We just cancelled our contract with a large Colorado Springs area builder. I cannot believe that a business can make so many mistakes. At first we kept saying "oh, there are going to be a few mistakes". But this weekend was the last straw. Here are a few of the things that happened: 1. Initially staked the wrong lot. 2. Mistakes on foundation: measured forms wrong; two weeks after foundation was poured they had to extend the den part of foundation another 10 inches into the garage by making another pour. Had to cut two 2ft X 2ft sections out of garage floor; never told us why but I think they decided they needed two support columns between the third garage. 3. After framing and roofing were complete we visited the site Saturday and noticed the fireplace was missing, in process of installing the wrong tub & shower, 3 windows missing from the master bedroom and a window missing from another bathroom. 4. Wrong front door. My wife worked with the sales adm for 2 or 3 days before choosing the door she liked. 5. Cracks all over the foundation. I know spider cracks are normal but it was severe enough that they were going to have an inspector look at it. 6. Sloppy decking: We stopped by one evening after the roofing started and noticed they did not lay decking all the way to the top in several spots with gaps 4 to 6 inches. I thought they would complete before they started laying shingles. Saturday we noticed they just rolled felt over the gaps. I spoke with a roofing buddy and he said they probably used a ridge vent but when I mentioned all I could see was the felt he said they either did not use a ridge vent or they installed improperly. This was not a custom home but one of the builder's more popular models. The builder's response was to blame the engineer who made the final building plans; said he "forgot the fireplace & windows". The sales office was very thorough when we did all of our option & color selections. We even initialled blue prints of building plan (with our options drawn in) and somewhere between the sales office and the job site the plans changed 180 degrees. We just wasted our time from Feb until now and we are out of our down payment. We do feel like it is better to get out now and take the loss rather than to watch the builder tear out part of the house and suffer through more mistakes. Friends referred us to a realtor who offered to comp us the money if we buy a home with her. I have talked to several other people who have built homes in the last year and all went through similar frustrations. Are the builders just that bad?
Yesterday we received an email from the builder representative. I guess with the market slowing down we really expected them to try working something out to keep us in the home but we were mistaken. The email just stated that they were confirming cancelling our contract and any money put down was non-refundable. Apparently this organization has ZERO "save the customer" policy which I don't really get. A dozen people that I work with know what happened as well as my wife's friends and relatives who will probably tell a few of their friends in turn. We have a few friends in the building and real estate business that told us a few tactics to try and see if we can get our money back.
Our house was built at the same time as the house next door, neck and neck. Our house has had zero problems but the other house had multiple. Their upstairs AC didn't work, their doorbell didn't work, their driveway had to be repoured, there is a constant pool of water in the street in front of the house - though that really has more to do with the streets. I don't know what else was wrong, those are just the ones I can remember. The builder fixed everything but it was not what you'd call confidence-inspiring. This builder, however, does have excellent customer service. But, again, our house, right next door, same crews, same contractor, same salesman even, had nothing wrong. We had contracted with another builder before we found this one and they had terrible customer service. I can't testify to their quality. We got out of it at the very last minute that we were still able to get our money back. The first builder wanted to charge us for everything we wanted to add or change about the house, charge $6000 for the corner lot and another $3000 for the brick wall/fence. The actual builder threw all of that in and more. If they are in Colorado, Village Builders is the one to go with.
Just consider yourself lucky you didn't have problems with a builder in Texas. The laws are so slanted towards builders here that they'd probably make you pay for the entire crappy house you cancelled the contract on.
