More and more senior citizens are retiring to Florida to enjoy the good life. Most retire to senior communities which are age restrictive so they can be with people in their age group who share similar generational histories. The majority of these places are in manufactured home settings where you buy or lease your land, purchase and install a manufactured home on said property to live out your life in a relative serene environment.
This experience is usually painless unless people who care more for the corporate profit than the goods they sell are involved. One such example is Jacobsen Homes located in Safety Harbor Florida. It seems the president of this company can, at his or her whim, dictate if the HALO warranty they include with a sale of one of their units will be valid for the full five (5) years, one (1) year, or never. This has already occurred which indicates this person most likely has voided additional consumer warranties based upon the bottom line. One can only hope this is the motive, if not then maybe it is based upon selfish or vindictive motives.
A major problems of floor buckling at every joint was reported to Jacobsen homes and they refused to correct the problem. The dealer was kind enough to fix it at his expense. Another problem was reported that involved a wall that his service repair people messed up. The brought the top of a wall out 1 1/2 inch to correct a warpped header but left the bottom where it was so the wall is on a angle. It was caused by their people and is also covered under the 5 year HALO warranty. A complant filed to BBB resulted in the presiden of the company stating "What part of.." This case is closed "... Don't you people understand. This is not up for debate. The BBB has absolutely no jurisdiction concerning this matter. The DMV of Florida does. I suggest they be contacted. Thank You."
Dennis Schrader, the president of the company is fully aware the state agency he referred them to will only deal with structural issues and has no jurisdiction over anything else. This is how Jacobsen Homes gets around the 5 year HALO warranty they advertise for all their new homes. They seem do what they think they have to and then ignore the rest, leaving the consumer with no recourse. There is no state agency which deals with warranty issues or consumer protection issues as far as manufactured homes are concerned. Since most senior citizens live in manufactured homes within retirement communities one would think the state of Florida would have some protection for its senior citizens.
After a problem was reported to State Representative Ken Littlefield, his office sent the concerns to the Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles, who can do nothing as they only handle structural issues. State Senator Tom Lee's representative sent the concerns to the Attorney General's office who did call advising contacting the Florida Department of Community Affairs. Unfortunately, the Department of Community Affairs only addresses issues relating to modular homes; they do not deal with issues relating to mobile and/or manufactured homes. The FMHO organization was another option per Senator Lee's representative but this organization deals with part 723 which is lease lots for seniors.
The info was also sent to AARP which is now a big business and does not care to get involved in senior problems.
The state of Florida is sorely lacking in consumer protection laws for seniors. There are no statutes, laws, regulations, etc., protecting the consumer against manufactured home warranty violations. As long as a manufacturer of manufactured homes makes the home structurally sound, they can have the interior walls bulged or sloped, ceiling bulged in most areas and floors buckled. The plumbing is classified as non structural along with the electrical wiring so any problems in these areas also are the buyer's responsibility. Left unchecked, Florida will become the most senior citizen unfriendly state in the union with no laws to protect a very large voting block. Florida needs to amend the laws of the DMV to give a large voting block some protection from unscrupulous manufactures.
This is going to to warn that do not buy a manufacture home from Jacobsen as you are gambling that you will have no problems down the line.
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