I purchased my home on January 30th of 2000 which was built by US homes then who changed their name to Lennar Homes. Since I purchased it I have been experiencing a lot of problems with plumbing, and bay window leakage inside the house. I tried to find out who built the house and asked the home owner's association; they could not give me any information.
This has taken years to find out when finally Loudoun County building and permit department was able to let me know that it was US homes who are working now under the name Lennar; their office is in Chantilly, VA but their main office is out of Florida I think where James ** is. I kept calling them; they never returned my calls. I left messages two years ago.
In 2010 when we had the big blizzard. The snow caused the deck to give way and was detached from the structure of the house and became unstable. The bay window leaked inside the living room because they did not put flashing to drive the water away from the house. I had to call several people who attested to me that the builder did a lousy job and did not put flashing.
Ever since this happened, I had to have someone fix the problem. Because the builder did not use the right materials and the right techniques to avoid these complications, homeowners are left to struggle with the consequences of dishonest builders who use cheap materials and irresponsible contractors who put homeowners in danger. We can't go out on the deck for fear of danger. When I finally got hold of them about three months ago, after many attempts calling them for almost three years now, a lady by the name of Gillian *** in customer care finally called me about a month and a half ago. She promised to send out someone to look at the deck. She lied to me, kept promising that she would get back to me and after about a month passed, a Wyatt sent me a letter denying that they built the house.
I had called the County inspectors for the building and permit department who came to look at the deck and they saw the kind of nails that were used to fasten the deck to the house. They also took pictures of the gap and nails. They were surprised and I questioned them on the inspection they do before those houses are sold to homeowners. Their response was that they would not have known because the nails were not exposed. I think this was an unsustainable excuse because you can tell if they used the long bolts to bolt the deck to the building. I would not have known because I do not know about that stuff. If the County inspectors did not catch it, how could I have found out until a catastrophe had to happen to expose those nails and the deck shakes. The same thing with the bay window. I would not have known until the leaking happened. It makes me wonder if really the county inspectors are doing their job before they approve the homes for sale.
When Wyatt sent the letter to me denying that they never built homes in my area, I confronted him with the permit number which I got from the County Department of building and permits. He said he would get back to me. He also lied and to date I never heard from him. Finally Gillian called me about two weeks ago and said that she had put a file together and forwarded to a James ** who is out in Florida. A week passed and then he called me and left a message with an 800 number and his extension (which I do not have on me but will be very happy if you call me to provide to you with the complete address of their office in Chantilly, Va). I called him back and he was very rude, provocative, disrespectful and said that they will not consider any of this issue and he said it is a "big No".
I found this to be very irresponsible from a company that wants to stay in business given the housing market situation and the customer care department responds to customers in a rude and disrespectful manner. I told him that I will be talking to future home buyers about their company and their dishonest practices. Yesterday and during this time, I have been trying to resolve the matter with them. I have had many people come to give me estimates in order to do the job right and have a safe deck unlike what they did. It would cost me, adding the bay window and the paint that needs to be done inside the living room about $6,000. I can't afford paying for the mistakes of a builder and the irresponsible practices they have done. This is a life threatening situation. We are prisoners in the house. We can't go out and enjoy the weather on our deck because a lousy builder is putting us in danger.
I am hoping that you will help us get our rights and that builders who use dishonest practices because of their greed should be punished and monitored very closely so no other homeowner be subjected to this kind of greed and deception. I have filed a complaint against them with the Better Business Bureau who told me that there were already 5 complaints against them.
My neighbors had to change the plumbing. Two of my neighbors have bad decks as well because the person who came to look at my deck saw the gap in my neighbors' decks between the deck and the structure of the house.
I hope I will hear from you soon. Thanks for all you do to help us, the consumers, fight back those greedy builders and any company that takes advantage of the buyers who buy in good faith but later find out the lousy work done in their homes. I hope you will be able to contact them and you can call me any time on the phone number I provided in the Complaint. If you have any questions or address for that home builder and their phone number please call me. I hope you can take this to litigation and also to the media because homeowners and potential home buyers need to know and be enlightened and think twice before buying from a builder. They need to check on complaints with the BBB to make sure they don't experience what we are experiencing today. They cannot get away with this and unless we stop them, they will continue cheating on the building materials and putting more people in danger. Imagine if we had been on that deck and it collapsed. Who will compensate us for our lives or our danger? Thanks.
