Signature Homes by Adashun Jones, Inc

Dear *** Homes Client, (See Attached Letter From the Home Builders Association Regarding this Matter)Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding the conditions you are experiencing in your home, we take client feedback very seriously and strive to provide the best service
possible. In this case, as we do with all client concerns we sent a representative out to your home to assess the situation and determine both cause and solution. An energy efficiency test (blower door test) was done to determine whether your windows,doors or framing had any defects or weatherization issues, the test revealed there were no defects related to the Builder, *** *** or the installation of the products, the blower door test showed that your home meets or exceeds energy star standards which we were happy to find out. We later found that the Association*** in our area had also received a similar call of concern regarding the quality of construction, quality of material and quality of labor provided during your new construction process in 2008. I have attached a letter from the area homebuilders association showing that they did indeed investigate the complaint using TWO 3rd party construction experts with over years experience in new construction, this unbiased 3rd party could find NO issue with the product, installation or completion of construction, and specifically no reason to replace the very efficient windows that you chose when we bid specs for this home. I would encourage you to review the suggestions that the Homebuilders Association recommended in their official letter of review of this complaint and take steps to use the Air to Air Exchanger during the proper times of the year, run bathroom ventilation fans after using water/showering/or doing laundry, be sure to properly close and lock windows and doors during rainy or humid periods, this will help prevent moisture buiand condensation in the home which will reduce if not eliminate all together the conditions you are currently experiencing. New homes , especially new homes that are built to energy star standards, are very tight and do not breathe as much as older homes that are drafty , these types of homes are designed with that knowledge and engineered to have ventilation systems in place to remove high humidity air inside the home and exchange it with fresh dry air outside the home, if you follow the instructions recommended and during the proper months, you will prolong the life of the construction materials used in your home and have a much more comfortable environment. As far as mildew like conditions I would recommend contacting a cleaning specialist that has expertise in eliminating dust, dirt and mildew residue that has built up in your home over the past years and have it thoroughly cleaned and treated with whatever professional recommendation they provide you. Follow these steps and I am hopeful that you will enjoy your home even more! I wish you the best with maintaining your year old home and hope this was helpful*** ***, Director of Sales and Marketing

Hello [redacted],I am very sorry to hear that you are experiencing problems post closing.  Typically repair items would be noted by the Home Inspector in their Summary Report, both the Buyer and Seller receive a copy of this report and have the opportunity at that time to give written notice...

asking the seller to cure the defects by a licensed professional prior to the buyer following through with a closing on that property.  If the seller refuses to cure the defect, the buyer may withdraw their offer and choose to move on to another home.  If a buyer follows through with a purchase after a home inspection report was performed and reviewed by the buying party, the real estate broker has done their job and can no longer assist the buyer post closing.  We do deal with these situations on occasion where a home inspector was unable to catch a defective condition prior to closing, in that case buyers can discuss the matter with the home inspector post closing to try and remedy the situation, it sounds like this was done, and the inspector sent you a check.  To better explain our position I would like to put it this way, existing homes are used products that sometimes have issues that present themselves shortly after a new owner takes occupancy, if they are new issues it would be impossible for a home inspector or anyone involved ie buyer, seller, realtor to discover a problem that did not exist at the time of inspection. In this case you are referencing a pre-existing condition, however you did follow through and purchase the home, and are now asking professionals other than the seller to pay for the cure of the defect. If real estate professionals set a precedent that they would pay for defects that home inspectors missed or that buyers were made aware of before following through and closing on a property rather than asking the seller to properly cure, or if real estate professionals set a precedent that they would pay for defects that were unfortunate new defects that they became aware of shortly after closing it would be unfair of the realtors who are marketing & paperwork experts, not home inspectors, in our 30 yrs of handling real estate sales the standard practice has been that buyers and sellers need to work out these issues between themselves however necessary post closing. Think of it this way, a home Inspector looks at a roof on a existing 20 yr old home, the roof appears to the inspector to be working properly, no leaks or tattered shingles, but makes a buyer aware prior to closing that it is a 20 yr old roof, the buyer takes note in the inspection report summary but sees no defect to have cured so they follow through and close on the home, two weeks later, post closing, the roof starts to leak for no apparent reason, just due to bad luck, age or normal wear and tear, this issue is a new issue, and is unfortunate for a new occupant/buyer but not the responsibility of the real estate broker, the seller, or the home inspector.  I'm sorry that you are experiencing this issue but it is not something we can do anything about now that the property has successfully closed, this would have needed to have been asked of the sellers by the buyers, using a written notice of defective plumbing, if noted in the inspection report summary & prior to that successful closing.  I would be happy to discuss this further in person, and we do take client feedback very seriously, if there's any new information that we can discuss that would allow us to help you resolve this claim with the seller or the home inspector please email us at Attn - Manager - [email protected], Sincerely - Adashun Jones Real Estate

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.
This will be the last response on this subject since as anyone can see the consumer again is the left to incur all costs from a claim that was first started in 2008 which the home builder association representative found when she called Anderson, the same year the house was built.  Buyer beware, it is too bad that first time home builders are an easy target.  We have learned the hard way that you should get second and third opinions when building your home. as far as for the comment of windows that were SELECTED and agreed upon, of all the "upgrades" offered over and above the selected and agreed upon products it's too bad windows were not one of the "upgrades" offered.  Make sure that when building a home you are an expert in every field since you are not offered correct products for the home just the most cost effective.
Regards,
Kurt & Lori [redacted]

Hi Kurt & Lori,In our previous discussion it was recommended that the air exchanger run during the colder dryer months as in Oct through February to help with high moisture content in the home during those months. Due to the way the home is being used/lived in moisture levels can build up during those months and moisture damage can occur from condensation on window panes (the coldest surface) creating the frosty window effect which then melts in winter when the heat is running and can form an endless cycle of frost, condensation melting , frost then condensation melting, etc etc, you get the idea) running bath fans and or a properly running air exchange system set at a relative humidity percentage about 10 pts higher than freezing (42% relative humidity) can be a basic measure to help prevent this issue.  At no point would we recommend running the air exchange system in spring through fall , its not necessary as the home[redacted] points out in the previous response.  Again, these issues are related to how you live in the home, the couple from the Home[redacted]s Association that came out to inspect the installation have been one of the areas most respected builders and are in no way bias to our craftsmanship, they actually were direct competitors of ours and would have every reason to hold us accountable for what an Anderson Window Warranty Rep said was shotty/or questionable installation; however, Ralph and Jackie [redacted] DID NOT have any of those same observations and found no fault in the installation methods (see previous attached document from the HBA).  Clearly someone is not being honest, there has been a thorough investigation into the warranty work that our contract covers (up to one year) and the builder installation methods investigated by an unbiased 3rd party who was voted to represent the Fond du lac Area Homebuilders Association for matters like this, with again, NO fault being found on either the warranty topic or the installation topic.  The fact that we are still discussing this is purely to help add some sort of context to the situation and help anyone reading this to understand the investigation and the home[redacted] accusations along with the subsequent follow up from the builder.  We strongly feel that the Anderson Windows Representative(s) are responsible for the warranty claim and we do not have a product warranty in place that covers a claim on a 8 yr old used window product, I don't think any builder in the area or even the state of WI would have that type of warranty. The Anderson Series of Windows that was used in this project was SELECTED and agreed upon in a written contract between the builder and the [redacted]. If this product has not been maintained or is now after 8 years a faulty product we have to defer this claim to the people at Anderson Window Warranty Dept., In addition a claim was made in a previous detailed response from the home[redacted] that the [redacted] of our building company has the same windows in his personal home and that he is experiencing similar issues, this claim is completely false, Glenn ** GM for Signature Homes does live in a Signature Homes custom built home and has for 15+ years , he has Marvin Windows and has NOT experienced the same issues.  In 20+ years as the areas largest custom home builder we have successful helped over 450 Clients realize the dream of building a custom home.  This is one of the few claims regarding window installation or product quality that we have ever encountered. In a previous email I had mentioned that this home was built to meet or exceed EPA standards for efficiency and we stand behind that statement, I have to recant an earlier statement regarding a blower door test, we actually stopped doing the blower door test because of the added cost to the home[redacted] and the fact that EVERY home we built met or exceeded the EPA standard for efficiency we didn't feel the need to continue adding cost to the [redacted] when we had such consistent data to show our quality and focus on energy standards.  We are sincerely sorry that you have experienced these issues with the Anderson Series of windows, we have done what we can to help aid in resolving your alleged issues, it is apparent that we will not be able to resolve your issue and we encourage you to pursue this further with Anderson Windows as this is not going to be covered by the home builder. - , [redacted]

Review: I am not satisfied with the process of resovling warranty work. This company has stopped responding to my e-mails and has not made an honest effort to resolve outside issues with my home that they built.Desired Settlement: This company has had six weeks to deal with the problems I have sent them. I want the work done correctly and before the warranty runs out.

Business

Response:

Although I appreciate [redacted] utilization of the Revdex.com the this complaint is simply unfounded. Not only myself, but several members of my staff have been in direct contact with [redacted] since the completion of her new home. I have records to support communications with both myself and my warranty department regarding warranty requests made my [redacted]. In addition, there have been multiple site visits by employees of Signature Homes our subcontractors addressing any open work order requests. On Monday morning October 13th I responded to an email from [redacted] regarding a siding warranty request. In this email I explained to [redacted] that the work order was in process and that as long as there is an open warranty work order, her warranty would cover the open item beyond the 1 year contractor warranty period. I have not received a response from [redacted] regarding this correspondence. I have contacted all parties involved regarding the warranty item and the work will be completed per the terms of our warranty at no expense to [redacted]. I would ask that [redacted] reference her construction agreement and specifically the warranty period and terms. In a perfect world warranty items can be resolved over night but unfortunately we are at the mercy of product availability and schedules when responding to non emergency warranty claims.