Ryan Homes

Our daughter has diagnosed asthma which can be severe at times. We have had to rush her to the emergency room on several occasions for breathing difficulty which was attributed to mold found in our previous residence. After an emotional conversation we agreed we were not willing take a chance of having mold in a brand new home due to water coming from a brand new but faulty HVAC unit. Ryan homes was notified of our decision. Several conversations took place between Ryan Homes reps and ourselves. They promised to fix the problem, had an HVAC company out to look at the unit and stated they had the area tested for moisture which was now in the normal range. We explained that despite those fixes we were too afraid to continue with the home.

We signed the mutual release and Ryan Homes/NVR kept the entire $59,000. They did not even offer a partial refund. A company that made almost 9 billion in revenue in 2021 did not even offer to give us something back so that we could continue our home search. Any parent who has experienced a child that can't breath being rushed to an ER would walk away from this purchase. Ryan Homes uses the poorest quality materials in the construction of these homes. The appliances are not new and may be refurbished.

We wanted to lock in our interest rates early because we knew the Fed would increase rates. The sales person again explicitly told us that “NVR will offer you a rate lock for free once approved “ LIE: the rate lock was not free. The “free” part was that it could be added to the closing costs. What world do they live in where that is the definition of free? In addition, the lock in rate was only good for six months from the delivery date which no one told us. This cost us almost a 2% increase in rate because the Fed raised the rates just as we suspected. Which now ultimately cost us thousands of dollars more.

Ryan homes told us customer service was their number priority. LIE: this was the absolute worst lie we were told. Laughable really. Once we signed our contract and they took our down payment, POOF, the customer service disappeared! It was as if we were just a check mark on their commission check list. I had to send multiple aggressively worded emails just to get any sort of response. I also sent multiple emails requesting to be contacted by a director, SVP, or anyone that was in charge of managing the awful salesperson. No one ever contacted me! Not one senior person ever reached out to me! THEY JUST DIDN’T CARE. All we ever wanted was just real and honest responses instead of the months of lip service.

Next, here are some of the ignorant responses they gave us for their delays: War in Ukraine. The salesperson literally blamed the war in Ukraine for the delay of our home delivery. Unfortunately, this caught her in the act of another lie. When we signed the contract, we were very clear that we needed delivery in August. She was well aware of this and found us a home that “would” be delivered in August. We signed in February 2022, and starting in March of 2022, the delays and delivery date started to get pushed immediately. When she told us in August 2022 that the delay in delivery was due to a mechanical part (that was supposed to have already been delivered in November 2021 from Ukraine) she ALREADY knew the home could not be built and move in ready by August at the time of signing. Then she had the nerve to blame it on the war that started in April of 2022! Shame on her!!

We both were renting two separate apartments and kept asking for a delivery date because we needed to know what to do with our lease extensions. Her response to us saving money during the delays was “Well you would be paying rent anyway so it evens out”. It’s not just the rent. We had to extend both of our leases to short term leases, which in the real world is usually 3x the cost of a year’s lease. Then instead, we decided to move things to storage. Trucks, boxes, time off work, movers, etc all cost money. We were paying 3x the rent, month to month, while waiting for the delivery of our house because they refused to give use a date. PLEASE stop using this line with your buyers. It is out of touch, rude and just plain ignorant on your part. We did ask for financial compensation and they offered us very little. Yet online, they were offering to pay full closing costs for new buyers. See how much they care after you sign?

So not to be a complete negative Nancy, here is a silver lining to the whole process. The construction team and PM were the only ones with any real information and the only ones who were willing to communicate with us. The circle app was great, and the response time from the PM and his team was absolutely superb. They were the most honest group of the bunch, even when they had bad news to deliver, but at least they had the b*lls to tell us.

I have called the warranty dept 14 times since early September, and not one person has returned my call. I don't know if they actually found the leak yet, I don't know if there is mold in my house, I don't know when this is going to end. My family members and I are having to change work schedules to be present for all of this mess, put up with loud machines (80 decibels, I found a site to measure it) left in the house for weeks, and live through the dust, mud and grime, and the smell of humidity. The little bit that I do know of what's going on, has come from the plumbers and the remediation people. Ryan Homes has, not only not explained anything, they haven't even shown their face around my house. One of the supervisors said he would call me right back after a meeting he was going into, that was 19 days ago. I still haven't heard back.

We just went through hurricane IAN and the house stood up just fine. We didn't lose power, not a shingle blew off and we didn't flood. What impressed me the most was we were told the Project Managers would be off from that Wednesday until the following Monday because of the storm. The day of the storm (we got hit at night) and the day after who did I see and talk to? The Project Manager. They were concerned. For the record our home is block, hurricane proof windows. I think up to 140 mph winds? I love my new home and the area it's in. In my book Ryan Homes builds a great product here in FLORIDA.

I advise anyone considering engaging them, to have their contract proofread by a professional, either a lawyer or realtor. Thank me later! Do not fall into the trap of sitting with their salesperson to go over the contract, where she explains to you what is in the contract, her promises on what they will deliver may not necessarily be documented. When they fail to deliver according to your discussion and their word, she will refer to that contract and refuse in your face that she ever made commitments. In my case, we discussed the date by which they should have completed building my house, October 20th.

In light of that date, she gave me a two-month window period. In her contract she had a 3-month window period starting August ending October. She never specified October 20th! Asking her how long was her window period supposed to be she now says Aug to Oct, but that’s 3 months not two, for it to be two months and spanning Aug to Oct there has to be a date in October where this window terminates which then spans two month period from Aug to Oct like Aug 21th to Oct 20th (2-months!). This will cost me a lot more in accommodation and storage costs.

The project manager does not accommodate questions. He was just rude to me. I didn’t feel free to ask him anything. All he wants is to lecture you like a kid. He had the nerve to tell me that ‘...this is not a negotiation, I tell you how thing are going to happen…’ Like it’s a donation or a gift! Man, this is a paid service, I earned every right to say something about how things are going.

Furthermore, they confirmed that a six-year-old home should not have loose or missing shingles unless there was a natural disaster of 100 miles per hour winds which we have not experienced in Maryland during the six years my family has lived in our home. After conducting research, my situation is not unique. In fact, according to the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, “Ryan Homes had the highest number of homebuilder complaints of any single builder in the three years since 2016.” My home construction was at the time of this identified findings report and clearly supports Ryan Homes' negligence in building safe and quality built homes. The poorly constructed home has caused financial hardship and stress for my family who recently located from Baltimore County to Carroll County. We are mortified and stressed that a home that cost well over $500,000 has experienced this level of construction nightmares over the last six years.