I had a house built by Newmark Homes in 2007. It took Newmark 10 months to complete the house after many months of delay and 3 major reworks. The house was finally closed in December. Prior to closing, Newmark decided to plant sod/grass in all my neighbors' yards, but not in my yard.
Prior to closing, both my neighbor and I hired the same independent inspector to inspect our houses.in his report, among many other issues, he pointed out the standing water in our site yard.
On the day of closing, I found an inspection result performed by Foster Inspection, a 3rd party inspector hired by Newmark. The result was clearly marked as "Failed". The problems listed included insulation, yard, and other issues.
When I questioned these outstanding issues, I was assured by Newmark that those were not critical issues and I will have one year to have them fixed under warranty. Because I was not able to extend my apartment lease, I went ahead with the closing and I foolishly believed that Newmark would honor their warranty.
In the spring of 2008 I started noticing standing water in my backyard. When summer came with heavy rain, my backyard became severely flooded and water stood there for days and weeks. According to Texas building code, any standing water within 10 feet of a house for more than 24 hours is a violation of the performance standard.
In August of I requested a warranty service to resolve the standing water issue. Two months later, after many reminders and follow-ups, Newmark finally sent a worker and dumped some soil in my yard. However this did not solve the problem. The standing water was still there for days after rain even we had such a dry fall season. I told Newmark about it and they said someone will come to take a look but no one ever came.
Another month passed, I had to do some research to find out what caused the standing water.in my backyard, the west side is higher than the east side. And the area outside my back fence (south) is higher than my backyard. Therefore the only way that water can flow out of my backyard is to travel along the 46-ft-long east side fence to the east side yard and then flow to the front street. I noticed that the ground level at the east side yard was at the bottom of the fence. Obviously this was what blocked the water in my backyard. Without lowering the ground level in the side yard, no matter what happened in the backyard, water cannot flow out.
I sent Newmark my finding with photos and requested them to lower the ground level in my site yard so water can flow out of my backyard. All I got back was Newmark's final official decision stating that Newmark will not warranty my siteyard because I don't have sod in my backyard.
I could not believe what I read.in our community we are required to pay a high HOA fee and let professional landscapers appointed by Newmark to service our front yards and site yards. I did not do anything to the site yard. The site yard was the root cause of the standing water. My backyard was simply a victim. What kind of logic is this: Just because I didn't have sod in my backyard, I voided my warranty on a professionally landscaped site yard? This is equivalent to a case that the builder refused to warranty the roof because the roof leaking only damaged a hardwood floor that is not under warranty. Has anyone ever known a more ridiculous logic than this?
I was still hoping Newmark would come back to a common sense with a reasoning capability at a 5th-grade level. I sent numerous emails, photos, certified mails to their service department, managers, senior managers, corporate office explaining two simple things: 1) The standing water was not caused by anything in my backyard with or without sod. My next door neighbor who shares the east fence with me had sod in his yard from day one but he had the same standing water issue in the same area. Because Newmark refused to resolve the issue, he already filed a complaint with BBB. 2) The root cause was the high ground level in the site yard. Lowering the site yard is such a simple work that only takes a few hours from a couple of their non-English speaking workers.
But I was wrong. Not only Newmark has no common sense in reasoning, they cannot even show basic respect to another human being. They simply ignored everything I sent and refused to communicate with me. Ever since they officially refused to honor their warranty in November of I have not received one word directly from them discussing what I sent.
I have had professional contractors from several different companies here to evaluate the site yard. They have all agreed that the site yard needs to be lowered by creating a swale or installing French drain.
In December of I filed a complaint with BBB. Newmark responded to BBB inquiry twice with the same answer: Newmark will not warranty my site yard because I don't have sod in my backyard. At this point of writing, BBB said they were not able to get Newmark to change their response. BBB advised me to pay $70 to enter arbitration.
The lessons I learned:
1) Do not expect Newmark to honor their warranty. They would promise everything before closing but will not honor their promise.
2) Do not expect Newmark to have any common sense in reasoning. Their logic of refusing the warranty of my site yard because of the lack of sod in my backyard has been the most ridiculous logic I have seen in my life.
3) Do not expect Newmark to show any basic respect to another human being. They simply ignore you and refuse to respond to you.
The conclusion: Find another reputable home builder to build your home with your hard-earned money. Stay away from Newmark!
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