Beazer Homes.
We've tried the Attorney General's office, the Better Business Burea (what a joke! Never take them seriously as a resource for a good company. They merely cover for the company paying their little membership fee)
Between repairs, inspection fees, tests, the lawyer, we our out $13,000. Not to mention the time to write, take pictures, gather information, the lost sleep.
What does a homeowner have to do to get fair treatment? I hope legislators and those who make and enforce laws will start helping hard working tax payers who don't normally ask for anything but fairness |
Comin family
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posted 28 March 2005 20:20 CET
My one-month old Centex home in Templeton California has a leaking window. Some 30 homes in this development have the same problem. Centex says they are committed to fixing the problems. They "fixed" my window once....it still leaks....they are going to "fix it again." I would never recommend anyone buy a Centex home. |
Terry Z.
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posted 22 March 2005 10:26 CET
Never,ever buy a JMC Homes, Inc. home. We bought our home on July 23, 2005 here in Roseville, Cal. Terrible workmanship, several areas of damage by subcontractors and JMC Homes, Inc refuses to take responsibility for their subs and correct the damages. The warranty dept. does evrything they can not to correct the problems. They are focused on low ball bids by subs. They often misquote California Contractor Law and state, "the sub won't authorize the work so there is nothing we can do". Get the word out |
Heather Mickelson
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posted 13 March 2005 20:15 CET
Tremont Tower resident now experiencing mold-related symptoms: bloody nose, sneezing attacks, mild fever, dimentia, fatigue. Leeking roof and deck, broken pipes, musty smell/ strong 'gas like' vapors in unit. Trying to sell.. 2 months on market listed w/ realtor, not even a call. |
Florence L Lamb
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posted 11 March 2005 22:16 CET
Alexander/Catania Development, Inc. Bought a home 1999. Creaking floors, plumbing leaking outside and inside. Stucco cracking outside and inside home. Faulting roof which leaks. Bad insulation in home during winter and summer weather. Mostly with leaks downstairs in celling. Other neighbors with same problems in area. |
newgirl
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posted 9 March 2005 17:02 CET
This is not a complaint for a builder, but rather a comment for the HOBB community to review. The complaints of the community are of course, extremely valid - in fact, more than justified. HOBB is a wonderful forum for voicing important concerns and creating advocacy.
However, there are some homeowners who have gone too far. Once a homeowner has taken legal action, voiced his/her concerns with advococy groups and even alerted the media to his/her situation, what else can a person 'do' to the offending builder? It is unfair to continue penalizing a builder or any business person who may actually be trying to perform better business practices, currently. These individuals (yes, builders!) have families, as well - and must, in some way survive in life. How can they be expected to be held to this community's high standards if you never give them the opportunity to utilize their trade again? I'm no builder, and I understand the philosophies and emotions involved here, but this seems to make little sense.
I applaud this relentless tenacity - such energy and devotion is remarkable. |
LISA WILLIAMS
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posted 7 March 2005 16:04 CET
THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL COMPLAINT. I AM TRYING TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE BEAZER HOMES LAWSUITS. I OWN A BEAZER HOME AND HAVE ALOT OF PROBLEMS THAT ARE STRUCTUAL. I'M TRYING TO FIND OUT IF ANY OF THESE LAWSUITS ARE CLASS ACTION AND IF MY SITUATION CONSTITUTES JOINING ANY OF THEM ANY HELP WITH THIS MATTER WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED
THANK YOU
L. WILLIAMS |
Amy Spiegelberg
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posted 21 February 2005 10:19 CET
We built a Ryan Home in September 2002. Ryan is a large homebuilder in the northeast. Our garage doesn't contain a drain, they are all supposed to be poured on a 2 inch pitch so the water will drain out. The key word is supposed to. We noticed just two days after moving in that our water ran to the center of the floor and then sat stagnet along the north wall. We contacted our division project manager that told us we were not a priority,but they would patch our garage floor in the spring. Our home was brand new and we informed him we would not accept a patch that would eventually crack and break. Then we would be right back to square one with the standing water. He agreed to repour the entire floor in the spring. Well, actually it was summer. They sent a company on June 30,2003 to saw our concrete garage floor in preparation to remove it and repour it two days later. The company sawed down 4 inches as that was supposed to be the thickness of the concrete. When Floyd's Concrete came on July2, 2003 to remove the slabs of concrete and repour our floor, they never knocked at our door to say they were there to work or ask if they may let themselves into our garage to begin working. My two toddlers and myself were awakened at 7:30 am by jackhammers in our garage. When I questioned the neccessity of the jackhammers I was told the ground under the concrete was never graded before the orignal floor was poured. Even though they sawed down 4 inches, in some places the concrete was 6-8 inches thick. Around mid afternoon they brought in a Bobcat with a hydraulic jackhammer on the front. About 3 pm I was contacted by the service manager for Ryan Homes and was informed that one of the workers forgot to lower the bucket on the Bobcat before backing out of our garage. The entire framing of our garage had been shifted and our metal garage door and it's track had also been bent. We were told that they would have someone out the beginning of the following week to repair it. We were upset that it happened,but chalked it up to accidents happen and they did agree to repair it. When my husband got home from work around 6pm we went out to assess the damage. It was only then that we noticed a crack in our foundation wall ( the inside wall of our garage). This is not a small hairline crack, it extends the entire length of the wall (approx. 12 feet) and was pretty substaintial. We went into the basement to see it there was any damage visible from inside the basement. We removed the plastic barrier and the insulation from that wall and then we noticed that our entire basement wall had been pushed in approx. 1-2 inches into the basement. We were devestated! Ryan Homes stated they only way they were going to repair it was per the Homeowners Warranty. What??? This was clearly not a warrany issue, it was pure neglect on the part of one of their subcontractors. They proposed fixing the problem by removing the top 18 inches of the wall that was damaged and putting in concrete block, then filling the cracks in with appoxy. I don't know about anywhere else, but we live in Ohio and we are required to disclose any structural damage and the type of foundation when you sell your home. Who in there right mind would buy a home with substaintial structural damage and with some Frankenstein creation of a wall. 2/3rds poured wall and 1/3rd concrete block. And pay fair market value for it. Not me!! Either way you look at it we're screwed. So it has been almost 2 years that we have been living like this. We have broken concrete instead of a garage floor, we are unable to park in there or store anything of value in there because the door doesn't lock due to the damage to the door and it's track. We loose substantial heat through this very large crack in our basement wall, which has caused a increase in our heating bill. We have problems with mice and spiders in our home now also thanks to the crack in the basement wall. This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the problems we have had with our Ryan Home. We have mold growing on every window in our home- this is very concerning to us with 3 small children in our home. It has been a very emotional ride. We recieved an estimate from one company last week to replace the two basement walls- $100,000!!!!! They are also the only company in our area that even agreed to do the job. No one else is interested in a job that involves jacking up our home, or taking responsibility for all the subsequent damage that will occur from that. If anyone has any advise to offer we would gladly accept it. Thanks for reading our story and we hope that this will prevent anyone else from making the same mistake we did-- Buying a Ryan Home. |
Lisa Partington
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posted 19 February 2005 12:10 CET
As most of you know my story, I just wanted it documented in case any more of by builders get into this website, which I know there are many people out there in the Forney,Sunnyvale,Rockwall, Kaufman, Quinlan area that he has done horrible acts to.
My husband and I were building our dream home. I just was at my 5 year clear mark of breast cancer. We felt we deserved something spectacular. We owned 3 acres in Rockwall County in a beautiful subdivision. We checked out several builders and chose this one. The name of his company was Texas Custom Homes, Inc./Robert H. Tidwell. He wanted to carry the construction loan and instructed us that we would need to sign over our land to him so he could put it up for collateral at the bank to do the interim loan. We were a little nervous about this, but however, we had a contract that stated how everything would work and we would purchase everything back from him when finished. We had a general attorney look at the contract and he said it was OK. We checked all the references he gave us, checked the Better Business Bureau and last but not least we talked to the Banking Officer that was going to handle the construction loan. He assured us that he would "take care of us", that he knew the land was ours from the beginning. So, we signed a contract on January 3, 2001 and by the middle of May, 2001, we still didn't even have a foundation poured. We couldn't get the builder to communicate with us, so we called the bank and asked if he had taken anything off of the loan. To our surprise he had already drawn approximately $42,000 off of this loan. We were just sick. Soon after this phone call the bank got in touch with the builder and he called us immediately, furious that we had contacted the bank. Basically, he got caught red handed because he was drawing money from this loan and not applying it to our home. About a week after this he got the foundation poured and started on the framing. The framing was done wrong due to him not ever being at the site, so we made them tear down the framing and start over. This went on for a few weeks and we thought everything was going to be OK. We had every penny we had into this "dream" home. Our life savings was invested here. Well, about June, 2001 he just stopped building again and again, we couldn't find him. We felt we had not choice but to get a Real Esate Attorney to look at our situation. He tried everything to get this guy to get back on track. He just wasn't interested. So, in August of 2001 we filed a lawsuit. In the course of the lawsuit we found by having what work he had completed that he was using sub-standard wood, not going by any building codes, not bracing in the 3-car garage with a gameroom above. Plumbing pipes were put in the wrong places, which meant they would have to bust foundation to move to the right places. It was just a mess. Also, in the course of the lawsuit I did some major digging into his past history and found people he had done similar acts to as long as 15 years past. We finally got a hearing in July of 2002. He was found guilty of "Deceptive Trade Practice" he was given a Judgment in the amount of approximately $75,000 to pay us. To this day, February 18, 2005 he has not paid us one dime. He filed a Chapter 7 with his corporation, but we got him personally as well. He has taken everything out of his name. All his houses he was building at the time that we had liens against went back to the first lienholder (bank), therefore, in the state of Texas that washes away all liens. He even did this with the home that he was building for us. Our home was appraised at $265,000. He was charging us $225,000 to build this home. That would have given us a home with a nice equity built in. The bank he used finished our home and sold it to someone else. He is now building homes out in the Kaufman area under the name of JM Building & Investmsnts in a sub-division called Scattered Oaks/Post Oak Bend. We have no more finances to hire yet another attorney to help us recover our judgment. We are hoping to find an attorney to take this on an contingency.
My cancer has returned and I probably won't live to see another "dream" home built. We had to purchase another home with the financial help of our family members. The home we are in now is just a ordinary home, nothing like what our "dream" home looked like.
My husband has to work 2 jobs because I can't work anymore due to my compromised immune system and ongoing treatments. We are just an average family trying to raise 3 children.
I hope by putting my story out here that no one else every has to go through what we have gone through. |
Charli Kiser
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posted 17 February 2005 09:44 CET
I have a Highland Home which is falling apart. We have been making changes as it falls apart. Now the wall going up the stairs the taping and floating is showing and coming to the surface. The windows are leaking. The gameroom over the garage is unstable. You can jump and make the garage door rattle loudly. The showers where the seats are leaking. They no longer put those in because of the problems. But what about the ones already installed? We have talked to them and they say it is out of warranty. We had already found out that the air conditioner was 2 years old when it was installed in our new house. We have had that repaired. Their plumber forgot to connect the drain line in the guest bath and we clamed on insurance because they would not take care of that. Now our insurance is outrageous. I am a Realtor and they don't care.
They are now doing inspections before closing. Well what about the previous owners.
Well I vented thanks. Charli KiserSan Antonio Texas |
chris mock
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posted 15 February 2005 08:13 CET
Once the leaks were fixed, the flooring was also scheduled to be replaced. The flooring company replaced the hardwoods in half of the affected area. When completed it was indefinitely obvious what wood was new and what wood was old due to a coloring variation of the woods. It was explained as being unpreventable, a normal occurrence with hardwoods, and they would only finish the entire room of I wanted to pay for the rest of the floor to be replaced so that it would have no damage and the floor would match. I did not have the funds at the time seings how I had just purchased the house. Once the bay window, the other windows and the hardwoods were completed, a cleaning crew was supposed to come in and clean up the mess. Dust was covering every surface, including the blinds and the cleaning crew was never available. I began to tire of calling Homeland and cleaned the mess myself.
The second occurrence happened September 6 of 2004. The leaks reappeared in all the same locations as the first time; however, they were significantly worse and had spread to a few other locations. Once again, Alex was called. Alex immediately came out to the house and looked at all the areas that, to our knowledge, were leaking. These included: the bay window downstairs by the door, the windows on the exterior side of the house (same wall as bay, top and bottom.), the three windows in the kitchen bay, both the downstairs bedroom windows, the downstairs bathroom window, the upstairs loft windows, the two front master bedroom windows, the attic flute and the basement also had several leaks in different places. It seemed as if everything that could possible leak, did.
They began to study the problems in efforts to determine exactly what the cause of the leaks could be. They stated that the individual windows leaked due to a mishap when they were building homes. It was explained to us that the windows used were a new type of window. The windows had a channel system built into them to filter any water that happened to get inside, into the channel, and then out two holes to the exterior of the house. This was to prevent any leaks from entering the interior. However, the alarm, which the builders install with the homes before purchased, was installed into the windows by drilling holes into the same base of the windows. When the alarm company did this, it destroyed the channel system of the windows. Instead of the water that was caught inside the window going out the intended holes, the drilled alarm path caused the water to go straight into the walls. Realizing this they stated all they needed to do in order to solve the problem was to seal these holes.
With that problem we thought to be fixed, they moved on to the larger situation; the bay window wall and the window area. The builders asked us to bear with them because they where a little puzzled as to why the wall and the bay window area were leaking. Patiently we tried to be as understanding as possible. During the time in which they were studying the problem, we had to have two large dehumidifiers and three large fans running at all times. They also came in and took the drywall out in the bay window and removed the ceiling in the bay, they cut a hole in the wall in the bathroom downstairs, pulled back half the carpet in the bedroom downstairs, all in effort to help the area to dry out. At this time, not only is our home torn apart but also, we have all this machinery loudly running at our expense while the builders come and go at through our home at their leisure. A water technician was also brought in at this time. He told the builders exactly where water had penetrated and to what degree. He also pointed out the areas that had to be replaced and the areas that needed to be certain to be dried out.
Around September 16, they began what they called testing in efforts to locate the areas in which water was entering the house. They completed this test by using our water hose and water to completely saturate every exposed area of the home until water visibly leaked in, which would allow them to know where the water was entering and what should be done to fix the problem . By this, they determined that the leaks in the basement were due to the window problem. They stated they solved both leaks by filling the drilled holes. The bay window wall remained a mystery. Please note that the model home was experiencing some of the same problems and both of these homes were built around the same time period. Alex explained the steps in solving the problem that they where taking. He stated that they were testing a few ideas on the model in hopes to determine a permanent solution. Alex wanted us to allow them the time to do this so that they would be able to fix our home to the best of their ability. So, virtually we are living in a test lab, like that of a guinea pig. With no other choice, we waited while they searched for a solution. During this time period the builder stated that as a precaution they were also going to replace the bricks around the windows on side of the house, seal any and all cracks in the bricks, and apply a clear coat sealer to the exterior brick. The sealer on the brick was said to fix the brick from absorbing water which was then with no where else to go penetrating into the interior of our house. They felt that the sealer would waterproof the brick. When they first replaced the bricks around the upper exterior window they did not even use the same bricks that matched our own. Due to the poor quality they had to tear the bricks back out and redo the entire procedure. (This was only done after I threw a fit) Brick mortar was carelessly dropped all over the plants and on the water hose spicket underneath the area, causing damage to the plants and making the hose unthread able. They left bricks on top of the plants in the flowerbed, never to be cleaned up. When the clear coat was applied, they streaked it over the windows. The spray left a film of dirt and spots visible from the interior and exterior of our home. The cracks in the bricks and around the windows were another item that they had stated they would tend to. However, they have yet to follow through with their obligation from the period of time beginning at the end of September to early October.
The builder finally approached us with a plan on how they decided to fix the bay window area. This included putting a pan in the ceiling of the bay that would catch any water that was to get in the window/wall and channeled it out to the exterior of the house. This procedure would consist of dropping the ceiling nine inches in the bay window area. They explained the procedure and asked us to think it over, to view the model home (where they had already done the same thing), and then to let them know. With close consideration we decided that we did not want the ceiling lowered. Lowering the ceiling changes the complete feel and look of the architectural design that appealed to us initially and was a major role when we decided to purchase our home. We expressed our feelings and asked why they could not fix the area without depleting it of its original character. Alex stated that he would speak back with the builder in efforts to determine another method of fixing the problem and would then be in touch with us. This process was ongoing for a few weeks. We then were told the warranty head for Homeland Communities, Cindy, would be in touch with us. Cindy came out to the house once to view all the damages that we where undergoing. She then stated that she would be back in touch with us. Cindy took several days to call us back with each return call that she gave us she simply strung us out to her next call. In the end she never followed through with a call of any importance. We attempted to reach her on numerous occasions to check on any new status that might have been reached however, these attempts where never successful. After hearing nothing from anyone with Homeland Communities for an extended period of time Alex Sherrol finally phoned us wanting to schedule a time in which they could come back in and finish the repairs. I asked him if they had determined another solution opposed to the first one, the response was no. It is this point in which we presently are still at as of December 7, 2004.
As a precaution we have also had several home builders out to our home to look over the situation. With each inspection we were once again reassured that we were not overreacting. Alan Parker, a well established/known builder in the Atlanta area was in complete disarray at the entire situation. He could not believe the way Homeland Communities had left our home. He also was completely taken back to how they made it seem to be a very minuet problem. Mr. Parker, along with the other builders, was dumbfounded to the solution of the metal pan as a fix for the bay window leak. They explained that this procedure would not be feasible in fixing the leak. How is a metal pan that will lay completely flat release the water (if it even stops the water from traveling further down the wall.) to the exterior. It can not possible be capable of releasing the water that will collect onto it. The water will simply appear to be draining correctly however; it will in turn only be collecting within the windows interior in the metal pan, until the pan reaches full capacity and once again at the problem will be visibly present. These builders were also in shock at the explanation for the window leaks that we where given. They had never heard of the channeling window, they also could not understand why the alarm would be drilled into the casing of the window. The builders also pointed out the obvious that filling the drill holes made by the alarm company’s ignorance would not be proper means to solving the solution. We had also already personally come to this same conclusion ourselves because every time the drilled holes are filled in it is only a temporary fix. The lack of concern shown to our problem by Homeland Communities amazes everyone who hears of the situation.
We have not only had to live with the interior of our home |
Robert & Sandra Kokenes
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posted 11 February 2005 14:06 CET
My complaint is toward Lord & Essex Homes. In our contract our home was to be completed by Aug/Sept of 2003, by November 2003 they didn't even start digging the foundation when we questioned them they would give us the run around. We demanded our money back ($5000 deposit) and they refused to pay. So we took them to small claims court...We won. They didn't pay and appealed....the lost the appeal and still won't pay our money back. We never got the house and they cheated us out of $5000. I DO NOT RECOMMEND EVER GOING THROUGH THEM. They don't pay there bills and have mechanical leans on homeowners houses in which the homeowner is responsible. Not to mention what they did to us. Lord & Essex is full of liars and cheats. I never in all my life dealt with a company with such poor work ethics. |
Rich Rosenthal
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posted 6 February 2005 11:34 CET
Irrigation system has worked less than 20 days in ten months. We were charged fees for an amenities center that was not built for 1 year. there is little or no warranty work. Secirty fences promised months ago remain missing. |
David Ross
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posted 5 February 2005 21:42 CET
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