Our story is the same as the others you will find on this and various other sites. We had to sign three different contracts as each one expired 6 months after it was signed. It took over 2 years for the house to be completed.
The builder blamed everything from a change in Hurricane codes, change in impact fees, weather, the construction manager who they just fired, Etc. If for some reason after reading this you still decide to have JWH build your house, PLEASE be sure to get everything in writing. Verbal promises of "sure, you can delete that cabinet and we will give you a credit" or "sure, you can provide your own door hardware and we will issue a credit" are just not true.
Even when it comes to the walk through inspections of the home, get it in writing! Both of our bath tubs were chipped during construction. Consruction Manager Bill Davis assured us that they would be repaired before the house was tendered to us. After that did not occur we submitted a warranty claim. Well since we did not have it in writing guess what? We had to pay to fix them ourselves and Bill Davis lied right to my face while looking me in the eye and said he was never told about the chips in the tubs.
Here it is 13 months after my home was tendered to us and I am still waiting for warranty work to be completed and items to be dropped off. The kicker is we wanted to move in on July 1st but had to wait to pass the Septic inspection.
We finally pass the Septic, driveway and culvert inspections and tell Jim Walters (in writing no less) that we are ready for them to go get the Certificate of Occupancy. Bill Davis states "Oh, we never got a final plumbing inspection, will schedule that for Monday" so that meant another weekend in the hotel while we wait for the CO. Monday comes and the inspection is passed and Bill Davis informs us that we can go ahead and move in, he is going to get the CO.in November a Code Enforcement officer shows up and says a CO was never issued for the house. Of course Jim Walter Homes denies this and blames us somehow but low and behold the CO is issued January 8 after they pay the reinspection fee for failing the first plumbing inspection.
To add insult to injury, if you do not live in your house on or before January 1st you are not eligible to file Homestead Exemption which would have saved us $550.00 in property taxes. Since my CO was issued 1-8-04 guess who was out of luck? I could have stated I lived in the house January 1st but the penalty is $100.00 a day to live in a house with no CO in our County so it would have cost us $800.00 to make $550.00.
In short, we have decided to sell the house. What better way to stick it to Jim Walters then to pay off the loan a year later rather than pay them intrest for 30 years? They will undoubtedly lose money on my home which is our final way of striking back.
One thing that certainly helped our cause was hiring an Attorney. It was amazing how fast people who wouldn't call you back for months on end would get on the phone after the Attorney was involved.in the event that you are unable to hire an Attorney threaten to go to the "Whistle Blower" segment of your local tv news channel or write a letter to the Editor of your local paper. Getting legal and / or threatening them with bad publicity seems to be the only way to get their attention.
In closing, steer clear of JWH in Fort Myers and in general. There are plenty of "sub prime" lenders out there who will loan you money (and for far less an intrest rate than JWH) so you may purchase a real house and skip the years of lies, stress, aggravation, legal expense and wasted money.
Jim Walter Homes and their employees are the lowest forms of life masquerading as businessmen. If anyone would like copies of the legal paperwork between myself, my Attorney and the JWH Legal Department please feel free to contact me. Be informed before you sign any papers!
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