Complaint Review: American Heritage Homes

We paid the builder almost $10,000 for an asphalt driveway on our new builder provided home.  The builder took almost a year to pave the driveway and when he did he hired an unlicensed subcontractor to do the paving.  The driveway failed almost immediately with numerous potholes, broken asphalt, etc.  The builder refused to make any repairs other than applying a sealer and sweeping-in sand, something that two paving contractors stated would have no affect on the failure problems.  We had two engineering groups evaluate the driveway and both came to the same conclusions:  (1) The asphalt was too thin (1/2 inch to 1 inch thick),  (2) The asphalt was placed over the incorrect stone base, (3) The asphalt selected was the wrong mix in that it had stone in the mix bigger than the paving thickness.

The builder refused to personally look at the asphalt conditions even though he was a Professional Engineer and could have seen first hand the cause of the asphalt failure.   Two engineering reports (one from a Professional Engineering group) both stated the driveway was improperly installed and needed to be replaced which the builder steadfastly refused all warranty actually blaming us for the failure!.  After paying the builder almost $10,000 for the initial driveway we have now paid an additional $15,000 for removal and replacement and an additional $7,500 in our attorneys fees.  I might add that this builder who is also a Professional Engineer is also an Attorney and appears to prefer litigation rather than honoring his stated warranty!  The link to the Virginia Board of Contractors consent decree on this matter can be found here: http://www.dpor.virginia.gov/regulantlookup/.%5Cdisciplinaryactions%5Cpdf_orders%5C2010-00471_2705100030.pdf

I will be posting more updates as time allows later including some pictures.  In the mean time I may not be Christian-like in saying this but... I hope the Lord reserves a special place in Hell for this man.