Black Brook Realty

Black Brook Realty[redacted]
[redacted]June 10, 2015Re; [redacted]Complaint # [redacted]Contrary to the claims, we have tried working with the homeowner when legitimate warranty items came up and feel that the complaint is not representative of what has actually happened...

and is in contrast with the written and signed warranty. In addition, we have returned to their home for several non-warranty items since they purchased the home. I would like to point out some of the facts that pertain to this situation.With reference to the nails and creaking floors claim;The homeowner purchased the home on March 26, 2014 and had a complete uninhibited top to bottom home inspection done by a professional inspector of their choice on or about February 8, 2015. We were intentionally not present for this professional home inspection so that the [redacted] and their home inspector had complete access to all areas of the home. A small list of some minor repairs were presented to us after the inspection, for which we agreed to and did make the repairs. These alleged flooring, nails popping, and fireplace issues were NOT on that list (please note February 8, 2014 was a cold winter day and a home inspector should have picked up on any cold draft coming from the fireplace as that was one of the items checked during the home inspection per the report we received. The fireplace needed to have gas turned on). Prior to the actual sale of the home to the [redacted] on March 26, 2014 the [redacted] had another walkthrough of the home to check whatever they wanted to prior to closing. Never were any of these nail popping, flooring, or fireplace items brought up by the homeowner and/or their home inspector. Nails popping and separated wood would have been very visible to both the homeowner and their home inspector. What we believe happened, for which it is clearly written in the warranty and was further explained in person to the [redacted], was that particularly in new construction homes, the buyers must maintain humidity levels of 45 to 55 in the home after the purchase of the home. Otherwise, wood will shrink, warp, expand, and contract. Based on post-closing correspondences with the homeowners, we believe the humidity levels were not maintained by the buyers. Even though we believe this was the case, out of courtesy, we sent subcontractors back to the home to help out the [redacted]. Again, this was our model home for more than two years and we NEVER had these issues as we put the heat and a/c on as needed and maintained proper humidity levels.The fireplace issue;The home that the [redacted] purchased was our completed model home for almost three winter seasons. We kept the home in immaculate condition and sold numerous other homes in the development based on this particular home. Directly in front of the fireplace were bookend couches that we often sat in with new and prospective buyers. Never once did we or a prospective buyer feel a cold draft come through the fireplace. The home in question here also went through an extensive and independent energy audit review which by an outside firm. No deficiencies were found and the home received a very high energy rating with minimal heat loss. Based on subsequent conversations, it would be nearly impossible to have missed this type of air penetration through the fireplace during such inspections which took place prior to the sale of the home. We have contacted the homeowner and asked specifically if this could have happened while they themselves were completing the unfinished basement after they purchased the home. So far there has been no response to date regarding this question.I have had minimal to no contact with the buyer since they purchased the home, but as President of the company, take full responsibility for our employees. Fortunately we have since received another email from the homeowner that stated in part that they now realize the nail popping and wood floor issues are no longer covered under the warranty and thanked us for responding to legitimate warranty items during the warranty period. Unfortunately this statement won’t get the publicity that the negative statements will.We try very hard to satisfy the needs of our buyers yet maintain consistency of the warranty at the same time. In addition, we have gone back to the home since this claim was made in another attempt to satisfy the homeowners with the fireplace issue. An email to the [redacted] telling them that we did return to their home on June 10, 2015 has not been responded to at this point.In closing, it is always our attempt to work with homeowners and feel these statements as presented are simply not accurate and not warranted.