Do Not Buy Anything from these two companies. Their names are Charles E Arnett and his brother is Thomas. They are in business to take your money and then play the waiting game.
In our dealings with Charles, we decided on a modular home, supposedly from the top of the line manufacturer, Hi-Tech Housing, supposedly the Lexus of this industry (I think we purchased a Yugo). This started as a construction loan which the builder takes, (in our case) from Long Beach Mortgage, than at closing that loan wraps into a home mortgage through Washington Mutual. There are time constaints and you are locked into an interest rate so that once this house is complete everything should flow without a problem. The house and property have a Construction Completion appraisal done by an independant Appraiser (in our case DJ Dillman & Associates in South Bend) which approves and substantiates that all phases of construction have been met (which were not the case) and the construction loan is basically approved to transfer into this mortgage, so based on this Appraisal and as we were scheduled to close July 18th, there did not seem to be a problem. I had pre-loan documents reviewed, and considering the major construction areas were inspected (based on the Appraisal), we did not fore-see problems. At that time we knew of 'minor' problems and all would be fixed. We reviewed our concerns and after all, there are 'some things common with new construction' and the builder has dealt with it for 20 years and was a man of his word, 'that all would be perfect'.
I'd like to note, there were no complaints registered with BBB and I had seen some of his houses (?) as well as no complaints registered with Patriot Homes of which he had bought and put on-site in the past. Nothing was listed with D&B when I checked.
The nightmare begins, once we discovered we needed an 'occupancy permit' which involved a series of inspections that were supposed to be completed by the La Porte County Building Commission. The builder decided he did not need any inspections as he had 'approvals'. Therefore none were done.
To date we cannot get an occupancy permit, due to numerous code violations from September, (still outstanding, ie; entry steps, vapor shield, insulation in crawlspace, roof vent, grading, plumbing, anchoring of house, hanging ground wire) WHICH do NOT address things like the siding falling off both house and garage, the chimney blowing in the wind, or it's enclosure falling off the house and rain running down the stack, or drip caps/facia hanging loose, bare wires showing in exterior lights and the air conditioning unit, truss bracing not completed, garage door too short for the reworked opening, damaged and torn roof shingles running full lenghth of house, hole in the roof, all roof vents improperly installed (gasses backed up in house), all plumbing leaking into crawlspace, crawlspace is not graded for sump pit (pulled out of pit and used to clean mortar from tools when piers had to be moved and reworked), piers only on half of their footings, debris left and covered over with plastic, ceilings are 'ridging', cracks in all corners, lack of or improper tape joints, all drywall had to be redone (put off to settling), rise in kitchen floor, improper and no floor bracing where specified in plans, ridge boards showing thru roof (or roof sagging), bulges and bowing on sides of house and end peak on house and garage, deteriorating driveway over drainage ditch, cut down trees, stumps, braches left in huge pile.
Presently, we are paying a mortgage and rent, utilities and insurances on both, a lawyer, last but not least, repairs in order to keep the nightmare going.
We have made some progress, the County is learning (at our expense) what constitutes a violation (just had the State Building Commissioner clarify additional violations Dec. 18th-her report won't be available until mid-January), how to go about presenting these violations to the builders' insurance bond company in order to have him pay for some of these repairs, and of course the arguing over who is responsible for what, which than entails numerous correspondense, meetings, persistance in follow up, scheduling inspectors, getting estimates on repairs and remaining sane. The wheels move very slowly and the costs are back breaking, besides running into those brick walls. Our lawyer moves even slower, depending on how much you pay him.
To date, I also traveled to individual counties, Marshall, Knox and Stark, accessed the court records which showed four judgements and a bankruptcy to avoid payment on those judgements all on Bridal Path Estates. That information was not available in the State records. I wish to pursue this man for fraud and misrepresentation, so I would appreciate any information anyone has. I also think better communication is necessary between Indiana Counties and the State agencies as well as what individuals can do as one voice. I thank you for this site.
0 comments