Meritage Homes Reviews

Our house is supposed to be a green house. Our electric bills in the summer run 400 dollars. Meritage would put a larger unit in our house. It took two years for them to repair the air conditioning duct because they were installed wrong. Several service call of tech fixing the problem and I had to call many times to get it fixed. They admitted one time the problem wasn't fixed. Now they won't call us back because the warranty has expired.

The house isn't wired right. We can't run Christmas lights outside without tripping as breaker. Their solution was to add additional outlets outside. That didn't fix the issue. We still have problems with the electric and Meritage sends people over to look and go nothing wrong. I still have parts of the house that never got a final coat of paint. Tub leaks, they came by twice to fix it. The back doors on the house aren't water proof. I hosed down the back porch last summer and had water leaked in. The site manager said they aren't water proof. On the outside of the house - there have been several issues with neighbors on my block. We were treated horribly and will never buy another Meritage home. Their own mortgage company raised our fixed payment loan for their budgeting mistakes. No one deserves to be treated like this.

October 1 there were high winds and the structure next to ours fell down, striking my home. These things happen, but Meritage did not notify me. 2 weeks later I have to contact them to ask what is going on. 6 weeks later they managed to get an engineer to look at the damage and recommend a fix. Beginning of November, and I'm on my third construction manager and they still insist that I will be in the house at the end of December. With a straight face nonetheless. In the last 40 days as I write this they have managed to install most of the plumbing, and most of the vent work.

As far as Customer Service goes, it has been atrocious. My salesperson was so bad I could not deal with them, due to fudging the truth. I then got the Director of Sales for the whole company as I was so enraged. But very little has changed, except he is better at tap dancing than the first guy. Called him today at 8, noon, and every half hour thereafter and get no response. So I'm left to wailing at message boards. And I paid for this....

In addition, due to their continual fudging on close dates my apartment lease ran out and I have had to move in with family. So not only is this a burden on my children who are in school, it is a burden on my extended family as well. Welcome to the Meritage experience!

I am dreading any major repairs that may crop up in the future because I am not sure that Meritage will fix them. I have read the issues that other people have suffered and continue to suffer in other parts of the country and I hope that we don't have the same issues in Mooreville, North Carolina. Come on, Meritage, get your acts together and stand behind your product! It is amazing that you have been in business as long as you have. Think twice before purchasing a home from Meritage.

After we signed off on the walk through, they decided to move the sewer access to the MIDDLE of the front lawn, right in line with our front door. Since it's a fluorescent color, it's the first thing that greets you when you drive up. When I asked why they moved it, they said their "engineer" had determined that was the best place. I interpreted the excuse to mean that they don't care and they don't want to put it back where it was. At least they were kind enough to replace the grass that had been driven over when they moved it (yeah they moved it AFTER putting the grass). There was clearly something about us they didn't like. They carpeted the stairs, but the carpet tacks they used are a bit too long and stab my toes if I'm not careful.

Hey Meritage: The toilet testers do not need to leave their fecal splatter for the new homeowners. There's nothing pleasant about going into your new home and having to clean the bathroom. They could have at least left a courtesy roll of toilet paper (I hope they had some to begin with!). They messed up the gas line (got dirt in it) so we did not have gas until they could clear it out and get the gas company to come out. We had a few days of cold showers and no stove.

We left our key with the main office so they could let the gas guy in. We left the key with them a bit longer because they promised to have the contractors look over some things pending from the walk through (that never happened). They let an electrician in our home, who left our lights on and left a flyer on our table. The item he was there to connect is still not connected. They didn't let us know he was coming; it's an unsettling feeling that someone was in your home messing with stuff and accomplishing nothing. I still wonder what he was doing in there? We closed late, but only by a couple of days.

I'll also mention the neighbor's houses: Neighbor to our right got the linoleum flooring, but it seems the builder tried to put the base boards on as though to leave room for tile? Even if that's the case, it's not straight. There's just a weird, uneven gap. Neighbor to our left: I haven't spoken to this neighbor, but I saw the crew put the spray foam insulation in his home then saw a dumpster full of it because they had to pull it all back out. I wouldn't be surprised if his insulation is still messed up!

These are all little things, especially compared to the nightmare stories that are out there, but if I wanted to worry about little details and pouring out time and money to fix stuff, I would not have bought a brand new home! There are a few pros: We were not expecting irrigation in the backyard, but we got it; it's ugly but at least it's there. We visited the job site and no one complained about us being there while they worked. Only the tile folks had anything to say about us being there (they shut the window on us).

We had a dream of new fully loaded home with high-end contemporary stuff but they play so much with us till we decided to go with standard option in almost everything except instructional options. On walk-through day, we detected lots of painting issues and issue with concrete blocks in front yard parking way. They told us they will fix all of the problems before move-in day but on move-in day lots of problems remain, same as before. They just changed concrete block on our move-in day and it caused lots of problems in our move. Just imagine you move in to your new home in Arizona's hottest days ~120 F and you can't move your truck into your garage...

In all the process of buying of our home, sale persons, managers from Meritage were agreed that these problem are related to Meritage not me and my wife but Higher managers always block or denied our mails and requests. We call one of higher managers, Shaun, for talking about our problems in new home and he scheduled some day. My wife and I take whole day off for meeting Shaun but on meeting day, Shaun didn't come. Other persons came to our home and they told us Shaun had a meeting and he couldn't come... What the ** = Meritage means waste your time.

After some arguing when they saw we are not happy with the situation they called Shaun and he came in less than a minute. I don't know what meeting can be end in less than minute ... Whatever... He talked with us. He accepted that they didn't do a good job and they will have a meeting with higher ^ 2 managers about doing our backyard for satisfying us. We accept the situation and after 5 weeks suspense, they come with big "No". Right now my wife and I are totally unsatisfied and unhappy So much so that if I can sell it today for good price so I don't lose lots of my money, I will do it right now. I had lots of problems that it's hard to write all of them in this review. Our friends also had water leaking and damage on their roof....

We finally got a closing date last week and with not nearly enough time to find another lender we get our appraisal. MTH (a part of Meritage) sends out one of their guys who conveniently left off MAJOR details such as buyer incentives, lot premiums, reasonable comps and came up with an appraisal that leaves us scrambling for $30k (this is on top of what we've paid in deposits and plan to close with). So now we are faced with nobody calling us back, not enough time to find another lender and potentially losing all of our deposits if we have to cancel the contract. What a joke of a company. Please, do yourself a favor and go to another builder.

Construction manager states it depends on which crew frames the house. Apparently they don't follow the blueprints? In our case we are missing architectural arches that they later confirmed should be in our plan - but they would not commit to correcting this unless we pushed our close date out (which was already done a few times) and even then they wouldn't confirm when they would be done. Bottom line, Meritage hopes you won't catch their errors and if you do, they will make your life miserable until you concede and let it slide. TALK ABOUT BUYER BEWARE. I could go on and on about all the mistakes in our home.

Our sales agent, REBECCA **, is a nightmare. She sold us the home and washed her hands of it. We contacted her several times to assist with items and she routinely told us it was not her job and she would not help (literally). To take it a step further she even sent our realtor nasty emails chock-full of name calling even. Unbelievable. Very unprofessional and disrespectful. The "design" process is a joke. They reversed selections we made in our bathrooms (put the opposite tiles, etc. in each bathroom), left out items we had picked (tile in our master closet) and later said they weren't paid for so they weren't included (but we picked them and thought they had been included!?), again - could go on and on.

There is also no walk through process at the end. Basically you take what you get. They will be working on your house WHILE YOU ARE CLOSING ON THE HOUSE. Kid you not, no opportunity to call anything out. And if you do - mark it with tape, call it out and the tape will be removed and not fixed... over and over and over again. Bottom line - HAVE YOUR HOUSE BUILT BY ANY OTHER COMPANY, has to be better than Meritage! We have been in the house for a few weeks and find new things every day. I have people scheduled every single day to come in and "fix" something. Very time consuming and inconvenient. You have to harp on Meritage to do anything, so sick of it. Meritage turned something that should be a happy process into a really horrible, angry experience. I will continue to voice this to anyone that will listen so that other people will be spared this venture (one star is far too generous for this company)!

For example, we had some holes and scratches in our wood floor, and the repairman they sent fixed it with a brown Sharpee pen and some wood putty which came off after one washing. Our neighbor had a leaky roof, and they showed up and repaired it with some silicone. Another neighbor had bad tiles that they refused to fix. We have been here two summers, and the air conditioning broke down two years in a row during heatwaves. If you want a house that looks great for a few months, Meritage is the right builder for you. If you want quality, look somewhere else.

They then told us, "Not to worry, we have other lenders we work with and they can get you your loan." First thing the second lender told us was he would not honor the lower interest rate we locked on our pre-approved loan. This is a classic Bait and Switch. Don't be a victim of this shady company! Interest rates are now in the 4.1% and we have lost the opportunity to buy a house at the low rates that were current when we started. We have canceled our purchase with this company.

My buyers went for their final walk through and notice some stress cracks in the patio area. Upon further investigation and inside information from friends in the neighborhood, there were serious issues with the soil and potential sink hole. Meritage executives spent the next 8 months jerking us around and lying to the buyers and myself. Needless to say, the deal finally fell apart when the buyers had enough. They walked away from the home and Meritage sold it in a few weeks for $40k more than where my buyer had it contracted. They won in their minds, but they royally screwed my buyers. Their company is much like this situation - all may look good on the surface but be very weary of what lies beneath!!!

Original Review: May 3, 2013

We are in the process of building our home and wanted to share our experience with others. Started out great! Great price for a great home. The sales staff at the Cypress Park location is amazing! The issues came up with the price and upgrades. We were shown several inventory homes and price lists of the upgrades in each were given to us from each home. The Dylan (which was the model we are building) was one of the inventory homes. We based all of our pricing for the home off of this sheet, which after the design appointment we found out was completely incorrect and in fact we were give the wrong price sheet. So a $187k base price was now $35k higher.

I wish I would have known what was included and not, and the general pricing for items before we signed paperwork. I did try to get a price list and was told they do not give those out. I was also told I could not go to check out their options at the design center until I was under contract. So your earnest money will be lost. The homes do not come with gutters, grass, patio, sprinklers, alarms, ceiling fans and they only put cable/phone in 3 rooms (family, master and office. To add more is min $1,300). Please know that the standard carpet, granite, tile and cabinets are pretty bad, but we did find a granite and carpet that will work. Here is a list of option pricing for our model:

Back splash: These are priced very reasonably and even for something custom it is under $500

Moral of the story: Ask a lot of questions and double check what they tell you, and get everything in writing. They will not budge after they have your signed contract.

Over the next couple of years, the damage got worse. My tile floor is cracked all the way through the kitchen, down the hallway and in the bathroom. Then I noticed a crack on the outside on the foundation. I called the builder. They sent another guy out. He measured the crack. It was less than 1/4 of an inch, so he claimed it was not a foundation issue. Then he crawled on his hands and knees throughout my kitchen and hallway to act as if he were making an official assessment of the floor/foundation.

By now, I also had a crack in my granite counter top. The builder claimed this was normal wear and tear on tile and granite and that it was not covered by my warranty. I told him that I thought it was the foundation; he disagreed. Since then, I have had multiple foundation companies come out to my house to assess the situation. Every one of them has said, "Yes, you have a foundation problem and it is only going to get worse." Two of them said they could tell the house is leaning while in my kitchen. When they completed the measurements, the house was off by 4 inches. Now, there are several issues throughout the house.

I finally have paid for an engineer to come to the house. His assessment was the same. In fact, he said the lot was not prepared correctly and should have had a retaining wall on the side of the house I was initially concerned about. I have tried to refinance my house but it does not pass inspection. I have hired a lawyer. Hopefully, Meritage will do what is right and pay to have my foundation fixed plus additional damage throughout my home caused by the foundation. I will fight this.

Finally, when I pressured them to get me the contract, they wanted to lower my incentive package or make me spend 50% more at the design center because, and I am quoting, "We make more money on structural upgrades and the design upgrades". My sales representative asked my agent to send him a letter stating that we refused their offer. Of course, we said no because we already signed the contract that they sent, and they refuse to sign. To say the least, this is dishonest. They have no customer service skills, and they absolutely have no respect for clients that are willing to spend $100,000 of their over priced homes. I see a pattern of deception in their dealings, and I am sure that they will be out of business in no time, especially with sales persons like these and managers that have no regard for the customer.

We were never sure if anything was anchored into studs. Before the dry wall was installed, my husband who has been a tradesman for many years noted many errors in the electrical and plumbing installation that did not follow the National Electric Code or our upgrades in the building plans. When we asked about this, we were told that just because a ceiling fan was written into the electric plan, it did not mean that a ceiling fan would be installed. The electric plans are simply a rough guide of what Meritage would do. As the building process continued, our list of mistakes grew longer and longer. With each mistake noted, we would call it to the attention of the GC.

Some of the mistakes were fixed. The deep gauges in the bathtub porcelain were painted. The large dent in the galvanized bedroom door was filled and painted. The broken cabinet under the 48-inch upgraded cooktop was caulked, and the heavy cooktop was left to rest on inch of granite above this cabinet. GE recommends that this heavy cooktop should rest upon a boxed-in cabinet to provide the needed stability. Similarly, the extended granite on the kitchen island was not reinforced or supported as it should be. The upgraded wood was not properly sanded before staining, leading to irregularities that my 10-year-old noticed. This was corrected by applying a dark stain to cover the mistakes and a thick polyurethane finish that had countless drips.

When we questioned the quality of the repairs, we were told that this is the way Meritage does things and that is not up for discussion. It did not seem to matter that we were paying a lot more money for a semi-custom Monterey home. The oversized lot retained water for 16 days after a heavy rain. Meritage installed drains, but placed them in backwards. The lot still retained 8-10 inches of water for days in the tree wells following a moderate rain and failed the community exterior inspection. After receiving my photos documenting the continued water retention, Meritage sent workmen to lift the drains and fill the large water retaining areas with mulch. The lot still retains water. It is impossible to list all of the mistakes that we noted - pouring the driveway 16 hours before a heavy rain, installing carpet before painting, drain spouts running down the front side of the tall entrance columns... We still have no idea why they were replacing the roof shingles months after the roof had been installed.

Ten months into the contractual process, the regional VP of construction told us that he thought it would take another 1-3 months to finish the home but could not guarantee that estimated completion date. The home was now 3 months behind the promised completion date. My family was still in temporary housing, and my kids were in danger of having to switch schools as they were enrolled under an “intent to reside” policy. Despite all of the other homes in the neighborhood being built, delays in the construction of this home were repeatedly blamed on a regional shortage of skilled labor. Meritage repeatedly told us that they could not find skilled laborers to work on the home. At this point, we obtained legal counsel and involved the Better Business Bureau. We were able to regain our earnest money with interest, but did not receive compensation for over $20,000 of expenses that their delays had caused. Within 1 month of ending the contract, Meritage placed the home on the market for $250,000 more than we had contracted to pay for the home. I’m hoping that this is useful to others.

I then spent the next 24 hours making 6 separate trips to the house bringing my fiancé, mother, father, agent, etc. I made it very clear to Cindi that I was interested in the house. I was ready to negotiate on the house. Cindi had mentioned that the house was being appraised and she’d have a better idea of what she could do on the price after she gets the appraisal. From the beginning, Cindi made it clear that the rooms were painted in kids colors for model purposes and several other items would be turned back to normal if purchased. She also mentioned that the drapery/furniture could all be negotiated.

On Tuesday, October 30, I submitted and received pre-qualification paperwork through the preferred lender, MTH Mortgage. Over the next week, I followed up with Cindi to see when I could get an offer. Finally, on Tuesday, November 6, she called me with an offer of $299k and mentioned that this wasn’t a firm price and there was room for negotiation. Immediately after receiving this call, I countered her via email and we continued to negotiate via email over the next few days. I would like to point out that Cindi’s dealings with me included email responses that were extremely rude; the very first email response from her included: “Interesting, I sold 60 homes in 12 months and the homeowners are very happy. We are not the builder for you and don’t need to discount our homes. People see the value in our homes.” Being a new home buyer, those kind of pushy/rude tactics were a bit intimidating and not necessary. I had clearly shown I was interested in the house and had seen the value in the house. Despite her behavior, I ignored it because we were that interested in the house.

On Friday, November 9, at 5:47pm and 6:44pm, she called me. After going to the division office and getting president’s approval, she got back to me with the final offer as $290k + $4k of closing cost covered by builder + all drapery included + turning the house back to normal. She asked me to come in Saturday morning to sign the paper - I needed a bit more time to discuss with my family. I had asked her if she could include the kitchen nook furniture and the master bedroom set as well. She was to see what she could do.

On Saturday (November 10) afternoon, my fiancé and I visited the house once again. After talking with Cindi, it seemed like getting the couple items of furniture may be an issue. So, we just decided to accept the deal as-is. I told her I’d get back within a couple days with my final decision. On Tuesday (November 13) at 7am, I sent Cindi an email accepting the $290k + $4k of closing cost covered by builder + all drapery included + turning the house back to normal. She immediately got the ball rolling - she contacted my agent and got his info, sent me contracts to review, took down information, etc. I was to meet with her at 4:30pm that day to sign the paperwork. This is where the real fun begins.

At 2:40pm (just two hours prior to signing), I received an email from Cindi stating that we won’t be able to leave the drapes; it will go to another model with all of the furniture. The entire time of negotiating with Cindi, she was using the thousands of dollars of drapery as a selling point and we had shown interest in it. To throw this at me 2 hours before I was about to sign is unacceptable. While I disagreed with this, I told Cindi via email I’m not going to back out on the deal over some drapes, but (I recall this very well) “Do as you see fit, but that’s exactly how the agreement was.”

At 3:50pm, I received a call from Cindi stating that she wouldn’t be able to turn the house back to normal as we agreed - we had agreed on painting a bit downstairs and the kids rooms upstairs, talked about taking a large mirror down that was attached to a wall in the house, talked about taking wood squares down in the game room. In my previous conversations with Cindi, these were all a normal process of turning the house back to normal. I relented on everything because, again, I wasn’t going to lose this deal over petty things. My only request at this point was that she paints the two small kids rooms back to a normal color - surely she wasn’t going to lose this deal over painting a couple rooms that she had said would be done from the very beginning. I have email responses from her, which include “We will definitely turn the rooms back.”

Despite her asking me to not waste a trip, at 4:30pm I arrived at her office. She stated that even painting the kids rooms would be an issue. Frustrated but wanting to sign the deal, I also gave in on that - I just wanted to close this deal. I was pushing to sign the paperwork, but she then stated that she was still waiting on president’s approval for even the price? She said they were pushing for a higher price. In our previous conversations, this is something she stated she had already received last Friday. We had already come to an agreement on everything, and two hours prior to me coming to signing, she had basically taken back the entire offer. I left her office with no paperwork signed (even though I was completely willing). She stated she needed another day or two to get final approval on the price (?), although we agreed on the price several days beforehand.

The whole turn of events was very strange. For the two weeks we were discussing this, she was pushing me to sign the papers almost immediately. After agreeing to a deal, two hours prior to signing, all these red flags all of a sudden show up. It didn’t make sense. It seemed like she was trying to delay the deal. The only reason I could possible come up with is that she thought she may have had another buyer show up that afternoon and wanted to see if she could sell at a higher price. Either way, after discussing with my fiancé - although we were in love with this house - we’ve decided to not pursue this deal. I have emails to confirm most of my statements above.

Going into a house is a major decision, and I did not feel comfortable dealing with a builder’s agent that was going to pull these kinds of tactics. As a soon-to-be married couple, we had made the leap of faith that this was the house for us. To have the rug pulled out from under us just two hours prior to signing, that is unacceptable business practices by your sales associate. I hope this situation is handled properly. Thank you.

The termite technician called my attention to a huge problem. When he was drilling through the concrete, the drill penetrated about an inch and a half and broke through the concrete. In all the years the tech was on the job, he never noted concrete that was any less than 3-1/2 inches thick. He then drilled several more holes, all producing the same results in a span of about 4 foot. Then the tech discovered the footer for the guest suite was near 3/4" off the concrete pad. So now we have grout popping out all over the house, structure is off the concrete pad and concrete pad 1-1/2 inches thick. I was told since the house is 9 years old, the amount of grout lost is natural. What?

My other homes had grout that nearly twice this old and I never had a problem at all. This tends to imply Meritage Homes are definitely not built for the long haul. Meritage replaced a portion of my driveway concrete due to a large void under it. Hmm, sounds familiar? The structural engineer replied via report that he did not see any problem? I immediately asked for an ultrasound survey of the house to define any other affected areas. They declined and dumped it on me. Anyone knows that where there is smoke, there is most certainly fire. The decline for the survey leads me to believe that they have full knowledge, they will find massive defects and they definitely do not want to fix.

We are talking about home here - the biggest investment people make and they don't care to back up their quality claims? We have had to have the termite tech come out now 6 times to retreat. These gentlemen are one of the best in Arizona and do not skimp in any manner or fashion. It is speculated the void may be the problem/nest. I can just imagine how many more voids exist, which may or may not have had a hand in ridding the house of termites. Just how does a poured pad develop such a void? How is this possible and better yet, why did the floor not sink into the void? Way too many questions and no answers. I have helped pour concrete and to the best of my knowledge, it naturally floats/fills into void to create an even floor.

Another footnote is that we have planted multiple trees that mysteriously died within a short period of time with absolutely no apparent reason. The nursery personnel has no idea why a perfectly healthy trees wither and die. Meritage did respond and I totally disagree with their findings. Working in new home construction provided some familiarity, so I am no dummy. Oh yes, then we checked the survey to find out the house was built 10' off the plans, leaving only a small space for the RV gate. Obviously there are no property lines, so we had no idea of the error until landscaping was completed.

Would we ever consider another Meritage home? Not in this lifetime, not even a resale or rental. Bad news all the way around. Why? Simple, once burned. As far as we are concerned, this house is not structurally sound and until a survey is completed, we will continue to believe it. For the small amount it would cost to prove us wrong, we lack the understanding of how our family's well being is tossed like trash. Let the buyer beware before an investment such as this with a company that does not seem to care. I gave them a chance and now we must seek remedy. So much for being a nice guy.

All I can do is tell everyone beware of this builder. They are horrible, they are now using less insulation on the new homes they are still building in our addition, plus they have cut into the concrete in 4 homes and cut the tension wires, flooded out one home and refused to replace the drywall. Not sure if they are disclosing this to the buyers! We live in Cortile in Palm Valley Goodyear, AZ. Stay far away. I wish we had! There is so much more. I would need another page to get into! Also, solar is worthless. The electric bill is $200-300. It's supposed to be net zero utility bills! That's with AC set at 76.

I cannot tell you how disappointing this is to find your first home have so many issues. Yes, the warranty was pretty responsive, but they always went for the quick fix instead of truly finding the cause. This is why it took them over a year to figure out why the master shower was leaking (they incorrectly installed the shower pan per manufacturer’s instructions). Now, to be dealing with an AC that’s working improperly after just a little over 2 years is just the cherry on top. I could not be more disappointed with their building and attention to detail. I will never recommend anyone buying a home from Meritage.

I had difficulty communicating with them due to a language barrier so I explained my concerns to the main office staff. They said the repair should be fine and if not, they would correct. Well a few months later, the rainy season came and my floors were again ruined due to the rain coming in. Shortly there after, my intercom system no longer worked and the cracks reappeared. I contacted the warranty office and guess what? They now claimed my warranty period was over and would not repair. I contacted the Better Business Bureau and I feel like they are being paid to back Meritage. They had Meritage contractors come out and they looked at everything. The guy even said the damage to my floor was horrible. But after all of this, they claimed that the warranty was over. BBB closed my complaint with no additional comment from me.

The company does not back up their poor quality. For example, the counter tops were not put in right and therefore the tops are buckling. Their suggestion is to put wax in the cut lines. Wax does not work. They simply did not put the counters together right. Did they use adhesive? Also, the water pumps were not put in to save money. So it takes gallons upon gallons of precious water to get hot water to the bathrooms. Here in the dessert, they did not tell the new owners about this! The Mexicans used to create and fix defects in the home had little or no experience.

Consequences: My mortgage was sold to Chase Bank, who is questioning me and the original purchasing papers. They cannot figure it out and asking me to come up with $18,000. I currently have a low interest rate; however, Chase Bank is not helpful or caring to keep it that way. I cannot sell my home due to the fact that it is worth $113,000 and was purchased at $205,000.

The construction is poor; therefore, the amount of money I have to put into it is too much. The roof has leaks. After contacting Meritage several times regarding the leaking roof, they finally had someone come out to fix it. But it created cracks on the ceiling, it is never ending. Being disabled, my ability to deal with the problems Meritage allowed me to accept, for their financial benefit is not acceptable.

I sent a letter canceling the agreement according to the mortgage contingency in the P&S (the time for securing the loan had ran out because of no fault of ours, we did everything their mortgage company asked of us). Their mortgage councilor and our salesperson Melanie ** agreed that we could not get financing and we would have the return of our deposit after signing two release forms. We did this in good faith.

We did not hear from them for several weeks and upon my initiation, the sales representative informed me that the Vice President Brian ** is refusing to return the deposit because of some vague language that we cannot find in the original P&S. The mortgage contingency is very clear that if we did our part of trying to secure financing and it was not successful, our deposit of over $4,300 dollars would be returned to the buyers. They want us to agree that if we bought a home from them within six months, they would credit the deposit.

After having him renege on the agreement, to return the deposit because of a failure to secure a mortgage in a timely manner flies in the face of good business and fairness to their potential and present customers. We do not wish to do business with this company in the future (lack of trust). The very idea that we had to institute a dialog with Mr. ** to find out that he was overriding a decision by his subordinates, just leaves us in a fatal negative mode. We wish full restitution of our deposit as we signed the release forms back in November of 2011.

After they laid the very expensive tile, we realized that it was not the same lot tile, so they had to tear it up and start again. Because we did not want to pay for the extra 2 tone paint for $1500.00, we opted out of that. We did however, ask someone if they would mind doing that for all of our issues that we have had and we have already bought the paint, but we never got a reply.

The fencing is not acceptable, the landscape is sparse with very little foliage. We are moving in next week after we have someone do the 2 tone paint. Since we have been closed since 12/29/11, this has been quite an event and a trip. Our sales person has been wonderful and without him things would not have been expedited.

I still have a list of things that were supposed to be fixed, yet Meritage homes of Texas refuses. Do not buy from them. They are great until they get your money.

I will not go further at this time. But when I got online to find some main office information to contact, I found this site. And the first complaint was on the exact same subject. I will keep all informed about how this turns out. Maybe we can find more people who have had this same result and get something going! They seem to not care about anything but getting our money as quick as they can. This is not our first rodeo. They will have a huge fight if they want to do this in this manner!

Several months ago I contracted with Meritage homes to build me a home for 248,000 and received approval from Meritage Homes in house mortgage company for a VA loan for 248,000. Meritage built my home as contracted and when we were ready to close on the home I was informed that I did not qualify for the 248,000 VA loan. Mertiage than referred me to their back up lender who said the only way I could qualify for the 248,000 was to have my child support payments go away, which I was unable to do.

The backup lender informed me that I could qualify for a 208,000 VA loan amount but Meritage does not have any homes in the neighbor where I want to live in that 208,000 price range. I do not understand why Meritage is giving me such a hard time when it was your in house lender that messed up. MTH approved me initially and then at the last minute denied my loan.

According to my purchase contract with Meritage if they cannot approve my loan I am entitled to a full refund of my earnest deposit immediately.

In terms of dollar amount, I have basically lost more than $10,000. Also from Meritage Homes document, I found that they misrepresented the square footage by adding at least 86 sq. ft. of the house garage extension into the living square footage. I have requested their DFW Director of Sales to compensate my loss of over $10,000 due to the loss of square footage. But he denied it and blamed that it was the appraiser's mistake.

Then, I requested Meritage Homes to re-appraise the house, he refused to do it. Rather, he warned me that if I choose not to close my home purchase transaction, they would take away my earnest money (which is more than $20,000) and sell the house to other people. It's hard for me to believe that Meritage Homes, as a public company, has such poor customer service with focus on customer's money rather than customer's satisfaction. It is the most unpleasant experience to me as a customer.

With the realtor which is the **** , I have not heard from him nor did he help me get my earnest money refunded. I was shown three houses. The lending company has the following details: **** ****.

Upon completion of our home, they laid the sod around the house. The sod was dead in a large section of our backyard. We complained for months, so finally, they sent someone out to replace the grass they removed the grass but did not replace it, that was maybe Aug 10. On Nov, just a couple of weeks ago, someone comes out lay a couple of blocks of grass then leaves. He returned the day before Thanksgiving. He laid one more block of grass, then left.

Needless to say, the yard still has a large section that still needs grass, but to top it all off, the grass that he has laid is also dead grass that looks like hay. The plumbing and the AC were issues that we have had to address numerous times. The bathroom toilets seem to keep lines of black stuff around the toilet bowls and I don't know what that means. The floors in my master bedroom and the game room have squeaked from the first day we moved in. The master bedroom floor also moves every time that we walk across it. They finally sent someone out after many complaints to repair the flooring. Now the game room floor does not squeak as much. The master bedroom floor however still moves when you walk across it. When we walk across our bedroom the mirror shakes and door rattles.

The carpet in the house is another problem. It was not laid very well from the beginning. There are gaps between the wall and the carpet, around the steps there are missing pieces of carpet, and there is a space where you can see the wood that they did not paint or a lack of carpet to cover the wood. The carpet on the steps or the wood was not evenly laid. Two steps that were lose or not tacked down properly so if you stepped on them just the right way the wood would flip up. Our garage disposal is starting to rust within the sink; the plumber stated this is normal! When they installed the glass sliding door they neglected to pour the cement underneath the door to support it, so after as result the door would not lock and it was off track.

They came out after many complaints of not being able to secure my home and sent someone to pour the cement. When we were at the design center, we requested our bathroom windows be obscured well. They only did the master bath and not the others stating it was not documented in the request. The bedroom downstairs, they neglected to install a light within the closet stating they have floor plans that do not come with lights in the closet. I had issues with losing the hot water in the house and sometimes it would take them a couple of days to restore the hot water. One of the AC units was not hooked up and I was told that the unit is draining in the toilet. What should I expect as a result! The plumber stated there should be no problems with the AC unit draining in the toilet. The plumber came into our home and provided us his business card stating once the warranty runs out we can call him for repairs.

Well, this leads me to believe that I cannot trust this plumber as he is trying to line up business for himself off the clock. So how can I trust his professional opinion today? Should I expect to not get quality work so that he can wait for the business later? They did a really poor job with dripping paint throughout the house on the carpet. The painters did a very messy job with painting the base boards in the house; the paint is smeared on the tile throughout the house.

I can keep going as we have so many issues and Meritage is very bad about fixing the mess that their staff created. I have written emails and placed calls to their corporate office and nothing. After working with the original supervisor for the construction of our home and getting know where fast; he refused to respond to my calls or emails. They replaced him and had us call the warranty department who gave us a contractor that worked for Meritage well eventually he was removed, and then they gave us the warranty department manager, now their intern.

We still do not have the results we expected from Meritage. My husband is active duty military and he has not been home with our children and I for much of the time that we have been in our home. I am very concerned about the electrical system in our home but Meritage does not seem to care about my home or my family. I have been fighting with Meritage since May a week after we moved in our home and today I continue to fight with Meritage.

I have to add one more important note. Meritage utilize undocumented workers to do repairs on homes. They will not call the vendor who installed some of the products in our home. I had to state to Meritage that I will not allow the undocumented workers to work in my home. I spoke with the vendor who installed the carpet in my home he came out several times identified the issues with the carpet but has done nothing to repair the carpet. He stated if Meritage sent out someone else to work on the carpet that our 5 month old warranty is no longer valid. I have so many issues with our brand new home and even more issues with Meritage any help that I can get is welcomed. As I stated previously my husband is military and currently away so I welcome the assistance that I can get in resolving my issues with Meritage.

In fact, I would go as far to say that we were purposefully misled by the sales agent. I believe that he intended to omit this very necessary piece of information in order to close the sale. The proximity to the schools was the number one reason why we made our purchase. Fast forward to now (Sept 2010), walking access to both schools has been completely closed off; Meritage built a fence running the entire length of the new neighborhood and failed to provide any walking path in any form to the families of hundreds of children that formerly walked to and from school daily. Not only is it a gross oversight by Meritage in terms of being mindful of their clients' needs, but it is deceptive, to say the least, to sell homes with the impression that children can indeed walk to the schools.

Even worse is that after many of us homeowners in this neighborhood made countless calls to the Meritage corporate office and after we signed a petition, Meritage still failed to provide any sort of explanation or compensation. We even took our story to the local news. Meritage replied with a standard statement that was insulting at best. I could go on and on about the shoddy workmanship, the promises to get certain things fixed, the waiting on repairs, etc., but I simply don't have the stomach for it anymore. All I can say is that we hope to sell our home sooner rather than later. I will never buy from Meritage again and I will never recommend it to anyone.

In addition, I also find that they never bothered to tie the water heater drip pan into the drain line and also that the grounding line for the plumbing has about an inch of insulation missing from it. Yes, about an inch, and not where it is tied into the copper plumbing at. In fact, it was stuffed under the insulation next to a rafter.

And people wonder why individuals go postal. I guess we will have to go get the lawyer after all. Either that, or I am just going to walk away from the house equity and all, what a nightmare. And yes, the same guys that built the shower downstairs built the one upstairs. Why does that one not leak yet? Because we only just started to use it.

They are now offering three plans now below 2200 square feet; one is 1800 squarr feet and another, 1900 square feet. Our house value has now just gone down tremendously if these homes are built in our subdivision.

This is the last time we buy from Meritage and Big Hammond Homes. They care nothing for the homeowners who are currently living in this subdivision and have already purchased from them and everything about making a buck and closing out a subdivision. When we contacted the sales person about this, she said that it wasn't a big deal with the smaller homes going into the subdivision. And when I told her it would just devalue our home, she had nothing to say.

Word to the wise, think twice before building with Meritage or even buying in a Meritage subdivision that isn't more than 3/4 complete. Check the HOA, and make sure you are able to live with the minimum square feet house that might be built there, because they will definitely build those smaller houses in your larger subdivisions.

Due to the 104 degree temperature to service our emergency, we had to contact someone to fix the issue. Currently, Legacy Homes is out of business but is part of Meritage Homes LLC. The emergency contact number for Meritage Homes belongs to a resident who is not associated with the company at all. When we contact Meritage Homes, they told us that if we had it serviced outside of their contractors that the warranty is void. We got this comment today and a year ago after they contacted us three days after our emergency contact attempt. Legacy Homes did not give us paperwork on our AC unit or any contact info on Goodman AC units. They did not register our AC unit with Goodman. Our neighbor had the same issue with their unit and our homes were built not even a year apart.

Well to our surprise, the house being built at 1017 has the same elevation as our home, which is at **, right across the street. The model home salesperson has yet to return my call. The corporate office has yet to explain to me why this happened. When we were picking our lot at the time as we were looking for our home site, we had to go to our 3 choice because of this rule. Now it looks like a free for all in where they built, not caring what the homes look like, which will affect the price when the time comes to sell. I hope someone will explain to me why Meritage builds cookie cutter communities and charge custom homes prices. My home resale price will be greatly affected by this.

I had pointed out during the final walk through, all the flaking and missing brick mortar which they promised to fix, but that never happened. We're probably looking at re-bricking the entire back of the house at a probable cost of 10 to 15k now, 5 years later. We also had them pour a concrete porch on the back of the house that has already cracked in several places.

Our neighbors to the north side had a drainage problem they believed was caused by our house being built and Meritage Home Builders came over and put a drain on their property and hooked it into my drain. When I told them to take it out, they just ignored me and never did. About the only thing they attempted to fix were a couple of settling crack that they speckled over but never came back and repainted, typical American service.

After reading some of the complaints on this site, I think I wouldn't have bought it if I had seen this site before I bought it. I think the main thing we all ought to do is find some way to publicize this site to anyone considering making a purchase from them. It might not help us but it will make them pay attention to their new customers.

Two days ago, our sink, that is mounted under our granite countertop, collapsed into the cabinet below. Apparently, they only glued the sink into the underside of the granite, no type of bracketing or bolting it into the underside of the granite! My wife called yesterday, did a warranty request, and we have heard nothing yet! We have a reverse osmosis water system under the sink and I hope that was not damaged as well!

Meritage is horrible after you buy your home. Their warranty support is non-existent. The cheap appliances and shoddy workmanship is just good enough to get you through the warranty period, which for most things was 1 year. After that, things will begin to break, fall apart, and die. I just feel so taken advantage of. Don't let the prices fool you. You get what you pay for I guess.

Due to the house still being under warranty, we contacted Meritage Homes. They came out to view the damage. At that time they cut out a piece of dry wall to find where the leak was coming from. Once the dry wall was removed, the overflow pipe behind the dry wall had a clean cut across the pipe. Meritage's plumber informed us that we had caused the damage to the pipe when we installed our water softener.

We felt that it was impossible for us to cause the damage as they stated. We contacted an independent plumber who stated the only way this pipe could have been broken in such a way was by using a pipe cutting tool. Therefore, it would have been impossible for us to do this, due to the fact that the pipe was behind the dry wall. We have since forwarded our report to Meritage Homes and they continue to give us the runaround.

The supervisor obviously thinks I am an idiot with no construction experience. He told me that a couple face nailed shingles are no big deal. Well, one year later, the builder put a trailer through the garage. I had to threaten them with legal action along with the insurance company threatening them to get it fixed. Next, some of their workers dropped some mortar on my truck. Luckily, it is a twelve-year old work truck. Now, the shower seat was leaking and we found black mold, which I put a respirator on and was forced to tear out myself. I got a lawyer crunch the numbers after the company said, "Sue us. We are not fixing it."

10) Acme brick on one side of the house has shed the white and gray colors and now looks orange. This is the biggest problem so far, and Meritage and Acme have made up a lie and stated the iron in the city water has changed the brick orange. A lawyer will love this one, because when you take your finger and scrape off the white and gray features off the brick, it is orange underneath. No one will return my calls, and if they do, they just lie and make up whatever they can think of. I will take them to court if it comes down to that, but only after I go door to door and get some support.

Did you forget about the ** 5 feet wide stumps you'd leave behind or the fact that I paid more for the property because of "the large, beautiful, mature trees?". Or maybe you forgot about the ferns and 6 different species of plants that are growing from the dry, rotted trunks that fall off in clusters. When you lay a foundation to a home, there is a correct way to relocate roots to avoid this, but obviously, after reading all these reviews, they are cheap and take every shortcut possible. They have been avoiding further phone calls so this situation will most likely end in the courtroom. No one answers their ** phones. Terrible customer service. Bob, the builder/contractor in DFW, is a total **. I cannot believe someone actually gave him a college degree. He avoids us at all costs and tried to pawn us off to various people in the company to finish his jobs. He must have made fake business cards for them because they don't answer either.

You know Meritage is cheap when they've got the builder driving a 1992 F150 that is conveniently parked at the model all day. Do you actually supervise your jobs Bob? Because it might spare your company and homeowners the hassle. It might help people sleep better at night knowing they won't wake up to a leak, a tree falling through the roof, a foul smell, a broken HVAC unit, toilet, etc. The model home has been broken into 3 times in a month, but spending $260k on a new home doesn't constitute a ** community gate? I see several roofs in the neighborhood that have bubbles in the roof because they didn't ventilate the attic properly. Every few days, a strong, awful smell takes up the entire upstairs. They sent a plumber out and he found nothing. Guess that's a job well done guys. Way to put your problem solving skills to work!

Every time it rains, my mailbox leaks so all of my mail is bled together. Netflix keeps wondering why all of the DVDs I sent back were water-damaged. Let's ask the US post office what happens when a mail is tampered with. Let's also ask the mailman how annoyed he is with the flag that won't go down because the brick wasn't laid correctly. I still have a leaking toilet that has turned the tile behind it a "2000 flushes" blue color. Do I really need to go on here? I'm tired of wasting my time with these people. Please don't waste your time with them or purchase one of their homes. It's very disappointing for us especially being that we are first time home buyers. We love our home, don't get me wrong, but all the hassles make me wonder if it is all worth it because we haven't been able to enjoy ourselves. If you are going to spend this much money on a home, make sure you're getting better quality. These houses go up in a week by people fresh over the border.

In December 2005, my parents purchased a house from Meritage Homes with a completion date of April 2006. However, it was pushed back repeatedly and not completed until August 2006. During this time, house prices began to take a turn for the worse. Before actual completion, less than one-third of the homes were sold in the 71-home community, and the sales office had dramatically dropped prices.

Unfortunately, our house was appraised for $81,000 less than the $813,162 sales price. We were assured that the 2,232 sq.ft. home was worth the price. The sales office then processed a home equity line from our $80,000 down payment to cover the difference between the appraisal and the sale price. During construction, my parents had established a strong relationship with the sales office and trusted their recommendations without the fear of deception. However, in retrospect, we believe that our trust was misguided. At one point, we rejected a recommendation to forge rental documents to inflate our income.

Attempting to understand the business practices of the regional office, I uncovered unfair political contributions in efforts to secure development locations. Additionally, these contributions were unreported and in violation of the fair political practices commission. These violations are clear indicators of unethical business practices by the Concord, CA regional office and Meritage Homes as a whole.

After two years, the development has not been completed. More than half of the lots still remain empty, except for stacks of wood and cement frames. Attempts to sell our home have been unsuccessful due to the price drops by the sales office and the unattractive aesthetics of an incomplete development. At this time, we are no longer able to make our payments and have recently discovered that we owe another $80,000 equity line of credit used towards the house price, which was never disclosed by the sales office. I hope you will be able to shed some light on this situation.

On Monday morning, we received news that our offer was not accepted. There was no counter offer. We were quite distraught and my real estate agent went back to the representative to work on the price. The representative, Amy **, was quite rude to our agent. Our real estate agent wanted to work on the price with Amy, but she wouldn't provide a dollar amount to work with. After the deal went sour, our real estate agent asked for our earnest money check back. Amy told him that the new home booklet would have to be returned before she would release our earnest check.

We live in Beaumont, which is almost 2 hours away from Sugar Land. We cannot drop everything to come back to Houston to drop off the booklet. At no time, was this information relayed to us, that if we do not return the book, we won't get our check back. Amy said that we wasted her time. What about our time? As a consumer, this was not a piece of cake that we were buying. We were trying to get the best deal on a 300,000 dollars house. I understand with the economy the way it is, every business is trying to make ends meet. However, customer service should not be compromised for a sale. Amy hung up on my agent and demanded the book stating that she told about the book being returned. My wife and I do not recall her telling us this. We have no use for the book if the deal was not going to go through. However, to use the book as bartering tool to get our check back is absurd.

We value her time, but we do not feel she valued our time though. We did return the book to get our check back. We feel that we should get an apology and be compensated on our time and gas for driving back and forth to Houston to get our check. We contacted Meritage Homes Customer service on Feb. 10, 2009 but to no avail. We haven't received a single response.

That aside (2nd problem), they also reduced the price of the homes from a $350k to $400k community to a $200k to $325k (not so bad) but now they are changing the models again (11/08) totally changing the look of the community of just 200 homes - they had only 60 homes to go to complete this community. And with just 30 to 40 homes to go, they are reducing the prices again to $175k to $225k. This is not an upscale community which is what we wanted. We cannot sell at what we purchased the home for because of the decline in the market and the fact that they have reduced the prices again makes it even more of a challenge.

Now they say that they need to reduce the prices to keep moving and close the community but, at what cost? We who purchased here prior are a bit better off than those purchasing now. We have nothing in common with these people - we will, mark my words, see a rise in crime - you can sense the upbringing of the children to where there will be robberies of the haves against the have-nots - and this is directly the result of this price reduction greed of the builder. And I say that because no other builder around us has changed the their floor plans - they are all, and there are several (like 10) communities which are all under construction right now.

Now back to the construction of the home - Meritage has changed superintendents in our community 3 times since we closed in 2 years (actually 22 months). Now, I believe he is only working part time. We have cracks in our stucco - which they refused to take care of - cracks in our concrete driveway. Our dining room has two windows and they are not at the same height - definitely noticeable - they refuse to take care of it. Their customer service is the worse - they try every trick in the book to try and not take care of an issue. We have other residents who have had issues with Meritage since they closed only to fall on deaf ears with no satisfaction in their complaints.

And when you do your walk through, their contract prohibits you from holding up the closing until the repairs are made. If you don't close - they retain your deposit and your contract is cancelled - with no mediation whatsoever. The contracts with the builders (here in Florida) are the worst; the contracts are 1-sided protection (builders). The best solution is to buy a home already built and have it inspected; if there are problems or repairs to be made - the seller has to pay for them or you have the option of walking away.

I know it's nice to have everything brand spanking new but! I don't care whether or not you are buying a $100k home or a $1M dollar home. When you get the keys, it should be right or at the very least corrected when something is brought to their attention, not ignored. Never buy a Meritage Home if you have the ability to choose other builders or a resale - also the price of a resale is negotiable; the price from the builder is not or has very small discount or they will trick you into offering to pay your closing costs as a form of reduction through their title agency (another gimmick).

Also, we did not mention that the shower door was installed improperly. We cannot even shut the door. In addition to the above matter, we have one of the drawer panels in the kitchen, which we do not use frequently, came off. The drawers are made of particle boards and not wood. Now we can use it until it gets replaced. We did not notify you because of your standard response of it is not warrantied. We cannot honestly recommend Meritage to our friends because of the poor quality they put into their homes. Something must be done to monitor the way the homes are being built by this builder. We are extremely disappointed in the workmanship! A 2 1/2 year old house should not be falling apart like it is doing right now!

This is their Fredrickberg design and every house until mine has a double unit system. My exact identical house on the other side of the neighborhood that was built in the same time frame as mine got 2. A house that is 1 month behind mine is currently set to receive 2. My house and 2 other homes they built for inventory received their NEW IMPROVED smaller system. This stands out as a cost cutting method that in the heat of Texas is more than criminal. To skimp on of all things AC. Now I'm being told that there's nothing they can do and I have to live with it. They don't act too concerned, but of course this isn't one of their personal homes. Of all the homes they building across southern Houston, I get lucky enough to be the 1st to get this NEW smaller system. I've walked their other neighborhood and all other new builds in a house my size is set for 2! Beyond angry and now homeless, having sold our old house a months ago. All the waiting and detail now tarnished. So much for our beautiful new home. They think I'm a sucker... Are you?

they came out once to fix the carpet on the step, and to fix the closets bars, one fell again. the floor upstairs they never came back to address the issue. also the cracks in the ceiling and cornors. also the hole around the pipe in the half bath.

i have the worst looking tub that if i am going to sell i have to change the tub at my expense

Our house will be completed more than 2 months past when we were originally told it would be ready for move in. All because the sales staff did not have all of their information together! When speaking with the VP of Sales, we received excuses that had nothing to do with us. The main excuse...Meritage has doubled in size over the last 6 months and we need to be patient.

Clearly, the company's HR department is unable to keep up with the growth. If I had it to do over again, I would NOT build with Meritage Homes. If anyone reading this decides to build with Meritage, I advise taking a tape recorder to your meetings, otherwise get everything in writing & have your sales person sign off on it. Protect yourselves from their sales tactics!

Because of the delay in beginning the build of the house, we will incur substantial fees from our current residence.

I gave A large Amount of money and now I have to renew my lease in the apartment that I am renting bucause the house was not build on time.

General price range was posted on large signs outside subdivision. Specific pricing was printed on plan/model/pricing sheets within office of Desert Valley Subdivision. After we walked through the 'Heritage series models we went into the sales office to inquire about pricing. We were interested in two models Joshua Tree' and 'Palo Verde'. We spoke with sales rep: Darren. The specific price for the Joshua Tree was printed somewhere around $369,000 depending on elevation, lot and buyer upgrades or adds.

We were told though, even before discussing those options that we could not 'buy' this home or any for the advertised price. Darren informed us that he and Meritage had decided to insulate the subdivision by adding 'builder options' that would in effect outfit all homes in the subdivision equally therefore ensuring the value of the subdivison.

These forced 'options' raised the price of each home 30k to 40k. I inquired numerous times regarding this pricing structure and requested that I be able to purchase a house for the listed base price? . I was scolded by Darren, he said; maybe Meritge is not for you?. He must have meant to insinuate that if I questioned or was displeased by his pricing policies maybe I wasnt worthy to purchase or live in the subdivision.

When we signed our contract we had no idea and that we would have to back off from our contract. We chose the in. When we informed Steven about the relocation in December, he seemed to support us. The house he said would be no problem to sell, which was true. There was no inventory in River Bend, a house like that would sell easily for a higher price-and it did. However, even though Meritage did not have any problems financially, we did. They got three thousand dollars of our earnest money, something that is not small change for us. Meritage Sales Manager gave us all the wrong assurances-we should never have believed him.

Friday comes along and we decide to use our master bath garden tub for the first time and end up flooding the master bath as well as the master bedroom wall, oops we forgot to hook up the Jacuzzi correctly, no problem. Saturday morning following us finding out about our unexpected water feature in the master bath I give my four year old a bath in his new upstairs bathroom, no problems until I go to take a shower in the downstairs master bath and see the pan holding water, check the master tub and sure enough it has about four inches of water, no problem right, well I go to check the half bath and you guessed it, the toilet has also backed up and has turned my five day old carpet into a swamp, nice!

Now I have to cancel scheduled movers because I dont want them tromping through water with my furniture, hey whats wrong with a little inconvenience, its our dream home after all. Wife has to spend the majority of the following week at the dream? home to allow all the plumbing and carpet work to be completed and just when we thought it was safe to turn another faucet the kitchen floods due to another Meritage plumbing faux paux, I like water!

Unlike my neighbor, I had to pay for some of my upgrades, my backyard landscaping and my LIDs. If Meritage Homes can find additional incentive money for some home buyers. They can find it for all home buyers, including those who have already closed on their homes. I find this a different case of discrimination. The incentive money is in the contract. Her contract had $20,000 before they found her the additional $30,000.

Everything that a subcontractor touches has become a new problem as no one who works on the home is capable of fixing or building anything. THEY CAN'T FOLLOW THE PLANS! I don't expect to close for months due to all of the problems. I have furniture in storage, and was told that we should be in no later than January. This is a one story home, a simple design that can't be built or touched without problems....

At this time, the project remains ongoing, but I am extremely concerned as to the building standards that are being followed in this Craig Ranch subdivision.

It's a shame when people can dirty a reputable companies name, without any accountability for their reckless remarks!

The house comes with a three car garage. The garage door is split into a two car garage door, and a single garage door. The single garage door is not attached to a garage opener, and it needs to be opened manually, which I did from the inside. I unloaded my belongings which included the missing items, as well as other sports gear (baseball bats, golf clubs, basketball, football, etc…). Before leaving, we had an employee of Meritage Homes come in to touch up the kitchen cabinets.

Afterwards I locked up, closing the garage door from the inside, and leaving through the front door, and made sure it was locked. I did not return until that following Saturday. My brother and I, along with our families moved some of our belongings from his garage. We made two trips and in the evening decided to head back and stay at his house in Glendale AZ, an hour north. My wife and mother-in-law decided to stay back and start unpacking. Since we were unloading everything in the garage, we had opened both garage doors from the inside (garage openers were not working, they had not yet been programmed) Before leaving for the night, and being concerned that my wife and mother-in-law were staying back, I decided to check all the keys and doors, everything seemed fine. Afterwards I closed the two car garage door from inside and walking out through the single garage door and pulling it down, I check the handle and it was not locked. I grabbed the keys from the inside and tried to lock it, but the keys were not working. I checked the number on the key and the garage door handle, and they did not match.

I did not think anything of it, but did tell my wife to lock the inside door and to contact Christy, the sale person for Meritage Homes, and have the keys changed. The garage door handle and keys were changed the second week of November. All this time the garage door remained unlocked, and it had remained unlocked unknown to us for the first few days after we closed. Even if it was locked, who had the real keys to the garage door?

After we had moved in, we were trying to locate the home phones and they could not be found anywhere. We thought they might have been thrown away mistakenly. On Sunday, November 19th, I was searching for my paintball guns and could not find them. I asked my wife and she said she hadn't seen them. Then it dawned on me. I started searching for my silver coins, my foreign currency and my baseball cards. I couldn't find any of it. Then I realized that all these items I had dropped off that Tuesday after we had closed.

I hadn't known about the unlocked garage door, and wasn't aware of the wrong key. I put one and one together, and realized that someone must have stolen these items. I informed Meritage Homes, and they said they can't do anything about it. I reminded them that they were the ones that gave me wrong keys to the garage and it was unlocked all this time. If I had known it wasn't locked I would not have dropped off my stuff there, and that even if I had known I wouldn't have been able to lock it because they had issued me wrong keys, and where were the real keys?

I told them that I believe this was done intentionally, giving whoever robbed us, the opportunity to walk in without a problem. They told me to take it up with my insurance company.

I felt that this policy was an unfair trade practice because it was False Advertising to advertise a 'base' price in writing (that would imply the home could purchased for that price) As a result, the actual cost/price is 35k to 40k higher than the listed base price. 'We realize that home builders can change their advertised price on a home whenever they want. That is not our complaint. Although we thought it unfair, we entered into a purchase contract on Feb 21. They continued their plans and broke ground on their pre-planned lots (including ours).

We are now two monthes into construction. We have been in contact with the builder weekly. And we regularly inquire into the next level up homes the Monarch series (these homes were priced 30k to 100k higher before so-called options) We found out last week that this Monarch series has been very slow to sell and as a result Meritage lowered the price 30K, included a pool and stopped falsely advertising a base price. A buyer can now purchase a home for the actual printed base price. We have requested that they allow us to transfer to the reduced properties. They stated that we would forfiet our $10,000 earnest deposit.

We are renting, and Meritage has offered 2 months of rent for waiting for closing. They have not offered anything more than that. They have $20,000 of our earnest money for the deposit. They have offered a refund, but since housing prices have gone up, we are losing equity.