D.R. Horton Homes

Plumbing issues caused water to seep through the foundation and ruin our flooring, and I've had a ticket in to fix this issue for nearly 6 weeks now. Our yard has been dug up twice because a pipe was crushed then repaired improperly. It feels like DR Horton doesn’t care about our home. Their warranty department is only concerned about keeping the initial sale profitable and cutting corners or outright denying repairs that shouldn’t have been needed in the first place.

DR Horton, both their manager and the company, is doing this because they want to meet their delivery numbers to higher ups and wall street. DHI is likely fraudulently overstating their "completed" and delivered home in their quarterly financial report, under-reporting their cost to "complete" the homes, since the cost to e.g. install missing shower glass walls will be shifted and deferred to future warranty cost, which will certainly rise. According to my agent, my home is only one of many incomplete home that DHI has delivered as "completed" that he is involved with.

Currently, DHI is able to bully home buyers with this take-it-or-leave-it attitude because most homes' contracted price signed ~1 year ago are below the current market price. Going forward, as gap between contracted price and market price narrows, DHI will not be able to do this. So far, the response I've got from DHI is "we have escalated your concerns to our customer service and warranty team/management team/executive team", and then silence; no action nor any ETA toward completing the home. It is the same response you see from DR Horton in this forum.

Our home is made with cheap materials and has uneven floors. The HVAC drain-off leaked into our hallway ceiling. The power goes in and out with various electrical issues. Flat paint on the walls that easily rubs off if any marks are attempted to be wiped off. A retaining wall with stone & concrete stairs have collapsed & been repaired 4 times now. The backyard yard is full of deep divots, large sinkhole, and floods terribly when it rains. The Whirlpool refrigerator we won in a Holiday drawing is still not working correctly. The maple tree planted in the front yard is completely dead Concrete is coming off of our foundation and driveway.

We were unable to use flag on mailbox for 10 months as it was concreted down. Moisture in the windowless bathrooms would shut off our power, so exhaust fans in bathrooms were replaced by inferior ones that do not work as condensation now drips off of the fan. The shower was leaking behind the drywall. The gas oven had to be replaced as it was leaking gas. Grout is cracking (it may already be leaking behind the wall) and crumbling off our bathroom shower & tub in both bathrooms. The flooring has had to be repaired many times due to holes in vinyl. The doorknobs kept coming loose and/or fell off. The cabinets and island counter were loose/falling off the wall. The garage has large crack across the floor. We have gaps under the thresholds of our outside doors. This is just to name some of the repairs that have been made or still need to be made on our home.

It seems as if every time a contractor comes in for a repair, another issue or damage ends up being created. Contractors have left dirt handprints on our walls, holes in the drywall of our walls for four months, a hole in our island countertop, a hole in the siding on the back of the house, holes in our vinyl floor, left beer bottles and scrap concrete in yard. Between contractors just not showing up when scheduled, not finishing the repair, and/or creating another problem or more damage, we have been in a constant state of repair since we moved in.

Between my husband and I, we have exhausted all our vacation and PTO days to be available to workers that will only come 8-5 Monday through Friday. We have been told that something cannot be repaired because we do not make ourselves available after we started telling them that we cannot take any more time off and they need to come when we were off work. They have been here over 26 times and the house is still in disrepair.

The latest issue we have been fighting with DRH is to correct the drainage issue on our lawn, as we have a backyard full of standing water a few feet from the house after a rain. The warranty manager, JT Witcher, wrote us and said they would install drains to fix our problem. But when the contractors came, they dumped a bunch of dirt around our yard, beer bottles in the trash, a large pile of concrete rubble that they have attempted to bury under dirt, a hole in our siding where they cut it with a weed eater, and we were then told that they decided that this dirt would “push” the water to the swale in the yard, so no drains were needed. We were not told and did not agree to this change. The day after they dumped the dirt, it rained for a very short amount of time, and 2 days later, after 95 degree heat we still have standing water in our backyard again along with a lot of mud. They did not fix the problem at all.

DRH seems to try to drag out and put off any claims so that when their cheap repair falls apart, it is after the warranty has expired and you must pay for it to be replaced yourself. I am not sure who the city inspectors were for this home but they did a terrible job. Some of the neighbors are having major problems that they have ended up fixing themselves because dealing with DRH is such an endless battle that does not go anywhere.

Please do not buy a DR Horton home. Run as fast as you can.

1. Plumbing/septic issues - Originally, our septic tank was partially above ground! We have constant backups and clogs requiring me to use a variety of ways to unclog external overflow pipes. We are to the point where local plumbers don’t want anything to do with the work. It’s too far from standard for them to be comfortable working on it. As I write this, I hear our main bathroom toilet gurgling. Time for me to go outside and plunge the external overflow. Gross and ridiculous on a new home;

2. HVAC issues - Again, lots of trouble here. At one point, insulation was blowing down into our home from the attic. The technician told us, with a straight face, that it was a common occurrence in new homes. I have a hard time believing that people purchase a brand new home and are okay with a couple years of on-again/off-again insulation spurts from the heating and air vents. We’ve also already had to replace parts on our external unit. When we asked about the parts being under warranty on our system, the technician indicated it was way easier to just have him fix it since the warranty process was arduous and often not fruitful;

3. Finishing and infrastructure issues - from loose flooring and ceiling cracks along the drywall seams, to straight-up poor construction on a hall bathroom that seems to have been glued onto the house as an afterthought, this home was thrown together in a hurry. We did not expect a high-end, craftsman-quality home. We knew this was a pre-planned and regimented build. Even so, we expected that the basics would be in place. Our walls and ceilings, especially in that hall bath, look like we have been here for a decade or like we are in the middle of an unfinished remodel. The cabinetry has also been a source of disappointment requiring regular repairs. We’ve also had to have our kitchen sink repaired as the original install did not include bracing it to the counter island (which came with cracked granite the workers told us to fill with Gorilla Glue);

4. Appliance issues - The fridge, stove, and dishwasher that came with this home are a joke. We’ve already had to have the dishwasher repaired. Also, it’s never really fit squarely into position and is not attached to the countertop. The fridge/freezer is cheap and the inside shelves and door pockets are cracking and do not stay in place. We’ve also had trouble with our dryer vent and have had to replace one, brand new clothes dryer after about 1.5 years of use. Much of the damage to that machine was caused by the way the external vent pipe was set into the wall. The stove is the rock star only because it hasn’t crashed on us yet; and

5. Smart Home issues - This house was billed as being “smart” and “fully wired”. We are locked into the worst security system on the market (when we see a doorbell alert on our cellphones when we are out and about, it literally times out before it even displays the picture from the door). We’ve had to have technicians to the house twice to reset or check the system and we can’t cancel because it would cost thousands of dollars to get out of the built-in contract. Also, our “fully wired” smart home literally only has a couple Ethernet ports, and they were installed after the build - one in the past year due to work from home necessity.

We also have issues with our “premium lot” and a number of other factors relating to the actual sale, but, who has the time to document it all. I have to go plunge my septic pipe…again. I can’t express how heartsick I am that we made the mistake of buying a D. R. Horton home. My family deserves better and our mortgage certainly reflects a much nicer living situation. Really wish this could have been a glowing review. We can’t recommend this company.

Now they said they will rebuilt my pantry because they used cheap supply and they will use same supply ;) to rebuilt it. The guy came at 5pm to start the work :). Did not finish and did not do it right. He has to come back today but it is 4pm already. All my supply in the hallway last 2 weeks. I do not think this is an issue everywhere with D. R. Horton. I think it is by location where they make contract with 3rd parties and this location is not good. If I knew I was gonna go through all these, I would not buy a house from this location D. R. Horton but how would I know. I hope someone reads this.

Original Review: I bought a new house last year from D.R. Horton. I have a lot of issues. They replaced my entire floor because they said the floor was not even/flat. I do not know why they did not make the floor even at the first time when building it. Well, the floor now is still making popping sounds as it did before, does that mean I am gonna have to go through this process again? Master shower grout came off, private inspector that I hired said if they put enough seal, it would not come like this. I told D.R. Horton's construction person, if they do not fix it soon, it will start leaking underground and we all be in trouble.

Sheetrocks around the house are separating from the wall, they fixed some but still has more to fix. After fixing some of those sheetrocks, they have not painted my walls, my house looks like has two paint color. My bathroom vanity/sink had a crack and they had to change it. The whole pantry shelves needs to change because they did not do it properly, wood shelves are bent down and they said it needed to be replaced. I am tired, frustrated. I have only 1 month of warranty time left. I had to change my life around all these construction dates. I have a life and I am angry.

To be more specific about my issue, tub has overflow drain connects to a pipe behind to collect excess water. Plumber has determined the pipe is loose, but they couldn't fix it instead they sealed the overflow hole and told me "it could still leak." They asked me not to fill water above overflow hole which can cause leaking. Builder then informed me this is the correct fix and no more repair is needed. Please be aware a tub is designed to have overflow hole open which collects the excess water. It is AGAINST CODE to seal the valve. It is also AGAINST CODE to not allow water go above overflow hole.

Builder's technicians even try to fool me that "a tub is not designed to hold overflow water". If their fix means I just can't overfill water which basically indicates a tub is still not fully functioning, and they failed to fix the leaking for me. More ridiculously, the Atlanta warranty team even demanded me to hire my plumber to continue fix the leaking. It against their warranty duty. I am really disappointed with their irresponsibility and disrespectful conversation to me. Atlanta Warranty team and technician Matt C and Mario need to take immediately action to continue perform repair on my broken pipe to completely prevent leaking from my tub, which includes replace the tub and fix the loose pipe connected to the tub. This is the worst home buying experience ever, would never consider DR Horton again.