Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/10/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  This company built a home for me and lied about start dates. Lied about a missed p-trap causing sewage odors for a month after moving in. Denied any problems we complained about including fraudulent charges for land clearing, landscaping, driveway and exterior paint. Roof leaks , water pipes leak, caulk problems, didn't follow house plans , drainage issues around house. Only remedies offered were not code compliant and substandard temporary fixes that are useless. Blames everything and everyone else but hisself for the construction defects. This builder used unlicensed plumber, unlicensed tile contractor and unlicensed cabinetry contractor. Vinyl siding installed incorrectly and looks horrible. Water enters house through doors and poorly installed weather stripping. Porches don't drain and the list goes on and on. JA R****** builders should never be accredited or even allowed to build new homes.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/16/2022

  Contact Name and Title: Joel R****** Owner
  
  Contact Phone: **********
  
  Contact Email: *****************@outlook.com
  
  In response to this complaint from my former client I am denying his allegations as I have returned to his home numerous times to address any issues that I was made aware of directly or indirectly. The client did not notify me of some of the issues he is alleging and the other issues he is alleging I found out about through others telling me he was posting about them on his Facebook page. There were a few issues that he did contact me about directly and I immediately remedied those issues and remedied issues that he did not let me know about directly but learned of through other people. On October 19, 2022 my attorney and myself visited the clients home to do a site inspection in response to a Right to Cure letter. Upon that inspection no major issues were found just typical warranty items. The inspection was performed using the South Carolina Residential Building Standards. A significant list of potential remedies was offered to the client, and he refused. I am a licensed contractor and built his house as the plans stated. My attorney and myself have been dealing with this client since he served a Right to Cure letter in June 2022, my attorney responded promptly to set up a site visit. We did not hear anything else from the client or his attorney until late September 2022 when he apparently obtained a different attorney and sent another Right to Cure letter. The client agreed to a site visit and it was done on October 19, 2022, as stated previously.
  
  To address his complaints specifically:
  
  1. "Lied about start date"- I am denying this allegation, as the client told me he closed on his mortgage loan one year prior to him contacting me to build his house.
  
  2. "Lied about P-Trap causing sewage odors for a month after moving in"- I found out about the sewage smell the client complained about via a Facebook post, I took it upon myself to contact them about it even though the client did not contact me directly. Troubleshooting the smell was started immediately and after three weeks the problem was found and fixed withing 3 days. The smell was not constant during that month it only presented during certain weather patterns which made it difficult to troubleshoot.
  
  3. "Denied any problems we complained about including fraudulent charges for land clearing, landscaping, driveway, and exterior paint"- Client was charged for none of those items, he alleges that because his banking institution uses a generic draw form designed to work for every project. He was never charged for land clearing, landscaping, driveway, or exterior paint, although his outdoor columns were painted. I have proof that he was not charged for any of those items. Client was made aware of this numerous times during the building process by me as well as the loan officer at his banking institution.
  
  4. "Roof Leaks, water pipes leak, caulk problems, did not follow house plans, drainage issues around house"- There are no roof leaks, no evidence of roof leaks were observed during site visit on October 19, 2022. During the visit on October 19, 2022, client did have a small pipe leak at one Pex compression ring and the plumber was called immediately and it was fixed that same day. There was very minimal water leakage and ceiling stain. Offer was made to fix ceiling stain and he refused. Caulk shrinkage is normal as a house acclimates and an offer was made to touch up caulking, but client refused. Clients home was built per plans, except for the location of the fireplace, size of cabinets, siding, and roofing, as the client asked for those changes. Once changes were made client refused to pay for the upgrades. The upgrades and work performed that was not charged for totaled approximately $20,000. I wrote off this amount due to the client becoming extremely hostile near the end of the project. I was trying to work with him, but obviously it was not appreciated. The foundation was built to exceed the building code standards for the location. There are no drainage issues around his house, the county building official and building inspector have both been back out to his home upon the clients request, to inspect and specifically stated the drainage meets code requirements. As a matter of fact, the inspectors did not note any code violations.
  
  5. "Only remedies offered were not code complaint and substandard temporary fixes that are useless"- There are no code violations at clients home, there were very few issues that were outside of the SC Residential Building Standards and the remedies offered to client were SC Residential Building Standards complaint.
  
  6. "Blames everything and everyone else but hisself for the construction defects"- There are no construction defects, only issues are typical warranty issues that I have offered to fix, but client refused. I have not passed blame to anyone and have offered to remedy issues, to which again he refused. Not to mention the client was happy with his home during the entire building process right up until it was time to pay the last draw. I have documentation to prove this.
  
  7. "The builder used unlicensed plumber, unlicensed tile contractor and unlicensed cabinetry contractor"- The plumber works under a licensed plumber. To my knowledge there is no specific licensure for tile installers and cabinet builders.
  
  8. "Vinyl siding installed incorrectly and looks horrible"- I am denying this allegation as the vinyl siding was installed per manufacturer instructions and was installed by experienced siding installers. His siding is vertical vinyl and is preforming as it should.
  
  9. "Water enters house through doors and poorly installed weather stripping"- I am denying this allegation. During the site visit on October 19, 2022 there was no evidence of this. Not to mention there is a porch over every exterior door and the porches have appropriate slope.
  
  10. "Porches don't drain and the list goes on and on"- I am denying this allegation, as the porches slope away from the house. During the site visit on October 19, 2022 there was no evidence of water stains on the porches.
  
  11. "J.A. R****** Builders should never be accredited or even allowed to build new homes"- I have been an licensed home builder since 2007 and have built over 30 custom high end homes. This client is the only client that has ever complained about my work. The client was perfectly happy with every step of the construction of his home and then at the very end when the last draw was due he began to slander my business and make up issues. No home is perfect, but I am a very involved builder because I am a small business. There are minor warranty issues in every home no matter who builds it and I give all my clients a one year warranty. This client refused to let me know directly about most issues with the intent to make it look like I was not holding up my end of the deal, even so I made every effort to address any concerns he had. As stated above, I provided a list of remedies to him which he refused.
  
  
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/16/2022

  (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
  
  I do not accept the businesses response. These replies are lies. I have proof and evidence backing up my every complaint. Texts messages of the lies told when he would start construction on my house. I have pictures where they jack hammered out a spot in the bathroom floor during construction to try and cover up the mistake of the missed p trap in shower, rather than tearing out the area in shower and doing it correctly. He has failed at every attempt before to fix problems. I have no faith in his cheap and short cut remedies to fix the problems. Watering pouring out of a light fixture is not just a " fix a stain" problem. Insulation needs to be replaced and tested for mold. Him saying he worked on sewage smell problem for weeks, was the builder coming and sniffing drains. Too cheap to get a real plumbing company come do the proper tests because it would have cost him $500. I also have email thread evidence from the county building official stating he visited my home and relayed the code violations found and drainage issues found to the builder. The builder constantly lies , habitually about the county stating everything is fine. I also have evidence from builder stating he already lost $15,000 on home , now he states $20,000? There's a pattern here as you can see. And I'm not responding to all these ridiculous responses he gives because they are lies and me stating facts in not slander. It's called the truth. And having the evidence to back it up , proves it. How can he say the sewer smell came with weather conditions? Was he there? I'm pretty sure we were there every day. And he was there maybe 3 times to sniff drains and leave. It was so bad , our oldest dog coughed for weeks and would not even go in the bathroom. The plans were not followed. After reviewing them in depth , the porches were suppose to be level with the homes slab. It's not , it steps down. And many other things have been found. This company has devalued my home and caused my family so much stress and inconvenience because of substandard work. His warranty is a joke also. It's one sided and written to favor the builder. And to close , I have no care, whatsoever, about any other clients or previous builds. I only care about my home that he screwed up. And I also have evidence telling this builder and complaining daily or weekly throughout the entire build of the issues all along. More lies by saying I was happy the whole time. I had to leave sticky notes And repair lists weekly. Because he didn't supervise the job correctly. He couldn't even figure out how to install a pocket door lock correctly, my wife and I had to. And my financial institution required builder to submit a draw schedule with itemized costs. Ja R****** builders submitted his itemized list to my bank. And if you put $2,600 on the line that says landscaping, yet didn't perform that work, that is fraudulent charges. When Ja R****** builders puts a cost on the land clearing line, yet the homeowner already had the lot cleared and paid for before builder ever shows up , then that's a fraudulent charge. I can only explain it to him, I can't make him understand it. To submit a truthful draw, you put not applicable or replace that line with a factual item such as " septic tank" , then put the cost. It's really simple. Ja R****** builders can deny everything I said, but I have the evidence to support my response as " LIES ". Also 4 foundation companies have said I have issues with slab and professional foundation and concrete companies will be the ones to professionally and properly fix ja R******s mess. R****** had the opportunity to bring a foundation company/specialist to the right to cure inspection, but he did not. He waisted 15 minutes of my life by saying they had a company coming, but they never showed. I do not accept ja *******s response.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/22/2022

  Tell us why here...In my former client's accusations that I lied about pretty
  much everything, that is false. I presented facts in my previous reply to his
  complaints. He has not presented any documentation to substantiate his
  accusations to my attorney, myself, or any other organization that he has filed
  a complaint with. I stand by my original responses to his complaints and accusations.
  I have fixed any problems that he notified me of previously and offered to remedy
  current warranty issues that he noted in his Right to Cure Letter. As stated in
  my previous response, he refused those remedies. The issued were and would have
  been remedied in accordance with the SC Residential Building Standards. I’m not
  going to address each item AGAIN because they have been addressed numerous times
  already. I will address a few of these new accusations though. I have not received any money from this client for
  work that we did not perform. I explained in my previous response that his bank
  used a generic draw form and the only way to receive 100% of the funds was to
  get 100% of the line-item percentages that were on the form. This was explained
  to him numerous times by the bank and me. The client approved every draw that
  was made and had a copy of each draw form prior to approval. I also want to
  address the accusation of “multiple code violations”. Each inspection throughout
  the entire build was performed through Calhoun County by a certified Safe Built
  inspector and each inspection passed for code compliance. Calhoun County would
  not have issued the client or me a Certificate of Occupancy if there were
  any failed inspections for non-code compliance. The client has also had the
  building official and building inspector back on site at his request doing a compliance
  walk through after he moved in and there were still no code violations. They
  only noted minor building standard warranty issues, to which I have offered to
  remedy. This was addressed in the previous response. He did not mention foundation
  issues in the previous complaint, but as for his alleged foundation issues they
  are false, and I deny them 100%. There is absolutely no evidence of any
  foundation or structural issues. The client is using a photo that he took of
  contraction cracks in the concrete slab two days after it was poured to allege
  structural and foundation problems. The slab in his home is strictly a sub-floor
  and is not a structural component of his foundation. Contraction cracks in
  concrete are 100% normal, which is stated in the SC Residential Building
  Standards. Contraction cracks in concrete are not indicative of structural failure.
  The client fails to note in his complaint that the two contraction cracks in
  the concrete slab that required repair that were outside of the SC Residential Building Standards were repaired before
  flooring was installed. I have photo evidence to prove this. There are no indicators
  of structural or foundation defects, for example there are no cracks on
  foundation block stem walls, no cracks in corners, no cracks over doors or
  windows, and all interior and exterior doors open/close as they should. As for
  the client stating that the porch floors should be level with the house slab
  floor, that is an incorrect construction practice as that would allow water to
  run into the house. Porches should step down below the main floor to stop water
  intrusion under door thresholds and wall sole plates. I also failed to mention
  in the previous reply that a picture of a piece of vinyl siding trim used to allege
  that the vinyl siding was not installed correctly was in fact from 2021 right
  after the siding was installed and months before the house was completed. The
  trim was repaired within a few days of receiving that photo. In closing, I
  stand behind the quality of my work and my business practices 100%.