Meadows Homes is an incompetent new home construction company that is unable to produce what they promise! We had a home built by them that was promised to be completed within 8-11 months from the time of financing approval. Do not believe it!
The first stages of construction were actually right on time and speedy. The time frame until near completion was not much of an issue. The work they performed at times was substandard however. My jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom had to be reframed, tiled, an attempted install 7 different times. Even after telling them the obvious way of completing in correctly would be to set the tub and frame around it if there is that much difficulty, it took them 7 times to try this. Now the tub is in, not straight by any means, but is in there. (We had to rewire the electrical to make it work and retile the face)! I payed for upgraded attic insulation to R-30. After move in we realized they only went to an R-19 value. I payed extra for an irrigation system and St. Augustine grass that I like. ($4500) There are many dead areas from the time it was laid. It was never replaced. I was required to pay extra for an aerobic septic system ($7000) that electricity was never wired to. I paid an electrician to do this. ($200) There are multiple areas of defects in the drywall that I have repaired including a gaping hole in the living room where they cut out to access the bathroom tub. The carpet has visible seams throughout the house where it looks like they pieced it together from multiple jobs. There are lumps of rock under multiple area of the carpet where the concrete was never swept prior to laying the carpet. There are many spots on the exterior and interior of the house of missed paint. The wrong color of sink was installed in the kitchen. I bought one to replace it myself. ($275) There were multiple areas of cracked grout in our tile floors. I had to extend my gutters per city code to receive a C.O. ($200)
These are only a small portion of complaints and costs I have. We were required to obtain a construction loan which I highly recommend you do not do. You are paying on the loan more and more each month regardless if work is being completed. We were at $1350/month plus $500 every 2 months approximately because we had to keep extending the loan outside of 12 months. The house was 92% complete and basically move in ready, including the sod laid, in July. We were promised that we would be living in the home by the time the kid's school started in August. Construction stayed at a standstill until January when we hired an attorney to legally terminate Meadows Homes as our builder. We had to pay the attorney (approx.$1300), the impact fees that weren't paid ($6700!), and bring the house to code so we could move in. There was a lien placed from the sod company in which the attorney had to contest. No reply and no payment from Meadows. As soon as I fired them they immediately placed a lien on our home for $23000, which was the amount of the final construction loan draw check in which I received to complete the home myself.
I wish for others sake that I was the only person who this happened to, but since it has there have been several others who have contacted me in the same situation. Now they have seemed to stop building in North Port, Fl and moving on to other states doing new construction for other states including rebuilding for those victimized by Hurricane Katrina. I can only hope that they are not hit with a double whammy by using Meadows Homes. If this saves one person from entering into our situation that we thought would be our dream home that turned nightmare, we would be thrilled. Keep in mind all this was just a brief summary! Buyer Beware!!
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