As requested this is our second response to complaint ID [redacted] Please review the comments from our first response provided to you on February 18, In addition, attached please find two documentsThe first is an addendum to the sales contract outlining the terms of the agreement and that this model home was being sold in "As Is" conditionThe second attachment is a letter from our former Project Manager, reiterating that this home was sold "AS IS." In the spirit of good business practices and customer service, we did however service the complainant's home during the one year warranty period, despite the previously agreed upon contractThe complainant did not follow procedure and is requesting reimbursement for something that our company was not made aware of prior to him contracting with an outside vendor and having the work completedIt should be noted that this home, like all new construction homes in Kent County, go through multiple County and State inspections and approvals, including Plumbing and Electrical inspectionsWithout these inspections and approvals, a Certificate of Occupancy could not be obtainedThis home received its Certificate of Occupancy prior to the home being sold to the complainant
Builder bewareThese are people who will tell you to your face what you'd like to hear but never follow through with the jobThey said they would complete a job, was paid in full 100%, and never finished
February 18, 2015Dear Ms***:This letter is in response to your email that we received on February 9, with regard to customer complaint *** We were contacted by the home buyer via a letter dated May 14, stating that his home was missing house wrap above the
ground floor level and he had the repair performed by an outside company and was requesting payment for this work from our companyPlease note, he did not contact us prior to having said issue repaired by an outside firm, hence, never giving us the opportunity to inspect his concern and to determine if indeed a repair was warrantedHis action did not follow our service policy and proceduresIn addition, this customer had past the one year service warranty with our company and we advised him of such and to contact the year structural warranty companyAs a matter of course, we purchase a year structural warranty program for each and every home we build in the communityIn the attached documents we communicated this information on structural warranty to the consumerPlease note the follletter dated July 10, where we further clarified and provided additional information for the consumerNote: as per your request, we have removed the consumer's name and address as well as the name of our employee who sent the attached correspondenceIf you have any further questions, feel free to contact me at the above email address or telephone me at ***Thank you
As requested this is our second response to complaint ID [redacted]. Please review the comments from our first response provided to you on February 18, 2015 . In addition, attached please find two documents. The first is an addendum to the sales contract outlining the terms of the agreement and that this model home was being sold in "As Is" condition. The second attachment is a letter from our former Project Manager, reiterating that this home was sold "AS IS." In the spirit of good business practices and customer service, we did however service the complainant's home during the one year warranty period, despite the previously agreed upon contract. The complainant did not follow procedure and is requesting reimbursement for something that our company was not made aware of prior to him contracting with an outside vendor and having the work completed. It should be noted that this home, like all new construction homes in Kent County, go through multiple County and State inspections and approvals, including Plumbing and Electrical inspections. Without these inspections and approvals, a Certificate of Occupancy could not be obtained. This home received its Certificate of Occupancy prior to the home being sold to the complainant.
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
The response was disingenuous inasmuch as there is NO service policy for repairs following the expiration of their one year warranty. Had I followed the suggestion in their response, by first contacting them regarding the problem, their response would have been, "the one-year warranty has expired" - as is mentioned later in the paragraph, and as has happened on numerous instances. Also, potentially, further wall damage would have occurred and I a greater repair cost would have been incurred. Consequently, I requested a repairman to correct the Code requirement omitted by the Builder. I have several photos that clearly show the "house wrap" omission.
A "certificate of occupancy" was issued (which I understand verifies that the Construction Code has been met), despite the fact that numerous obvious Construction Code violations existed - several of these are noted below:
1) no wall insulation in the crawl space resulting in substantial energy wastage;
2) no connectors (screws/tape/adhesive/etc. applied to the HVAC vent pipes in the crawl space, allowing several disconnections and resulting in conditioned air vented into the crawl space instead of the house and wasting considerable energy;
3) no enclosure on the bottom of the front bay window - permitting insects and rodents to enter the wall;
4) incorrectly/inappropriately wired electrical outlet in the upstairs storage room;
If the Builder exercised appropriate management and inspection they should have been aware of these Code violations. Regardless, after bringing these deficiencies to the attention of the builder, they were corrected BECAUSE THEY WERE IDENTIFIED DURING THE ONE YEAR WARRANTY PERIOD. As mentioned above, the Builder declines to correct deficiencies/code violations that are not identified during the initial one-year period. Hidden deficiencies could not be identified during the initial year of occupancy, and the problem of "house wrap" omission was identified only following a strong rain storm when water intruded through an exterior wall of an upstairs bedroom (which also required repainting).
Given the above-mentioned water intrusion problem, I subsequently inspected some (not all) other exterior wall locations where I suspected house wrap may also have been omitted, and my suspicions were confirmed. Consequently, I requested the Builder to verify that "house wrap" was installed in all the required locations, including the dormer window walls (which I was unable to inspect). But consistent with other post-warranty requests, they declined to do so; thereby, also declining to bring the house to Code requirements.
I followed up with the 10 year Structural Warranty Company and they also declined responsibility - and so advised the Builder.
Builder beware. These are people who will tell you to your face what you'd like to hear but never follow through with the job. They said they would complete a job, was paid in full 100%, and never finished.
As requested this is our second response to complaint ID [redacted] Please review the comments from our first response provided to you on February 18, In addition, attached please find two documentsThe first is an addendum to the sales contract outlining the terms of the agreement and that this model home was being sold in "As Is" conditionThe second attachment is a letter from our former Project Manager, reiterating that this home was sold "AS IS." In the spirit of good business practices and customer service, we did however service the complainant's home during the one year warranty period, despite the previously agreed upon contractThe complainant did not follow procedure and is requesting reimbursement for something that our company was not made aware of prior to him contracting with an outside vendor and having the work completedIt should be noted that this home, like all new construction homes in Kent County, go through multiple County and State inspections and approvals, including Plumbing and Electrical inspectionsWithout these inspections and approvals, a Certificate of Occupancy could not be obtainedThis home received its Certificate of Occupancy prior to the home being sold to the complainant
Builder bewareThese are people who will tell you to your face what you'd like to hear but never follow through with the jobThey said they would complete a job, was paid in full 100%, and never finished
February 18, 2015Dear Ms***:This letter is in response to your email that we received on February 9, with regard to customer complaint *** We were contacted by the home buyer via a letter dated May 14, stating that his home was missing house wrap above the
ground floor level and he had the repair performed by an outside company and was requesting payment for this work from our companyPlease note, he did not contact us prior to having said issue repaired by an outside firm, hence, never giving us the opportunity to inspect his concern and to determine if indeed a repair was warrantedHis action did not follow our service policy and proceduresIn addition, this customer had past the one year service warranty with our company and we advised him of such and to contact the year structural warranty companyAs a matter of course, we purchase a year structural warranty program for each and every home we build in the communityIn the attached documents we communicated this information on structural warranty to the consumerPlease note the follletter dated July 10, where we further clarified and provided additional information for the consumerNote: as per your request, we have removed the consumer's name and address as well as the name of our employee who sent the attached correspondenceIf you have any further questions, feel free to contact me at the above email address or telephone me at ***Thank you
As requested this is our second response to complaint ID [redacted]. Please review the comments from our first response provided to you on February 18, 2015 . In addition, attached please find two documents. The first is an addendum to the sales contract outlining the terms of the agreement and that this model home was being sold in "As Is" condition. The second attachment is a letter from our former Project Manager, reiterating that this home was sold "AS IS." In the spirit of good business practices and customer service, we did however service the complainant's home during the one year warranty period, despite the previously agreed upon contract. The complainant did not follow procedure and is requesting reimbursement for something that our company was not made aware of prior to him contracting with an outside vendor and having the work completed. It should be noted that this home, like all new construction homes in Kent County, go through multiple County and State inspections and approvals, including Plumbing and Electrical inspections. Without these inspections and approvals, a Certificate of Occupancy could not be obtained. This home received its Certificate of Occupancy prior to the home being sold to the complainant.
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
The response was disingenuous inasmuch as there is NO service policy for repairs following the expiration of their one year warranty. Had I followed the suggestion in their response, by first contacting them regarding the problem, their response would have been, "the one-year warranty has expired" - as is mentioned later in the paragraph, and as has happened on numerous instances. Also, potentially, further wall damage would have occurred and I a greater repair cost would have been incurred. Consequently, I requested a repairman to correct the Code requirement omitted by the Builder. I have several photos that clearly show the "house wrap" omission.
A "certificate of occupancy" was issued (which I understand verifies that the Construction Code has been met), despite the fact that numerous obvious Construction Code violations existed - several of these are noted below:
1) no wall insulation in the crawl space resulting in substantial energy wastage;
2) no connectors (screws/tape/adhesive/etc. applied to the HVAC vent pipes in the crawl space, allowing several disconnections and resulting in conditioned air vented into the crawl space instead of the house and wasting considerable energy;
3) no enclosure on the bottom of the front bay window - permitting insects and rodents to enter the wall;
4) incorrectly/inappropriately wired electrical outlet in the upstairs storage room;
If the Builder exercised appropriate management and inspection they should have been aware of these Code violations. Regardless, after bringing these deficiencies to the attention of the builder, they were corrected BECAUSE THEY WERE IDENTIFIED DURING THE ONE YEAR WARRANTY PERIOD. As mentioned above, the Builder declines to correct deficiencies/code violations that are not identified during the initial one-year period. Hidden deficiencies could not be identified during the initial year of occupancy, and the problem of "house wrap" omission was identified only following a strong rain storm when water intruded through an exterior wall of an upstairs bedroom (which also required repainting).
Given the above-mentioned water intrusion problem, I subsequently inspected some (not all) other exterior wall locations where I suspected house wrap may also have been omitted, and my suspicions were confirmed. Consequently, I requested the Builder to verify that "house wrap" was installed in all the required locations, including the dormer window walls (which I was unable to inspect). But consistent with other post-warranty requests, they declined to do so; thereby, also declining to bring the house to Code requirements.
I followed up with the 10 year Structural Warranty Company and they also declined responsibility - and so advised the Builder.
Regards,
Builder beware. These are people who will tell you to your face what you'd like to hear but never follow through with the job. They said they would complete a job, was paid in full 100%, and never finished.