We decided to go to Palm Harbor because the look of their homes appealed to us. After speaking with a salesman, John Guess, he had us sold. It did not take long for us to provide the downpayment and begin our paperwork. We were living in a apartment community which obligated us to give adequate notice prior to vacating the apartment.
We choose all of our features and were told all was well and we would be in our home no later than Febuary 2006. We had a mild winter, our home was completed in the warehouse in January. We gave notice to our management company. Our apartment was rented to another family. Thats when we started getting lied to.
Joey, the construction manager could not get out to our land to do the work needed to set our house. It was always an excuse. Meanwhile, we had to retract our notice to vacate, causing fees on our part. We were advised that the new move in date would be the end of March.
Again, we gave notice. Thats when we were informed that the carpet that I origanally picked out was no longer available, a sage green, thick carpet. I was told to come back in, 80 miles from my current home to the sales center to choose another carpet. I chose a dark tan, thick carpet. We were also informed that Joey was fired.
Next came Shane, the new constuction manager. He was no better than Joey and had even more excuses. We complained constantly because our land which was cleared for the foundation to be laid way back in January, had started to grow tall grass once again and STILL no one came out to set the foundation. We were then informed that our salesman John was fired. This had been the only person who was of any help to us.
Meanwhile, we had an issue because we purchased a modular home and Palm Harbor had only built trailers and doublewides in Halifax County, where we were moving to, so we had to wait for them to get a license to build here. That took about a month.
We did not resign our lease, NOR did we go month to month as we could have when our lease expired because we had faith in that company. What we ended up doing in the end was pay almost double our rent because we were holding up other applicants from moving into our unit, a 3bedroom ground floor apartment with handicap access.
In July of we STILL had not moved into our home and I was irate because school was about to start. My kids were attending school in one county and I had them transfered to the county in which our new home was built. I have a child with disabilities and explained to David Locke, the General Manager, that it was VERY important that my children be settled before school started in August.
We ended up in a hotel for two weeks the first two weeks of school because the house still was not ready. Also, we had to move because the apartment was rented and we could not hold over tenancy any longer. Basically, we were homeless.
We were put up in a shody hotel on Palm Harbor dime and given a $25.00 food allowance per day to be reimbursed to us later. $25.00 for two adults, a teen boy and two children? We had to drive to the house each morning and afternoon to get the kids from the bus and missed any overtime offered on our job and got to work 25 minutes or more late EACH day for those two weeks.
We finally closed on our home and moved in on Agust 27, some SEVEN months later! When we moved in, NOTHING was the way I told them I wanted it.
The carpet was cheap and the lightest beige I have ever seen. (We have three children).
The front door was wrong.
There was NO landscaping as promised.
The built in entertainment center was placed in the WRONG ROOM!
The cabinets were off center.
The driveway was incomplete.
The decks were falling apart.
The walls had already began to crack.
The siding was messed up at the corners of the home.
Shingles were falling off the roof.
The house smelled like raw sewage for the first month.
The a/c heating unit is too small for a house this large, causing outrageous heating bills each month.
The water pressure is weak and our outdoor faucets do not even work.
These all all problems that I reported to Mr. Locke. He basically told us he doesn't care and we are on our own.
Since we have been in here;
Our hot water heater burst.
Our carpet has fallen apart.
Our driveway has washed away.
Our refrigerator went up.
Our diswasher went up.
Steps are coming up on our deck and several post have broken off.
Our crown moulding is fallen from the walls.
The messy gravel driveway have caused us to go through tires like crazy.
We made a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, but where is our justice? We still have to live here and its falling down around us. This has been the WORST experience in my life as a first time homeowner.
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