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Niles of Richton Park IL (06/21/08)
We were going to build a home in Eagle Creek of Bourbonnais, Il. We gave $1000 earnest money and $11,653.00 check to start the new construction. We were pre-approved for the mortgage on the new home but had trouble selling our current home. Due to the fact that we were a one income family we could not have 2 outstanding mortgages. We called Kennedy's sales office (Susan Brill) and closing department (Diane Murphy) numerous times requesting an extension on the closing date and was refused every time.
After the date passed we tried to reach the owner just for an extension because we had 2 buyers lined up who were just waiting to see if their mortgage loan would be approved. Unfortunately we got no response just many messages that he would call us back. Diane is the worst customer service employee that I've ever had to deal with in life. She told us it was too bad that we didn't sell our home, we're not getting ANY of our money back and it was our problem that we didn't close by the due date. Even though I explained to her that their contract stated that if we're not approved we get our deposit back but would lose the $1000 earnest money.
Long story short 2 weeks after our close date Kennedy Homes had a FOR SALE sign in the yard and the house was sold. Luckily the family that had a contract on our current house were very understanding and sympathized with us as we explained what happened with the Kennedy Home deal and they pulled out of the contract on our house. Otherwise, me and my wife and our 3 children would have been homeless.
We exhausted all of our savings on upgrades to our home, inspection fees, listings and more at the advice of the sales director at Kennedy Homes. We refinanced our home and our APR went from 4.5% to 7.6%, to pull the money out of equity for the $11,653.00 down payment to start construction. This had a big impact on our mortgage which increased by more than $400 per month. Also our property taxes went from $1572 to $1850 each installment because we had so many upgrades and the appraiser reported them to the assessors office. It was a VERY BIG financial loss and stressful hardship, especially since we had a house built for someone else.
Constance of Waterman IL (06/15/08)
We closed on our new home in January. Within a month we began having liens put on our property because Kennedy had not paid the contractors. Now we are being threatened with legal action because the bills have still not been paid.
At closing we received a notarized document that was signed by a Vice president of Kennedy Homes verifying that there were no liens on the property and that all bills had been paid or were arranged for. We had an attorney at closing but even he was not aware that the bills had not been paid. We still do not have grass or sod. We hadn't even wanted to close in January but were threatened by a Kennedy employee that if we didn't close at that time we would be sued.
We have been threatened with legal action. This has put us under a lot of stress. We are senior citizens and this is very difficult for us.
Tiffany of Wauconda IL (08/11/06)
I really hope that perhaps you can help my family and prevent other families from losing thousands of dollars. My husband and I recently entered under contract with Kennedy Home Builders to build us a 2800 square foot house in Wonder Lake. After signing the contract and paying Kennedy the minimum earnest money of $1,000, we spent many hours with them designing the details of our home. Then they told us that they could not build the home that they had been contracted for because it was too deep for the lot.
We decided to build us a bigger home for an additional fee of $24,000+ which they assured us was not as deep and would fit on the lot. We explained to the regional sales manager that the floor plans of the smaller homes would not accommodate our growing family. We asked her if there was a negotiable compromise that we could come to price wise to compensate for their mistake. She told us they do not provide any kind of compensation. After selecting our more expensive home, I then noticed that the dimensions of the house and the lot size did not measure up. I brought this to the attention of Kennedy Homes and they acknowledged that the house would in fact, not fit on the lot.
We told them that we wish to cancel our contract with them and contract with a more credible builder. In our signed contract it states that if a dispute arises in regards to boundary issues, the seller is to pay the builder a fee of $100 in addition to a full refund of all earnest monies. We brought this to the attention of Kennedy Homes and informed them that we would like to enter under contract with another builder before we lose our deal. We would need our earnest monies returned so that we may use the money for our new contract.
Kennedy Home Builders faxed us a letter stating that they forgot to have us sign some papers of the contract without our knowledge. They informed us that because we did not sign the papers which they omitted the contract was not binding and thus they do not have to abide by it. I am unsure of what action to take at this point. Kennedy Homes has continuously lied to us throughout the duration which we have been doing business with them.
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