Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/15/2022

  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.

  I signed a contract with Chase Signature Homes in June of 2021. I was given a vague estimate of build and a total price. My wife, realtor, and I were told it would take 8 months at the most to build. It took 10 months. The house ended up over $13,000 over budget. They did not complete all of the work. They charged an extra 20% on any overage. They waited until the last minute for my wife and I to pick out things such as flooring. They forced us to use Lowe's for our light and plumbing fixtures. Then required we pay full retail plus sales tax (there was supposed to be a contractor's discount, I have a recording of one of the owners stating this). They cancelled the drywall and insulation subcontractor b/c they didn't like that I asked questions about the AC unit. Since my wife and I have moved in, I have reported several items that need to be fixed and also items they did not do. I also had to install my own driveway, even though the driveway was in the contract. They refuse to give me the money that was budgeted for the items they chose not to complete and the driveway. They installed a temporary driveway w/o a permit and refuse to have it removed. SCDOT and Horry County Stormwater Authority have both said this needs to be removed by them. Horry County Stormwater suggested I report them to the SCLLR, which I have done. I had to hire an attorney to get them to get a Certificate of Occupancy on the house so my wife and I would not become homeless. According to my attorney, the builder intimated to him that they wanted my wife and I to be homeless to punish us. They still have work that needs to be completed, items on an inspection report that need to be completed, refund the 20% surcharge on all overages, refund $5,970.45 in unauthorized overages they charged, and repair the items that have been given to them that were not done correctly. They have also left trash such as lumber and cement piles strewn throughout my yard.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/27/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/09/22) */ The contract was signed June 10, 2021 (Copy of contract provided to BBB). Per the contract, page 2, "This agreement is not valid without receipt of the down payment at the time of contract signing." At the time of signing the contract the client did not provide the deposit. The deposit was never received until August 17, 2021 (Copy of deposit Check provided to BBB). The contract is a requirement of the lender to complete the construction loan process. Upon receipt of the deposit, Chase Signature Homes ordered the truss engineering, site plan, and structural plans to be completed, required by Horry County to submit with the application for a permit. Upon completion of these items, they were then submitted to Horry County for review and approval of the permit. Chase Signature Homes received the permit to begin construction on September 30, 2021 (copy provided to BBB). The client was given a detailed estimate and budget sheet (Copy provided to BBB) which spells out specific details for construction of the client's home. The client was also given the standard custom features Chase Signature Homes includes for the build, per the plans (Copy provided to BBB). The Certificate of Occupancy was competed on June 22, 2022. Per the contract, page 8, "Construction time guarantees are not possible because of uncertainties such as weather conditions, site conditions, scheduling, subcontractors, supplier delays and building inspections." Construction of the clients home took 8 months and 3 weeks from the time the permit was received. You cannot begin construction until the permit from the county is received. Per the contract, page 1 item #4, states the client pays for increases if materials. Chase Signature Homes provided a copy of the original estimate from the supplier and a copy of the updated estimate from the supplier to support the increase. The clients estimate(s), for budgeting purposes, were done in June 2021 so many items were not actually delivered to the job site till several months later. Also, per the contract, page 5 item #19, "Owner agrees to pay cost plus 20% for any items not covered by this contract or by change orders." The estimates provided to the client are Chase Signature Homes contractor pricing. There were two items on the punch list that had not been completed prior to the CO inspection. These items were not required to obtain the Certificate of Occupancy. We were unable to regain access to the home as the client illegally drilled out the locks and installed new locks upon receiving notice the CO inspection had passed and without final payment due to Chase Signature Homes. The client on multiple occasions throughout construction broke into the home, access was only to be give by a representative of Chase Signatures Homes as we carried the Builders Risk Insurance Policy during construction. The client was asked on several occasions to not enter the home without a representative present. The lender had offered to give the client access upon request and the client still refused to request access and continually broke into the home. On one occasion the client broke into the home and installed the appliances, which is not permitted. During installation of the appliances the client scratched the new flooring in several places (images provided to BBB). The client also incorrectly hooked up the dishwasher line to the drain which the plumber needed to correct to avoid future leaks. (Images provided to BBB). All clients are informed of the vendors we use for the selection process. We do not give our contractor discount to clients. This is how any construction company makes money, we cannot build homes at our contractor pricing. At no time was the insulation and drywall ever canceled as this would have put us weeks behind due to the increased amount of construction going on in our area. We received notification from BBB regarding the review/request from the client on September 16, 2022 and had just received an email from the client on September 14, 2022 requesting the few items be addressed. Some of these items have already been completed or have been scheduled to be completed. Per the clients estimate and budget sheet, page 1 line item #02041 Driveway- "8' off side, length of garage; walkway around to front door." This was the concrete pad and walkway to be installed, there was no additional cost budgeted for the driveway as the home is 150' off the road and the client did not request any additional material to be installed and included in the contract/budget so there are no funds to be credited to the client. The temporary culvert was installed at Chase Signature Homes expense so we could begin the project as the approval for a permanent culvert had not been received from SCDOT and was never received until April 22, 2022. At no time during the review process by the SCDOT did the say anything regarding the temporary culvert being an issue as it was temporary. Upon receipt of the email providing the approved permit and the requirements by SCDOT for the permanent culvert we notified the client the budget was not going to cover what SCDOT is requiring for the culvert. Chase Signature Homes sent a revised estimate for the new culvert to the client. The client never responded and instead installed the culvert himself and did not notify Chase Signature Homes. The materials from the temporary culvert were to be used on the new culvert, which would have then removed the temporary culvert. As stated above and provided proof there are no unauthorized overages. Consumer Response /* (3000, 8, 2022/09/25) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) I see no attachments of any documents that were submitted regarding this complaint. I only see the attachments I included in my initial complaint. We were told that the build would be completed within 8 months from the time that the first payment was made. It was said on two occasions that timeframe included the time it would have taken to get permits. The approval from the lender would have been completed sooner except that the surveyor, who Chase Signature Homes provided, first said it would take 5 weeks for him to complete the survey, then completely backed out after 4 1/2 weeks. I have the emails supporting this timeline of events. The same thing happened during the building permit process, even after I had assurances from Julie C**** that it would not. The surveyor I had to find will be more than willing to back up what I say. We were never given a detailed estimate of the build. We were given a vague estimate which I will be more than happy to provide. We were also never given a list of vendors that Chase Signature Homes uses to make selections. One meeting was set up by Lexi C**** on behalf of Chase Signature Homes to meet on December 1st. When my wife messaged that morning to confirm the appointment, Lexi informed my wife that they had forgotten the meeting was to take place. The meeting was rescheduled for December 8, 2021. On the morning of December 8, Lexi C**** messaged my wife to let her know that the meeting would have to again be rescheduled because they wouldn't be able to attend. The meeting was again rescheduled for December 23, 2022. On December 20, my wife and I called Julie C**** to let her know that she had contracted COVID and wouldn't be able to attend. Julie told both of us at that time that her and Syd would be out of town until January 20, 2022. She would, however, email us the contact information for the vendors to make selections. That email never arrived. My wife contacted Lexi C**** on January 6, 2022 to find out about seeing the home and when we would make selections. Lexi told my wife that Julie told her that she would make selections with us as soon as she got back. Julie waited until January 24, 2022 to finally send the information about the vendors to us so that we could make selections, and then demanded that we schedule those meetings ourselves and it must be completed within 2 weeks time. Again, I have emails and copies of text messages to back up all of these claims. On January 12, 2022 at 11:20am, Julie C**** sent my wife and I an email which states the insulation and drywall have been cancelled and this would set us back 3-4 weeks on the build. On February 5, 2022, Syd C**** confirmed to my wife, my realtor, and myself in person that the drywall and insulation had been cancelled by Julie while they were supposed to be on vacation. At no point did my wife or I "break" into the home. There were multiple times where it was found that windows and the sliding glass doors had been left unlocked (the lock on the sliding glass door was broken and couldn't be locked). The only time that we entered the home without a representative from Chase Signature Homes was May 27th and 28th to install the appliances because Chase Signature Homes refused to install the appliances. Winnelson, the vendor that dropped off the toilets and hot water heater on the week of May 23rd, left the front door open and the lockbox and key laying on the counter in the kitchen. I happened to be there with the person I hired to install the permanent culvert and got the key and locked the door. I kept the key because Chase Signature Homes refused to cooperate and communicate with me. On May 26th, Daniel with SCDOT came out to inspect the permanent culvert I had to have installed. He told the person that I hired and myself that the temporary culvert was NOT approved and needed to be removed immediately. I told him what Chase Signature Homes had done, and he told me to contact Horry County Code Enforcement to report it because that was NOT allowed. I contacted Horry County Code Enforcement the following day, who instructed me to contact Horry County Stormwater Authority. Horry County Stormwater authority told me to file a complaint with SCLLR because there was no permit for the temporary culvert and it was illegal to install it without a permit. I also notified Chase Signature Homes of this and they told me they would not remove it, even though they did it without a permit. As for item 19 on the contract, that is for anything added after the contract is signed. The overages I was charged were for items like siding and the garage door, which were included in the initial plans and contract. Therefore, item 19 in the contract should not apply. Also, again I have a recording of Aaron Bartlett from a meeting him and I had on January 20, 2022 where he specifically states that Chase Signature Homes "uses Lowe's and Home Depot because Julie gets a discount from there and we (meaning Chase Signature Homes) like to pass those savings onto the customer to save them money." Also Julie and Syd C**** told my wife, my realtor, and me at a meeting on March 29, 2021 that there would be a discount given for appliances and fixtures by using Lowe's and it would be passed on to us. As for items that are still not completed, there was a list of items sent to Chase Signature Homes at the beginning of June that were known of that needed to be corrected. Some of those items are not done. Aaron Bartlett and Syd C**** were given a list of items by my home inspector that needed to be corrected. Aaron Bartlett told everyone in attendance that he would get those items corrected before the Certificate of Occupancy was obtained. Aaron Bartlett also informed my attorney, who was present, to contact him directly with any items after move-in that needed to be corrected. I did so on July 5, 2022 and received no response. I then sent an email to Chase Signature Homes on September 4, 2022 listing the items again and included pictures. To this date, the only item that has been corrected is the air conditioning, which was listed on the home inspection report that was done at the walkthrough on June 17, 2022. The painter did come out on September 16 to look at the paint on the garage floor and informed me that Chase Signature Homes was supposed to pressure wash the garage before and let him know if there were any splatters to be cleaned. He noted that it was apparent that Chase Signature Homes had not cleaned the garage floor as they were supposed to do. He said he would be back with a crew to clean the garage floor. He is supposed to come back on September 27. Someone was supposed to come by to remove piles of cement left in the yard on September 19, but never showed up. No one else has been to our place, or scheduled a date and time to arrive to complete anything else. And the house sits 285 feet off the road, not 150 feet off the road. You've said before in emails that you never said the temporary culvert was to be paid by Chase Signature Homes. Now you're admitting that it was. There were also multiple times where no one was at our home for weeks at a time to do anything during the build process. The painters even told me that they had no idea why it was taking so long to complete the home. At one point, they said they felt sorry for my wife and I that we were being treated the way we were. The subcontractor that installed the septic tank told my realtor that he though the project had been abandoned because it sat empty for so long during the build. It is my opinion, and the opinion of many others that experienced this process with us, that you delayed this project as long as possible. Maybe you wanted me to fire you so you could try to put a mechanic's lien on my property (Syd mentioned many times how he would love to have my land). If the lender had allowed it, I definitely would have. Or, you could have simply came to me and asked to be let out of the contract. I would've gladly worked with you to accomplish this. Instead, you chose to make this experience the worst ever simply because you felt you could. As that is the route you chose, I will definitely hold you accountable for everything that you are contractually and legally required to do. Business Response /* (4000, 13, 2022/10/03) */ Unfortunately, you cannot disagree with someone who whole hardly believes they are right. Consumers will have to make up their own mind. We are happy to provide several references, from over the last almost 8 years of being in business, to support our work. We are in the process of finishing up the final items requested to be addressed.