On September 10, I Donny, met with Bill C*, Jim Walter Homes office manager. The purpose for this meeting was to seek information on the JWH Built-on-your-lot homes. At this time, Bill introduced me to the different model homes offered by JWH. At this same meeting, I explained to Bill that I am a single parent with three kids and need to get in a home as soon as possible.
Bill also ran a credit check on me this same day. He called the next day and set up a meeting for me to come in and choose the model home I wanted to build and to start drawing up a contract. We met and agreed on a price and a model. The model I decided on was the Sonoma at the price of 125,000.
A few days later I was contacted by Cindy at JWH to come in and go over the details of the contract. As I was trying to read and understand the contract, I had several JWH employees breathing down my neck and pressuring me to hurry and sign. I did notice that the contract said there was no starting date. I questioned Bill about this and his response was that they had never had a home that took longer than 6 to 8 weeks to get started and 8 months to complete. He assured me that I would be in a house within 8 months.
Needless to say, I am still no closer today than I was over 9 months ago to even starting the building process, much less moving in to a new home.
The following is a list of excuses I've been given from several JWH employees for not starting my house:
Excuse #1 Survey I was told the hold up for two months was the survey company. I called the survey company and they said JWH had the survey already returned to them and said, we are not the hold-up.
Excuse # 2 House Plans This time I was told the plans were being ordered and engineered. After calling the Orange Park office once a week for 2 months and getting nowhere, I called the planning office in Tampa. When I asked what the hold-up was, they told me the plans had been lost, go figure.
Excuse # 3 Building Permit After several more months of waiting for JWH to start building my home, I called Bill once again to see what the delay was. He told me the building permit was holding them up. I called and spoke to a clerk at the permitting office with the city of Callahan and she told me they hadn't even seen my house plans. Bill had lied to me once again.
Excuse # 4 Easement The next obstacle JWH said was a major hold-up was the easement to my property. Once again I had to take time off work to solve a problem that the incompetent JWH staff could not seem to resolve. I had the easement taken care of within a matter of hours.
Excuse # 5 Workers We are now several months past the peak of hurricane season and Katrina and Rita are to blame. The latest excuse is we can't get any workers, they are all building in the hurricane zones.
Excuse # 6 Eleventh in line Six months into the contract and nothing has been erected but a sign on my property. The following is the conversation I had with Bill at this point:
Mr. F*: Can you tell me what the delay is now?
Bill: We just cannot get no help Mr. F*, o.K.?
Mr. F*: What are my options?
Bill: I really don't know, I will get my project manager to call you and set up a time to meet with you about getting started on your house.
One week went by without a phone call from JWH. I once again called Bill and he was away at a convention for a week. Two weeks later I called the main office in Tampa and spoke to the district manager who got Bill to have his project manager to finally call me. I am now at month # seven with still no sign of a house being built on my property.
The following is what happened when I called the project manager:
Mr. F*: When will you get started on my house?
JWH project manager: Buddy, I'm going to be honest with you, we have 22 houses to be built and you are #11 in line. We have some customers that have been waiting since October.
Mr. F*: What happened to your September customers?
JWH project manager: Well buddy, I don't know what to tell you, you are still 3 to 6 months away from us getting started.
As far as I am concerned, this is a breach of contract on the part of Jim Walter Homes. I have done everything in my power to get this process under way and the only thing I've gotten in return is the run-around from the Jim Walter Homes staff.
As a result of all the delays, lies and constant run-around, I cancelled my end of the contract. Because of my cancellation, JWH has placed a lien on my property.
The following are costs associated with fees in which JWH says I owe them:
Courthouse Check: 125.00
Survey: 1000.00
Permit: 1203.82
Recording Fee: 716.12
Plans 138.49
Deed: 75.00
Total 3,258.43
These costs do not include the health permit I was required to have for a septic tank. Although I handled and already paid for that on my own, it is now in the possession of JWH and will soon expire. This is also money I will most likely loose along with the cost of having to start over with a new builder. Construction costs and interest rates have sky-rocketed over the past year since I signed my contract.
The cost of the Sonoma, which is the JWH model I was going to build, has gone from 125,000 dollars in September to 152,000 dollars today. This 27,000 dollar increase is a result of the rising construction costs.
As anyone who reads this letter can see, Jim Walter Homes does not maintain or practice ethical business standards. Since I've been through this experience, I've researched several web sites that are riddled with complaints almost identical to mine about Jim Walter Homes. What's sad about this whole ordeal is that I don't have a leg to stand on against this company because I took a man at his word and signed a contract without a date.
My children and I, over 9 months later, still don't have a home and are well over 3,000 dollars poorer due to the trust of a handshake.
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