Here in Texas, they seem to be quite behind other states in consumer protection when it comes to home builders and anything else that may protect consumers.
The day after our home closed on 2/24/06, the drainage from the development passed through our yard forming a gully. A few days later another storm came and again, the drainage from the vacant lots drained through our yard, sinking the gully even deeper. A pile of dirt left on the adjacent vacant lot by a construction crew began to break down. It appears the weight of this mud damaged it even further. We have very clear digital photographs of this storm in action as well as the damage afterwards.
We were told by an employee of Choice Homes they would be constructing a permanent retaining wall and it would be in within two seeks. They stated they would put in a temporary silt fence until then and they did. We filled the gap left in the silt fence with sand bags. We are now at the end of three weeks and construction of wall has not begun. Another employee has now stated they were not going to be putting in the wall. After this, Choice Homes stated they are waiting on a surveyor report to make their decision.
We feel we are unable to implement our landscaping plans until Choice Homes retains the adjacent and above properties they are building on as well as repair the damage to our yard. This is a brand new home and we feel we cannot use our yard!
In addition, the front area during the rainstorm was draining directly in the direction of our foundation.
We have made many calls to Choice Homes and very few calls have been returned. We have asked to speak with the company president and we are being told he is not available. We write emails regularly and we are receiving what we feel to be conflicting information from various employees within the company. Many emails are not answered. We feel as though we are getting put off and that they have had plenty of time to resolve the issue.
Some of our neighbors told us that they had also encountered problems with the drainage and had discussed it with the builder quite some time ago. The drainage problem was not discussed throughout our real estate transaction and it is our opinion that there is strong evidence supporting that they were well aware of it. We are questioning the non disclosure of the transaction.
We are hoping that the potential buyers of the vacant lots which are draining through our property are going to be advised of the development drainage situation prior to the sale of the properties. Most of these vacant lots, all of which in our opinion, are in the problem drainage area, suddenly are being graded and construction has begun on a couple. As far as we can tell as of date, there are no retaining walls being constructed. We heard, although not confirmed by Choice Homes, that these are going to be "spec" homes.
We have a very strong opinion that this real estate drainage problem was not addressed for the sole purpose of unloading a problem piece of property rather than the responsible party taking the loss for their poor planning and purchasing decisions. We feel as though we have been victimized as we cannot resale it without a substantial financial loss to us.
On May 17, Choice Homes had permission to come onto our property to repair the damage from the February and March rainstorms. We came home to find that they had taken it on their own to construct a berm for drainage. They did not repair the damage and fill in the gully. We had to remove the berm as there is no place to put our fence.
Choice Homes did put in some berms on the sides although we feel the berm installed will prompt the future owner of the property next door to fill it in and rot our fence. We plumbed for our fence and found that Choice Homes had extended their berm and their temporary silt fence well within our property line and we removed the silt fence and aksed them to move their drainage berm over.
On May 18, Choice Homes met with me and asked several times asked so does this mean we can't come onto your property? The answer was continually no although I felt as though this was repeate dly asked in order for them to justify them not doing any warranty work or dealing with the drainage problem.
We feel that Choice Homes was highly dishonest on the response to the Better Business Bureau. They stated that our lot is not viewed as a problem piece of property. We feel they blamed the drainage problem on a heavy rainstorme.
The City of Midlothian has written a letter to Choice Homes requesting them to properly handle the drainage problem both on our lots and lots that are under construction. They also told them that they visited our lot and felt the lot to be improperly graded and that they felt the ponding problem was a result of inadequate grading work. They stated that they inspected the berm work and found it marginal and not likely to solve the drainage problem, nor does it appear to be adequately placed or compacted.
We are going on three months since closing our home and as of May 22, we are still unable to plan or use our back yard or construct a planned privacy fence. We do NOT recommend this builder! Since they did not dislcose the drainage problem prior to the sale of the home, we feel they would be quite dishonest and feel they lack integrity in other areas as well.
Please email for drainage and other damage photos.
Dan and Sherry
Midlothian, Texas
U.S.A.
0 comments