We sold our fixer-upper stick-built home in August and began to look for our new home. I had just returned from the Middle East, where I was sent with the Air Force to help combat terrorism. We couldn't find a house in our price range because the real estate market in our area had ballooned out of control. Building costs also had quadrupled. We couldn't get a builder to talk to us. We had bought a 1-acre lot at the edge of town on a slight slope. Finally after several months of trying to find a home or a builder who would talk to us, I searched the internet for quality manufactured homes and found that Champion Homes builds more manufatured housing than any brand (at that time). And, the manufactured homes were about half the cost of building a traditional stick-built home. We looked for a dealer, and found one in our area, Southern Homes of Florida.
We visited the dealership and picked out a model we liked, the Gateway/Advantage/Titan model. The reasons we liked it so well were because of the large kitchen and the square-footage (2,250 ft.). To get the same ameneties in a stick-built home would have cost three times as much.
The dealer (s) at Southern Homes told us we could be in our new home by Thanksgiving (it was early October). Thanksgiving came and went, and so did Christmas. We were staying with family and all of our belongings were in storage. We had hoped to be in our new home by the time the dealer at Southern Homes had stated, but at that particular time, all manufactured housing factories including those for Champion had been ordered to produce FEMA trailers for the government because of hurricane Katrina (so we were told). We told Southern Homes that we were no longer interested in buying from them, and now I wish I had just walked away.
Southern Homes persuaded us to hang on a little longer, and told us we could have our new house in April. We arranged for financing and got our mortgage approved. April came and went. I asked the dealer at Southern Homes to pour a concrete pad for our home to support it because of the sandy, sloping lot we own. He said, "We don't do that." I should have cut and run at that point, but we were desperate to move out of our crowded family's home and into our own home. The webpage for Champion Homes listed our dealer as one who also furnished modular housing. So I couldn't understand why they couldn't (or wouldn't) pour a concrete pad for our home, since I was expecting to pay for it.
Finally, in late May of our new home arrived at the dealership. We drove out to look at it, and the dealer told us that the truck hauling one half of our home from the factory had "hit a bump on the interstate, and there was damage." Specifically, he told us the grout in the kitchen floor had been cracked, and one wall in the middle bedroom had collapsed. I remembered thinking, "It must have been a pretty hard bump to do all of that", but the dealer assured me that the damages were superficial.
The dealership then placed the home on our lot, but I noticed some things were wrong right away. The two sections of the home weren't aligned properly. The center seam in the ceiling is wider at the top than at he bottom. I walked in while they were finishing the set up, and the techncian was applying extra plaster over the center seam like it would go away if he applied enough plaster. I asked him about the seam being wider at the top, and he said, "Its in specs.", meaning that it was within specifications.
I walked around outside and looked at the cinder block pillars on which the home had been placed, and they were crooked and had gaps between some of them. I took pictures of them at this point, because I had an uneasy feeling about them. Boy, I had no idea.
We called Southern Homes and they did come out and fix the wall in the middle bedroom. We gave them a list of things we felt needed their attention including the cracked grout in the kitchen and the fact that the jacuzzi tub in the master bath leaked. (We can't use it anymore). We called time and again, only to be told that, "The list got lost" and to "send another one".
Finally a year went by and with it went the manufacturer's warranty. I can get a better warranty on a washing machine from Sears! Some of the appliances that came with the home had longer warranties!
Now, three years later, the center seam is splitting. Plaster is falling out of the seam, and there is obvious separation beneath the carpet in the living room where the two halves of the home are separating. Cracks have appeared in the walls throughout the home, and toxic mold is growing along the center seam in the hallway ceiling. I began to realize that the home had been more severely damaged in the "bump on the interstate", probably twisting the frame and preventing proper set up of the home. We sued.
Southern Homes is no more. They folded a full year before we filed suit. The factory who built our home is out of business. They too, folded before we filed suit.
Our attorney filed a suit against the company, Champion Homes. Their attorneys came out, looked at our home and offered to have their contractor patch some of the visible cracks in the walls to "Champion's satisfaction, not ours". They did not offer to fix the grout in the floor, or do anything about the center seam alignment or to fix the jacuzzi tub. Obviously, a company who can't stand behind their products or give complete customer satisfaction, shouldn't be in business. Our attorney says we are in a period of negotiation and it could take a long time before we can reach an agreeable settlement.in the mean time, our home continues to fall apart around us. I heard a terrific crash the other day, and I thought something had fallen against the doublewide, and I realized that it was likely one of the crooked supporting cinder block pillars on which the home is placed that fell over underneath our home.
I financed this home for 30 years. When it is paid for, I will be 80 years old. I will be obligated to pay for this home into my dotage and it won't be here in 5 years. I can't sell it for enough to pay off the mortgage. I can't rent it out for the payments in it's present condition. I can't get a loan to have the home re-leveled or repaired, because they won't lend money on a manufactured home. So, we are stuck. This place may give way tomorrow and fall apart and I will still be obligated to pay for it. The fair market value of the home is zero! My impulse it to walk away from it and go rent somewhere if I can find a suitable rental. My family's safety is at stake! If I default though, I will lose my lot as well. I think I would still be money ahead.
Stay away from Champion Homes! They sold us a bill of goods, and are laughing all the way to the bank with our money! Once they had our money, the dropped us like used newspaper. This doublewide is like Swiss cheese being held together with bailing wire. It was to be our dream home, and for us it has become our worst nightmare!
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