We purchased a new home from CENTEXHOMES of Tampa, Fla. We have had numerous problem every since we moved in. They have ranged from non performance of repairs, to breaking and entering by subcontractors, to rude unprofessional conduct by numerous employees of the company to finally deceptive and misleading sales practices.
The last of these is our primary concern. After nearly a year battle we have finally gotten the original repairs completed but the Corporation refuses to answer our questions about the contracts.
Until November we never questioned that we got a "free pool" as represented to us by CENTEX when we bought this home. This came about during a November meeting with Mr. Mike Belmont, CENTEX Tampa, President. During his inspection of the fauly repairs and poor service that we had received to that point, he asked if we received a free pool as we were supposed to. I told him I was not sure but I would review our closing documents. Over the next couple of days we researched our closing papers and found a major discrepancy. The home has an appraised value of $166,000 (appraisal was done by a company of their choice) which includes the pool. If the pool had been "free" the purchase price should have been $150,000 (CENTEX Shows it at a value of $16,062). What we accepted based of sales conversations was $161,596. We sent this information back to Mr. Belmont on several occasions (between Nov and May) and never received a response. When we finally got something about 4 weeks ago he claimed that the home was actually a $180,000 home.
The second point is that at closing we were shown a good faith estimate that our payment would be $1,281 effective Jan 01. When we received our new payments they were $1,352. While it was explained that this was an estimate we were told we could expected a couple of dollars difference either way. Not over $70 higher. Again this was very deceptive since our budget allowed up to $1,300 which was why we may a substantial down payment. Had we been shown a fair estimate we could have either made a larger down payment or found a different home.
These are definitely misleading and deceptive practices. We wanted to handle this with the company but things get progressively worse with each attempt. It all comes down to what Mr. Belmont stated last November, They have a whole office full of lawyers that work for them in Texas, so they aren't worried about a single home buyer.
We have worked our way from Mr Belmont in Tampa all the way up to Mr Laurence Hirsch the CEO of CENTEX Corporation. The last contact we had with the company was an E-mail from Mr Milgrim (SE Regional President) who's sent an e-mail that stated "Mike, See Below Persistent, isn't he? Pls call to discuss. ED"
We forwarded this response to our inquires to Mr Hirsch and Mr Eller at the Dallas Offices and have not received any response. We ahve given three possible solutions to this situation and have not heard anything about them or even been acknowledged.
We have all the e-mail and letter traffic as well as contracts and good faith estimates. We can not afford to hire a lawyer, they know this and have apparently decided to just forget about us. I am hoping this will lead to both resolution and end these deceptive practices. It is discouraging to see how large corporations abuse individuals. Our country is built on the principles of equality and justice. Unfortunately when it comes to consumer rights these principle do not apply.
When we purchased this home, we took CENTEX for there word. We assumed that since it said "free pool" this was additional equity in the home. That is not the case as you can see from the appraisal. We also assumed that the payments would be as presented in the GFE. As you can see we are not even close.
We would appreciate some assistance with this. How many others have been taken advantage of by this same process? We are asking that CENTEX meet the spirit of their contract. Had we not met our closing obligations I guarantee we would have been hauled to court.
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