Dear complaint,
We are victims of Trinity Custom Homes of Ellijay, Ga. We are also victims of construction arbitration Associates of Roswell, Ga. It took eleven months to build Our Trinity Custom Home, WRONG, Our Trinity Custom Home is not even legal in the state of Ga. Apparently there are a bunch of Trinity Custom Homes built out of seven stores in GA that are not legal.
At arbitration the first item we listed as a claimed defect was the foundation of the house. The foundation was not built to the drawing. The mudsill anchors were not installed correctly either. The arbitrator gave no explanation in his
report. It just says no; lets look at a mudsill anchor stamped into the base of the anchor. It says Simpson strong tie R MAB 15 that is the part number, ICC ER - 5708 is the evaluation sheet, or the code report. Below that are use and warnings strongtie.com/info. If you Google ICC ER-5708 it will give you the instructions on how to install this anchor. Let me quote you part of it. The hook must be embedded a minimum of 7into the normal weight concrete or grout,
anchors must be installed into the center of one cell a minimum eight inch by eight inch by 16 inch fully grouted concrete masonry unit. A cement block.
Here is what our Trinity Custom Home foundation has. First there is a 4 solid cap sitting on top of the foundation wall, the mudsill has been bent and placed though the gap of the next 4 solid cap giving about a 2 embedded anchor at
the edge of the cement block cavity. I knocked a hole in the block one below where the anchor has been embedded; the cavity above was cut in half by a broken piece of block running from the top left the lower right corner. The report says also the anchors must be placed no more than 36 apart. The anchors in our Trinity Custom Home run up to 68 apart. The arbitrator was shown the foundation wall with the hole in it along with the manufacturers instructions.
That is at least 4 if not 5 code violations. Just on the anchors, which are a major safety issue, now lets look at GA codes if you Google DCA GA, Construction codes you will come up with the mandatory codes. There are 8 in all. If you look at the bottom of the sheet it explains what mandatory is. As noted above the building one and two family dwellings, fire, plumbing, mechanical, gas, electrical and energy codes are mandatory codes, meaning that under GA law, any structure built in GA must comply with these codes, whether or not the local government chooses to enforce these codes.
Lets look at one more item, the ceilings in our Trinity Custom Homes was caught installing the wrong sheet rock in the house, once confronted they did offer to correct it. Wrote all over the walls of the house were instructions. Cut out 5/8rock to fit. Needless to say they did not follow instructions given. Trinity Homes were made well aware that the ceilings were installed incorrectly. At the hearing the arbitrator was shown all the cracks and nails pops, sags and problems with the ceiling. Line 39 of the report is not what was discussed. A line 39 was showing the cause of all the problems with the ceiling being installed wrong. He was shown a picture of the gaps in the ceiling to the wall some gaps were so wide a penny would fit into the cracks. That is a inch gap. If you look at the instructions for hanging sheet rock it tells you the ceilings are always installed first. The walls support the edge of that heavy panel.By leaving gaps you also ruin the fire rating of the house. This is another major safety issue. The reason being there in no sheet rock just a tape gap. These are two examples of what the 4 hour hearing consisted of,
After all of that Trinity Custom Homes turned in estimates from two contractors who have never been in our house for a little over $2,000. On the other hand we had a contractor show up at the house and were told our house would never ever be right. He was so upset with all the things he saw, he was going to call the arbitrator. He talked to the owners of CAA and was apparently told it does not matter if its right or wrong but how the arbitrator feels about it. Thats not what arbitration is defined as in our contract. He is under oath just as we were at the hearing. IT took several attempts but I finally got to talk with the district CEO of the BBB. I explained a couple of items to him and explained what the arbitrator had said. The CEO said that basically going through arbitration was like going before a judge. I asked him then, well I thought a judge was supposed to uphold the law and look that the facts. Not break the law and hide the fact. The CEO
then asked to guess who handled the arbitration. He said Ill bet it was CAA out of Roswell GA. I looked at him shocked and said yes. I was told by the CEO he could not go into a lot of details but lets just say youre not the first to complain.
He did however give me some advice; I also spoke with the GA State licensing board for residential and general contractors. I was not impressed with them at all. I gave their director a lot of information on Trinity Custom Homes.
They just decided to close the file. I did get to speak with the director a couple of times. I asked who made up the board. I was told it was a group of contractors. I also asked for Trinity Custom Homes Bond holder or insurer and was denied that as well.
My county officials have been of no help as well. I wont go into detail of how uniformed they are when it comes to GA codes, My Rights, and GA Laws concerning the inspection of a house and the right to appeal their decisions and asked for hearings.
Please send help!
Sincerely,
Sweetheart
0 comments