We bought our home in Paulding County, Georgia from Masterpiece Communities in the Springbrooke Subdivision in July. The builder was Pine Grove Builders. There were defects in the construction of the home which we noted on the walk-thru. Several of the minor, cosmetic changes were made before closing (July 24) but the major items were deferred until July 31. Needless to say, most of these items were not addressed.
In August and September more defects showed up; rains had caused the sloping grades around our property collapse into a ditch. The builder called his landscapers out throw pinestraw over the mudslides; after another particularly bad rain, the same areas gave way again and part of our east side yard collapsed into the driveway. We were rapidly losing the yard around our house to the deep ditch in front of the house. The landscapers came out one more time to pad the area with pinestraw and plant a few small junipers.
We also noticed cracks in the garage in a load bearing wall which leaked whenever it rained. Our garage floor gets wet and water runs out into the driveway. The builder has not responded to our request to repair this critical wall.
Our deck was never level - the builders promised to even it out during the walk thru but never did the work. The deck is not anchored correctly to the house and could give way at any time. All our requests to fix the deck were ignored.
The driveway was not compacted or graded correctly. The concrete drivway is already cracking due to the collapse of dirt under it. There is a blind spot at the top of the driveway that makes it impossible to see on-coming traffic. We have asked the builder repeatedly to fix these problems and they have not responded.
We have had problems with the electrical outlets sparking. The contractor who did the wiring came out on several occasions to replace and rewire several outlets.in the basement you can't plug in a heater and a treadmill at the same time without blowing the circuit. The electrical contractor refused to fix this, because he said it was up to code.
During the lot grading, many trees were knocked down. The builder promised to have them removed but has failed to honor that promise. Requests to have the debris removed have been ignored. They also promised to replace trees that the landscaper's tractor driver killed, but never came through on that either.
The interior living room wall is showing signs of house movement, not just settling. This is due to the lot collapsing on the west side of the house (as noted above in the discussion of rain causing dirt to collapse down into the ditch in front of the house).
We have written many letters to the builder and to the developer, Masterpiece Communities, to get them to honor the home warranty. Since the last repairs they did in September, they have not acknowledged our certified letters.
We have spoken to attorneys and they say we have a case to get the builder to buy back the house, but we can't afford their rates ($32,000), so we are stuck.
If you are planning to buy a new home in N.W. Atlanta, be sure you check out the builder before you sign on the dotted line.
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