Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 7, 2016/02/01) */ (Revdex.com - converted from original documentSee file.) Consumer's Original Complaint : LDA builders charged me $1,for unjustified work year after I moved in the house The additional extra work performed ($1,charge) was due to Mr [redacted] 's land he purchased have filled in wetlands that we were not aware of until after starting construction, which caused a lot of extras expenses, most which we not even charge him for They agreed that I pay half and theydo warranty work Mr [redacted] said that he did not have the funds available, due to his old house not selling, so I told him to just pay have for nowWe never agreed to accept just halfAgain, due the lot he purchased, which caused this extra expense, and had nothing to do with the house we sold him Please note that the president of LDA builders, [redacted] L [redacted] is a competent builder but has no customer service , has no interest in customer satisfaction , does no follow up with customers , never calls back ,never instruct his employees to answer calls Of course I care about our customers, which is why LDA has a full time employee to take care of any service issues, and which is why I "personally" may not have responded Please note that LDA build for me a house in [redacted] in , valued around $480,and we solved most of the issues in I trusted them to built another house for me still in ***, valued around $300, This proves I trusted them Mr [redacted] knows a good value Now the complaint : On 11/25/after moving in the house in July , LDA send a charge of $1,on a Change Order I did not sign on or approvedThey claimed I was responsible for extra grading work Yes, per our contract it basically states that the buyer is responsible for paying for anything extra they want done and he asked us to do this extra work so that he can get his grass installed However , they graded the lot before I moved in as per their duty However , they did not do an acceptable grading and the City of [redacted] did not approve , hence the extra work They never check with the city what parameters the city wants , if they did we will not have the problem We communicated with the city and followed the approved plan from them, but due to the wetlands the Army Core of Engineers made us adjust things to their satisfaction which caused the additional expenses Also they damaged the side walks and they delayed to fix it and the city send letters of non compliance and refused to issued a certificate of occupancy Our excavating contractor accidentally damaged the sidewalk and we later repaired at no cost to Mr [redacted] The "permanent occupancy permit" was primarily held up due to the fact we had to wait on the Army Core of Engineers direction before sending equipment back to the site againWe were trying to minimize any extra unnecessary expenses, for all parties involved, including Mr [redacted] The Engineer Department of the City told me that is LDA's fault and they shoud not charge me any extra money , they even advise me to file complaint against LDA which I am doing now ( I tried to give them time to fix the problem) The city has not seen our contract / agreement, and should not be telling homeowners who's responsible for these extra expensesPer our contract it clearly states that we only grade the perimeter of the house and areas effected by constructionThe city and Army Core had us grade in areas we would normally not do, including further back behind the home To be noted that the city of [redacted] gave the occupancy permit only in NOV after moving in July Please note the city issued a "temporary occupancy permit" so Mr [redacted] could get moved in while we waited on the Army Core of Engineers, since Mr [redacted] was in a hurry to move inWe had to wait for direction from the Army Core before the grading could be completedThe only thing Mr [redacted] could not do was install his grassAll he had to do is keep the weeds cut down, which is why the city was upset with himPlease note - all the grading was completed last fall and approved by the city Due LDA's procrastination to comply with the city , I was not able to install landscaping and the city asked me to cut the weeds at the cost of hundred of dollars All he had to do is weed whack the weedsIt is not our fault that Mr [redacted] purchased this wetlands and that it took the Arm Core of Engineers as long as it did to get approval to proceed with the final grading Please note LDA refused to do the year check of the house and any warranty work The made mistakes with the locks in the house and refused to fix them We have refused to do this work because per our contract we are not required to do so unless we are paid in full which Mr [redacted] refuses to doHe owes us $and per our contract we can charge him 1.5% interest per month Consumer's Desired Resolution: LDA do do the following; Refund $which I paid under their threat they will not even answer my calls .LDA accepted half of the original amount from 1,they initially requested but still did not keep their word to fix what was agreed > We never threatened him, all we asked is for half now and the other half when the grading work was completed, which it now is 2.Agree I do not owe them any money and issue a written statement in this regard > We cannot do this, he owes us $which we may have to file a lien against his house for 3.Comply with year check of the house and repair in a professional fashion any defects found > We would gladly do this once paid 4.Fix the locks for the bedrooms as thei wrongly keyed the same > We would gladly do this once paid Issue a plan to ask customer satisfaction after moving in the house > We would gladly do this once paid Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 10, 2016/02/07) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I do not accept the response from LDA builders as it is not based on any facts In I purchased the lot from [redacted] ; before I purchased I asked [redacted] L [redacted] to check he lot He went and walked the lot and told me to buy it No single word about wet lands or difficult lot After the purchase of the lot and start of building , LDA had an arrangement with Mr [redacted] , to "borrow" electric power from him for a sump pump during constriction and in return , LDA will grade his lot better as water was in his lot after rain LDA brought grading subcontractor TWICE before I moved in the house and they graded my lot and Mr.***'s lot but he was very unhappy with the results FACT: Mr [redacted] threatened LDA "to put a lien" on the house because of bad grading of the lots( both lots) as more water was coming to his property As a result LDA did a second grading and [redacted] was content- some how, but was unhappy the property pins were taken out and he asked o be put back Mr [redacted] , aware of my issues with LDA builders is willing to do what is necessary to prove my statements are true During the construction of the house there was no discussion between me and [redacted] L [redacted] about the "wet lands" However , the City did not approve the grading and a person from Army Corp of Engineers was brought in who instructed a LDA representative , Dave , regarding the grading A third grading was done and still LDA missed some points and City of [redacted] hold them in violation and refused to issue the occupancy permit The City of [redacted] even instructed me to report LDA for their lack of cooperation It is wrong for LDA to charge me for a third grading - it was their fault they did not coordinate with the City and the first gradings were wrong - and done to satisfy their agreement with Mr [redacted] .MrL [redacted] states he is interested in "customer satisfaction " ; here is the truth: I recommended MrL [redacted] to a person I know( MrL [redacted] also was recommended by my neighbor , [redacted] who purchased his home( a spec home) from LDA ) but this person was very displeased with the work of LDA and even refused any warranty work form them because of lack of professional behavior of LDA rep and quality of LDA work I built TWO houses with LDA but they never send me a survey about my satisfaction like all the businesses do ( please look that all businesses today form fast food to car dealers are asking customers to comment on a customer survey )I am waiting for some evidence from LDA they have surveys for customer's satisfaction 10.Please se attached scanned documents, it took almost year for LDA to comply with the requirements from the City as I moved in the house 07/24/ LAST POINT Building a house is a complex job , involving many materials , subcontractors , weather issues , city codes...the list can go on and on MrL [redacted] is an experienced builder but he is not leaving his office to survey the work ; he is sending his rep, Dave I liked the process of building the house and one can see my issue with LDA is regarding the grading ; Solution: maybe LDA can coordinate with the any city engineering department for this kind of situation not to repeat The attitude " the city made us do more work and we will shift the cost to the customer is wrong ! Any builder needs to have a good line of communication with the local engineering department Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 18, 2016/03/07) */ ***Document Attached [redacted] (Revdex.com - converted from original documentSee file.) > I did not tell him to "buy it", I told him I "did not see any issues" and it was "up to him"I will upload pictures of the lot covered in snow when I went to look at it, everything from above ground looked fineI have never seen, nor was I ever asked to review the lot purchase agreement, BUT Mr [redacted] who sold him the lot should have disclosed that there were wetlands on the property and Mr [redacted] should have relayed this to LDA but did not > We shouldn't of had to run this sump pump at all, but again do to the unknown wetlands! This was the FIRST item we should have charged Mr [redacted] extra for!, but of course LDA being nice guys we did not!We traded about $worth of electricity for hundreds of dollars' worth of bull-dozer time in an effort to just get the job doneA bull-dozer costs about $an hour and we spent many hours doing thisAgain if we were told there were wetlands there we would have warned Mr [redacted] in advance that there would be extra expenses!Mr [redacted] had to of know, he's a very smart doctor and I'm sure he would have read the lot purchase agreement before buying itIf he was not informed then he should go after Mr [redacted] and not us > Mr [redacted] had drainage problems with his yard before we ever stepped foot onto the propertyThis is the SECOND item we should have charged Mr [redacted] for! but again did not > Yes he was content because he knew there were filled wet lands and the problem was there prior! And LDA helped him in exchange for a little electricity! Mr [redacted] should be asking Mr [redacted] to pay for these extra charges, not LDA! I asked him to do that but he refuses to because he has to "live next door to him", instead he expects LDA to pay, which is wrongLDA also paid to have the unmarked property pin reset, THIRD item Mr [redacted] should have been charged for > Again, because we did not know about the wetlands and the Army Cores involvement until after the fact, LDA's employee Dave had to spend hours and hours on the phone, meeting the Army Core at the site, going over what they wanted done, etcetcThis cost LDA a lot of money which is the FORTH item we should have charged him for, but again we did not! If he as a doctor would have had a patient come in for one visit and it ended up taking multiple visits instead for the patient to get healed, you bet he would have charged extra > IF the city indeed did tell him this, then the city does not understand the circumstances > Mr [redacted] needs to realize that it sometimes takes multiple tries, just like with his patients, in order to get the job done, especially when there are hidden defectsThe agreement with Mr [redacted] to grade his yard was technically something Mr [redacted] should have paid for along with the other items listed aboveLDA only charging Mr [redacted] for the third grading, which was a very good deal for him, and if he does not pay soon we may go back and charge for the other items as well, along with 1-1/2% interest (per our contract)Additionally we just learned that Mr [redacted] deposited a $check from his bank that was LDA's, so he now owes us that as wellWe cannot do any more work for him until we are paid the $+ $= $1,total > Mr [redacted] 's old neighbor has referred a few people over the years and they are all satisfied, I have no idea what he's talking aboutAnd I'm not really sure what this has to do with the issue at hand? We have sent out customer satisfaction requests over the years with good results, but have been too busy lately to do that, nor does our budget in today's economy allow for it anymore > Yes I already have them in our files? thank you > Yes it is, and someone has to hold down the fortI try to get to all our jobs and return calls as often as I canYes the only issue is with the grading, which again and again and again, is not our fault! Solution: > The city, and more so the Army Core of engineersLDA has a good line of communication with the city of ***, we have built ~homes there, including a few 2nd homes for past customersBut unfortunately when you're dealing with an unusual piece of property like this things don't always go smoothlyAgain if we would have known this up front we would have charged him extra in our contract
Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 7, 2016/02/01) */ (Revdex.com - converted from original documentSee file.) Consumer's Original Complaint : LDA builders charged me $1,for unjustified work year after I moved in the house The additional extra work performed ($1,charge) was due to Mr [redacted] 's land he purchased have filled in wetlands that we were not aware of until after starting construction, which caused a lot of extras expenses, most which we not even charge him for They agreed that I pay half and theydo warranty work Mr [redacted] said that he did not have the funds available, due to his old house not selling, so I told him to just pay have for nowWe never agreed to accept just halfAgain, due the lot he purchased, which caused this extra expense, and had nothing to do with the house we sold him Please note that the president of LDA builders, [redacted] L [redacted] is a competent builder but has no customer service , has no interest in customer satisfaction , does no follow up with customers , never calls back ,never instruct his employees to answer calls Of course I care about our customers, which is why LDA has a full time employee to take care of any service issues, and which is why I "personally" may not have responded Please note that LDA build for me a house in [redacted] in , valued around $480,and we solved most of the issues in I trusted them to built another house for me still in ***, valued around $300, This proves I trusted them Mr [redacted] knows a good value Now the complaint : On 11/25/after moving in the house in July , LDA send a charge of $1,on a Change Order I did not sign on or approvedThey claimed I was responsible for extra grading work Yes, per our contract it basically states that the buyer is responsible for paying for anything extra they want done and he asked us to do this extra work so that he can get his grass installed However , they graded the lot before I moved in as per their duty However , they did not do an acceptable grading and the City of [redacted] did not approve , hence the extra work They never check with the city what parameters the city wants , if they did we will not have the problem We communicated with the city and followed the approved plan from them, but due to the wetlands the Army Core of Engineers made us adjust things to their satisfaction which caused the additional expenses Also they damaged the side walks and they delayed to fix it and the city send letters of non compliance and refused to issued a certificate of occupancy Our excavating contractor accidentally damaged the sidewalk and we later repaired at no cost to Mr [redacted] The "permanent occupancy permit" was primarily held up due to the fact we had to wait on the Army Core of Engineers direction before sending equipment back to the site againWe were trying to minimize any extra unnecessary expenses, for all parties involved, including Mr [redacted] The Engineer Department of the City told me that is LDA's fault and they shoud not charge me any extra money , they even advise me to file complaint against LDA which I am doing now ( I tried to give them time to fix the problem) The city has not seen our contract / agreement, and should not be telling homeowners who's responsible for these extra expensesPer our contract it clearly states that we only grade the perimeter of the house and areas effected by constructionThe city and Army Core had us grade in areas we would normally not do, including further back behind the home To be noted that the city of [redacted] gave the occupancy permit only in NOV after moving in July Please note the city issued a "temporary occupancy permit" so Mr [redacted] could get moved in while we waited on the Army Core of Engineers, since Mr [redacted] was in a hurry to move inWe had to wait for direction from the Army Core before the grading could be completedThe only thing Mr [redacted] could not do was install his grassAll he had to do is keep the weeds cut down, which is why the city was upset with himPlease note - all the grading was completed last fall and approved by the city Due LDA's procrastination to comply with the city , I was not able to install landscaping and the city asked me to cut the weeds at the cost of hundred of dollars All he had to do is weed whack the weedsIt is not our fault that Mr [redacted] purchased this wetlands and that it took the Arm Core of Engineers as long as it did to get approval to proceed with the final grading Please note LDA refused to do the year check of the house and any warranty work The made mistakes with the locks in the house and refused to fix them We have refused to do this work because per our contract we are not required to do so unless we are paid in full which Mr [redacted] refuses to doHe owes us $and per our contract we can charge him 1.5% interest per month Consumer's Desired Resolution: LDA do do the following; Refund $which I paid under their threat they will not even answer my calls .LDA accepted half of the original amount from 1,they initially requested but still did not keep their word to fix what was agreed > We never threatened him, all we asked is for half now and the other half when the grading work was completed, which it now is 2.Agree I do not owe them any money and issue a written statement in this regard > We cannot do this, he owes us $which we may have to file a lien against his house for 3.Comply with year check of the house and repair in a professional fashion any defects found > We would gladly do this once paid 4.Fix the locks for the bedrooms as thei wrongly keyed the same > We would gladly do this once paid Issue a plan to ask customer satisfaction after moving in the house > We would gladly do this once paid Initial Consumer Rebuttal / [redacted] (3000, 10, 2016/02/07) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I do not accept the response from LDA builders as it is not based on any facts In I purchased the lot from [redacted] ; before I purchased I asked [redacted] L [redacted] to check he lot He went and walked the lot and told me to buy it No single word about wet lands or difficult lot After the purchase of the lot and start of building , LDA had an arrangement with Mr [redacted] , to "borrow" electric power from him for a sump pump during constriction and in return , LDA will grade his lot better as water was in his lot after rain LDA brought grading subcontractor TWICE before I moved in the house and they graded my lot and Mr.***'s lot but he was very unhappy with the results FACT: Mr [redacted] threatened LDA "to put a lien" on the house because of bad grading of the lots( both lots) as more water was coming to his property As a result LDA did a second grading and [redacted] was content- some how, but was unhappy the property pins were taken out and he asked o be put back Mr [redacted] , aware of my issues with LDA builders is willing to do what is necessary to prove my statements are true During the construction of the house there was no discussion between me and [redacted] L [redacted] about the "wet lands" However , the City did not approve the grading and a person from Army Corp of Engineers was brought in who instructed a LDA representative , Dave , regarding the grading A third grading was done and still LDA missed some points and City of [redacted] hold them in violation and refused to issue the occupancy permit The City of [redacted] even instructed me to report LDA for their lack of cooperation It is wrong for LDA to charge me for a third grading - it was their fault they did not coordinate with the City and the first gradings were wrong - and done to satisfy their agreement with Mr [redacted] .MrL [redacted] states he is interested in "customer satisfaction " ; here is the truth: I recommended MrL [redacted] to a person I know( MrL [redacted] also was recommended by my neighbor , [redacted] who purchased his home( a spec home) from LDA ) but this person was very displeased with the work of LDA and even refused any warranty work form them because of lack of professional behavior of LDA rep and quality of LDA work I built TWO houses with LDA but they never send me a survey about my satisfaction like all the businesses do ( please look that all businesses today form fast food to car dealers are asking customers to comment on a customer survey )I am waiting for some evidence from LDA they have surveys for customer's satisfaction 10.Please se attached scanned documents, it took almost year for LDA to comply with the requirements from the City as I moved in the house 07/24/ LAST POINT Building a house is a complex job , involving many materials , subcontractors , weather issues , city codes...the list can go on and on MrL [redacted] is an experienced builder but he is not leaving his office to survey the work ; he is sending his rep, Dave I liked the process of building the house and one can see my issue with LDA is regarding the grading ; Solution: maybe LDA can coordinate with the any city engineering department for this kind of situation not to repeat The attitude " the city made us do more work and we will shift the cost to the customer is wrong ! Any builder needs to have a good line of communication with the local engineering department Final Business Response / [redacted] (4000, 18, 2016/03/07) */ ***Document Attached [redacted] (Revdex.com - converted from original documentSee file.) > I did not tell him to "buy it", I told him I "did not see any issues" and it was "up to him"I will upload pictures of the lot covered in snow when I went to look at it, everything from above ground looked fineI have never seen, nor was I ever asked to review the lot purchase agreement, BUT Mr [redacted] who sold him the lot should have disclosed that there were wetlands on the property and Mr [redacted] should have relayed this to LDA but did not > We shouldn't of had to run this sump pump at all, but again do to the unknown wetlands! This was the FIRST item we should have charged Mr [redacted] extra for!, but of course LDA being nice guys we did not!We traded about $worth of electricity for hundreds of dollars' worth of bull-dozer time in an effort to just get the job doneA bull-dozer costs about $an hour and we spent many hours doing thisAgain if we were told there were wetlands there we would have warned Mr [redacted] in advance that there would be extra expenses!Mr [redacted] had to of know, he's a very smart doctor and I'm sure he would have read the lot purchase agreement before buying itIf he was not informed then he should go after Mr [redacted] and not us > Mr [redacted] had drainage problems with his yard before we ever stepped foot onto the propertyThis is the SECOND item we should have charged Mr [redacted] for! but again did not > Yes he was content because he knew there were filled wet lands and the problem was there prior! And LDA helped him in exchange for a little electricity! Mr [redacted] should be asking Mr [redacted] to pay for these extra charges, not LDA! I asked him to do that but he refuses to because he has to "live next door to him", instead he expects LDA to pay, which is wrongLDA also paid to have the unmarked property pin reset, THIRD item Mr [redacted] should have been charged for > Again, because we did not know about the wetlands and the Army Cores involvement until after the fact, LDA's employee Dave had to spend hours and hours on the phone, meeting the Army Core at the site, going over what they wanted done, etcetcThis cost LDA a lot of money which is the FORTH item we should have charged him for, but again we did not! If he as a doctor would have had a patient come in for one visit and it ended up taking multiple visits instead for the patient to get healed, you bet he would have charged extra > IF the city indeed did tell him this, then the city does not understand the circumstances > Mr [redacted] needs to realize that it sometimes takes multiple tries, just like with his patients, in order to get the job done, especially when there are hidden defectsThe agreement with Mr [redacted] to grade his yard was technically something Mr [redacted] should have paid for along with the other items listed aboveLDA only charging Mr [redacted] for the third grading, which was a very good deal for him, and if he does not pay soon we may go back and charge for the other items as well, along with 1-1/2% interest (per our contract)Additionally we just learned that Mr [redacted] deposited a $check from his bank that was LDA's, so he now owes us that as wellWe cannot do any more work for him until we are paid the $+ $= $1,total > Mr [redacted] 's old neighbor has referred a few people over the years and they are all satisfied, I have no idea what he's talking aboutAnd I'm not really sure what this has to do with the issue at hand? We have sent out customer satisfaction requests over the years with good results, but have been too busy lately to do that, nor does our budget in today's economy allow for it anymore > Yes I already have them in our files? thank you > Yes it is, and someone has to hold down the fortI try to get to all our jobs and return calls as often as I canYes the only issue is with the grading, which again and again and again, is not our fault! Solution: > The city, and more so the Army Core of engineersLDA has a good line of communication with the city of ***, we have built ~homes there, including a few 2nd homes for past customersBut unfortunately when you're dealing with an unusual piece of property like this things don't always go smoothlyAgain if we would have known this up front we would have charged him extra in our contract