Complaint Review: Jim Walter Homes

We find ourselves like others that have been rip-off, lied to, have warranty for repairs that is worthless, and signed multiple contracts and still Jim Walter Homes built what they want to not what you asked for.

In May of 2003, we signed a contract with Jim Walter Homes during a promotional campaign offering a discount and free appliances on new construction. Our contract agreement was re-worked and resigned over a dozen of times. Gerald Craig the salesman made several trips to El Dorado and we made several trips to Pine Bluff to sign contracts. He assured us that we will be getting everything we asked for in the first contract that it was minor technicality with not using our middle initials, Jim Walter Homes not able to expand the home of our choice, or the survey description is not correct on the deed was the reason why we had to resign contracts.

After signing contracts and getting the surveyor to rewrite the survey to get the deed cleared we thought that they would start on our home like they promise that we would be in within 90 to 120 days. We were living in an apartment and our lease was up for renewal so our families offer there homes to us so we would not go into another six month lease and end up broking the lease since our home was to be ready within 120 days. Well, guess how long a family of five lived out of boxes, the trunk of cars and storage building before we saw any type of construction started a year and a half.

Prior, to Jim Walter Homes started building our home I had to call several time weekly to Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Texas, and Tampa to find out when they was going to start on our home. The people in Texas and Tampa couldn't give is an explanation of the delay. Pine Bluff and Little Rock kept lying that someone would be out the next week and no one never showed when they say. The construction manager would promise me that he would meet me at the site on a certain day and time, I would leave my job, cancel appointments, and be at the site waiting on him and he would not have the courtesy to call and say he is not coming. That's just part of the nightmare of their lying and dishonest.

When the construction manager came out to discuss the details and plans of the home instead of him having plans of the Presidential home he had plans of the Savannah home, minus the garage we was suppose to have gotten, the siding was wrong, was wrong, and the house was to flip so the garage would be on the same side that the driveway. When the builders put up the frame and the roof on the house it leaked and the insulation gotten wet, the floor was cover with water, they threw trash out the windows according to the room they was working in not in piles there was piles of trash everywhere.

When they put in the kitchen cabinets they damaged the cabinets and didn't want to replace them, put the dishwasher return in on the wrong side next to where the stove was going to be and said they put all their dishwashers in on that side. There was not enough room for the door of the dishwasher door to open. I asked the construction manager was he stupid or did he think I was stupid. I literally had to fight with them to get them to put the dishwasher return on the other end of the cabinet and repair the damage cabinet. They put up a shelf and called it a fireplace mantel and it was not straight.

When it came to signing the tender I refuse because they was not going to fix the dishwasher return, the mantel, the leaking roof and the sloppy paint job. Since I refused to sign the tender they took the keys and ceased all the work and call me and made promises that they were going to correct the problems. As of today 4/18/06 all our warranty problems have not been addressed I have a leaking bathroom sink, they broken a light fixture trying to fix it, the closet shelf in the master bedroom trying to repair it and refuse to come back and fix it. Dottie Leeds, Vice President of Warranty in Tampa written and said that all my problems have been corrected that they will not repair anymore problems with the home unless it was structure problem. Of course I have structure problems and refused to address them. I been complaining about my uneven doors, the floor in the hall coming up, the kitchen, master bathroom, laundry room floor is uneven to them they are not bad enough to be warranty problems. I finally was able to get them to repaint the house by calling the consumer reported on KTVE Channel 7 in Little Rock, to fix the outside water faucets, and the pipes under the house.

I did not mention all because it has really been a nightmare with all the problems we had with Jim Walter Homes in come to repair warranty problems, and abiding by their contract. I will advice anyone not to refer or contact them about building a home for them or someone they know. Arkansas need a lemon law on homes like on cars something to force builders like Jim Walter Homes to build home and not shacks to rip-off customers. Their license needs to be pulled from building homes throughout the U.S.

Kenneth
El Dorado, Arkansas
U.S.A.

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