Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/20/2025

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Defective work and rework surfaced after "by-off" of several punch list items in March of 2024. Within a month of our moving in in mid-May of 2024, our first time occupying the home, many punch list items surfaced as not being fixed or repaired properly. All is provided in the attached Word doc. We've been back in AZ since Oct. 2024.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/25/2025

  ***** and ****,
  I am disheartened that we find ourselves having this conversation again, even after we already went through this multiple times.  I wish we could find a way to see each other eye to eye, but given that we are here again, I dont think that is going to happen. Below we have addressed your concerns and statements.  I am also attaching your signed Certificate of Completion for your punch list items, a statement balance showing your credits, in addition to some of your email communications requesting changes.
  
  1. Peeling Paint/Caulking: Your home was painted and caulked in May of 2023, you also had it listed on your punch list items which we took care of and you signed off on.  Peeling/Faded paint is a normal wear and tear issue and is not covered under home warranty.  This is standard maintenance that comes with owning a home.
  2. Gutters 'Not Effective': You are welcome to look back at your original line item, and you will see gutters, nor a drainage system was ever in our scope of work for your build, therefor was not something you paid for.  You requested gutters, so we installed them as a gesture of customer service, and did not charge you for them.  A 'drip edge' would have required additional steel materials, welding and labor that you, again,did not have in your budget.  If you wanted to task a full drainage system to us, this would have required an engineered design, and would have been a change order for additional costs.  You have been reluctant to pay and still have not paid your full balance to us for other changes that you have made to your original scope.
  3. Deck Rails: You mentioned that the decking was cracking and bowing again, after we had already replaced them all after your punch list (which I will remind you again, that you signed off on as being complete and satisfactory).  As mentioned to you then, and again now we will remind you, that treated lumber is full of moisture.  As the wood dries out, especially in harsher climates, the wood shrinks, bows and cracks.  This cannot be avoided, unless you would like to upgrade to a more expensive composite decking material. This is a normal effect of the materials, therefore is not covered under home warranty.
  4. Kitchen/Bath Backsplashes:  Again, you can look back at your original line item, and see that we were never budgeted or contracted to do tile backsplashes for you, nor did you sign or pay for a change order to add this work to your build.
  Your second email, on September 30th, mentioned (in bullet points) the following:
  1. Roof:  When you stated 'the entire roof needed to be re-done'; you have a container home with the flat roof of the containers serving as your roof.  Saying that the entire roof needing to be re-done, we assume you mean the peeling paint, and caulking which you had already mentioned in your July 3rd email that you did this yourselves.
  2. Deck Supports: I am only assuming that you are speaking about the same thing you mentioned in the July 3rd email with the lumber of the deck bowing, which you stated in that email, and again in this one, that you already moved/replaced, after we already did this and you signed off on the work as being complete and satisfactory.  Again, treated lumber will dry, bow and crack over time especially in harsh weather.
  3. Leaking Toilet: Your final plumbing inspection was issued as of 9/07/2023, warranty work is only good for one year from inspection approval.  This was only brought to our attention as of 9/30/2024 and you stated you had already and/or were taking care of this on your own, as it was urgent.
  4. Window Caulking: Your windows were installed and caulked as of May of 2023.  Just like paint, it will wear with time and exposure to the elements.  This is standard home maintenance, not warranty work.
  5. Gutters:  Again, you mentioned this in the July 3rd email.  You never said that the gutters were damaged, or installed incorrectly, just that they were 'not effective' because you needed a 'drip edge' welded to the container, which was not part of our contract with you. 
  6. Front Door: This was also the first mention of this after you signed off on the completion of your punch list items in March 2024.  Again, this was not issued to us as a request to cure, but rather a notification that you had someone else take care of this.  Either way, you will continually have to adjust the weather stripping or setting of your door,as you would in every home, due to thermal expansion. As the weather changes,materials exposed to the elements will expand and contract, creating small gaps and or imbalances in the framing.
  7. Pocket Door:  You mentioned that one was scraping, however you had signed off on this as being cured and satisfactory when you signed off on your punch list in March of 2024.  You again in this email, did not request for a cure from us, but rather that you had or were fixing this on your own via an outside contractor.
  Setting aside that these items are normal wear and tear, less those items that were not contracted to us to do, your emails state that you had taken care of or were having them all taken care of on your own.  It was not a request to cure, but rather you had made your own assessments, took matters into your own hands and were not allowing us an opportunity to inspect or cure anything, even if there were warranty issues.  
  It has been advised many times to you that to claim warranty work, you must request this in writing.  We then have 30 days to get to you and the issue, and then we have an additional 30 days to CURE the issue, if there was warranty work.  You never requested anything from us in writing requesting us to cure anything after you signed off on your punch list, only a request for money.
  You have had your **** since November of 2023, that is over a full year.  Not to mention, you moved your items in long before we had the ****, were even storing food in the fridge and keeping the windows open to keep your fridge powered, and painting projects in your home, all before you got your certificate of occupancy.  You should remember, it got to the point we had to lock you out of the house to safeguard the work we had done already.  You also failed to mention that upon us leaving, you asked us to set your heater to 40 degrees while you went back to ******* so you didn't have to pay for the heating over the winter.  We advised you that there are serious negative impacts to a home if it is not properly conditioned, however you still requested that the heat be turned down. 
  After you signed off on your punch list, flooring issues were not reported to us until after you had already replaced them, over 6 months later. 
  During construction, the counter tops you wanted us to install were going to take longer than you wanted, so you asked that we take them out of your scope with us so you could hire your own vendor to do them.  We issued you a credit back for your countertops off of your total balance as you requested. We issued you a full credit, and did not keep our profit as we are entitled to in accordance with the contract, we did this as a gesture of customer service.  Any issues with your countertops are not ours to address, you will have to reach out to the vendor you hired to install your countertops.
  You stated that we threatened you with a lien due to a garbage disposal issue, however that is not the case. The outstanding balance that you have with us is for all of the additional electrical work that you decided to add, just a small part of that was the electrical for the garbage disposal.  You asked to add an additional outlet to the crawls space, the extra outlet for the disposal, which then put you over the amount of amps you could have for the single panel that was originally put into your scope, and so they had to add another electrical panel which totaled to be almost $5,000 in additional charges which you still have not paid, we even offered to split it with you, and you still will not pay when these additions were YOUR request.
   You threatened to take us to court to sue us for not taking care of punch-list items, when the reason we could not take care of them is because you would not allow us on the property to take care of items unless you were present, and you had to plan a special trip back from ******* to be there.  We let your lawyer know, we are happy to take care of punch list items, but we need access to do so.  We are a small business,and your property is 5 hours from where we are located, so telling us we need to complete items right away, now that we that you decided to grant us access, was unreasonable, as we had to properly schedule our very small crew and rearrange the tasks that we had for our other builds.
  It was when you started demanding that we pay you back money for the counter tops that we had already credited you back for, that we stated that you actually still owe us and that if it wasnt paid we would be forced to place a lien on the home.
  It is unfortunate that this conversation circulates over and over again, but we did everything that was requested of us for your punch list items.  True warranty items that fell within the one year Home Warranty Act, we also would have been happy to address and cure, however we did not receive requests, just demands for money,which we will not be paying.
  
  Thank you,
  
  **** D ******

  Customer Answer

  Date: 03/28/2025

   
  Complaint: 23087919
  
  I am rejecting this response because: the business owner has again not made any effort to resolve this. See our response. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***** And **** *****

  Business Response

  Date: 04/21/2025

  Under CDARA, we have the right to inspect and cure any defects that we are given written notice of.  We have up to 45 days to repair after we perform an inspection of the claimed defects.  Our right to inspect and cure was not given to us; we only received notification that ***** and **** paid a separate contractor to work on items that they did not request for us to inspect or cure.   The last request we received to cure any defects was when they issued us their punch list, in which we cured to their satisfaction, and they signed off on (see attached).  If our right to inspect and cure is not given to us, we are not liable for any compensation, and this is in accordance with CDARA.