Complaint Review: Dendor fine homes - oro medonte Ontario

Our dealings with Dendor fine homes was the biggest mistake we ever made.
Dendor is, father, mother, son, and daughter. Family run buisness you think you can trust.  
I did not put names in, they know who they are.
Dendor leads you to believe you are getting top product when in fact you are not.
Dendor base there price on the construction list with all the top products and then change everything through out the build with out contacting the home owner.
Dendor pulls budgets out of the air, it does not matter what it is, your always over budget and they always want to charge extra. 
Dendor is NOT educated in home building, they rely on the trades to do the right thing. All the good and honest trades will not work for dendor.   

In the fall of 2007 we had purchased a lot in Springwater Ont, Canada, from Sarjeant company (developer) located in Barrie ont,   We had paid $195,000 for the property. We we`re told by the developer that this was a premium lot and it was ready to be built on. Little did we know, it turned out that there was major problems with this property and through all the arguments with sarjeant company we had recieved an email saying, ``its your fault for purchasing a deficient lot`` thats nice of them. We have every single email from every one in this report.
    
                                                             (WARNING)
Dendor fine homes dose NOT follow contracts and is suppose to be a custom home builder.
As well as astro kitchens.   --Shoddy-- (adj-of inferior workmanship and materials)
 
 This is my report---- let the truth be known, nobody would listen to us.   

We had searched Barrie area for a Builder and found the Dendor model home in oro medonte and liked it very much at the time.  After several meetings with dendor we had decided to hire them to build our so called custom dream home.
We had felt that we should start the build in the first week in may of 2008. 
We paid dendor, (a) partial signing deposit. and then, (b) balance of deposit.  

Time had come and the first week of may 2008 dendor had called and said we will have to delay the excavation for a few days. Dendor did not offer to sign and agree on this delay. Few days later the excavation had begun and the footings had been built and i had a problem with the way the footings had been built. The footings had been built with 2x6 and had been over laped and the width of the footing in certan areas had not been 20 inches as per plan and i did point this out to dendor and they said thats fine, its ok. The building inspector should have caught this. 

Days later the basement was complete and when it was time to backfill for frost protection there was not enough dirt, dendor had delt with the developer at the time because of the problem and did not contact us until after the dirt had been delivered and placed and then handed us a bill for almost $8000, this work had been done with out us knowing and we did NOT sign and agree on this extra. We had contacted the developer after, the developer had sent us an email saying the dirt was delivered FREE of charge to our property and the bill was for the excavation of your basement. Its a bogus bill. The developer did not want anything  to do with it of course. 

Framing had begun and the home started to take shape. There was few minor problems with the framing like joist hangers that had not been completed, i had pointed this out to dendor and they said they would take care of it. I seen then that dendor did not like been told what too do. Far as im concerned, we are the ones that hired them. 
I my self have experience in rough work in home building and dendor knows that and did not like when i pointed out certain things. My experience comes from working the city of greater Toronto area where building codes are very strict.

Once the roof had been sheeted (covered) dendor had asked for the (c) first draw and it had been paid. 
The day came for the electrical walk through and we had chosen where we wanted, all electrical outlets, all light switches, all telephone outlets, all internet outlets, all cable tv outlets.  Dendor had written down on the wall studs as we watched to ensure trades knew where to install all these outlets and light switches. It is obvious that dendor had written down more of each outlets and light switches after we had left the project for the day. After all this was installed dendor had mailed us another bill for $5000 for extra internet outlets, telelphone outlets, cable outlets. Dendor said we went over the budget and all the outlets in the finished basement is an extra. Our contract states ``locations to be decided`` Thats it, no more.  I told dendor im not paying for all this, dendor said its already installed so you have to pay. We did not sign and agree, contract states, ``All extras and deletions shall be agreed in writing in advance by both parties``
 
As it became time to do the brick and stone work on the house, we`re suppose get the Permacon Duffrin Stone but dendor always found a way to change the product and say its better but the fact is that it is cheaper.
As go`s for the brick, dendor said they miss calculated and didnt order enough brick and needed more money to order more. Not our fault.  And the window sils for our home are suppose to be 4 inch just like dendor model home, and dendor said there suppose to be 2 inch. Dendor said there was a mistake and 4 inch window sils have been delivered instead of 2 inch and if we wanted the 2 inch, it would take a week or so before 2 inch sils would arrive, but to keep the brick layers going we can use the 4 inch sils but it will be $1700 extra. Nice scam.  

Everything was going to schedule then in end of august my wife lost her job do to the economy, then the bank where we had pre aproval then slamed the door. So we looked elswhere.  The honest thing to do. We had told dendor what had happen, it was like turning off the light switch. A few days later dendor had asked for (d) the next draw before it was do. 
Drywall (boarding) was nowhere near completed as per contract. And after, dendor treated us and talked to us like we are there workers. Not workmanlike manner at all, as per contract.

Dendor continued to work on the project as we we`re trying to get the finance in order. At this time we had a perfect construction loan in place, and this lender had sent there appraiser to the project for there estimate. The estimate came back good and the project was 85% complete and all dendor had to do was to finish more and get occupancy and they would be paid in full. We then presented this to dendor, there reply ``no, we want our payment now`` 
So this offer then expired. We knew what dendor was trying to do, they tried to break us so they can take over the house.

The completion date november 1st 2008 came and went and dendor did not want to sign and agree in writing on any delay as per contract, as they tried to blame us for the delay. On november 11th we paid dendor there payment (d) plus $20,000 in interest and extras just like they wanted.  In good faith we also paid the third payment (e) ahead of schedule at the same time to keep the project moving, we then asked for a firm completion date, as we still had to put our other house on the market to be sold. Dendor said they would get back to us, and never did. We asked many times for completion dates and dendor could never give us a firm date.

It was in mid December when dendor ordered floor tiles for the kitchen and laundry room, master bath, main floor bath, and powder room. We had made the decision in mid August, dendor did not put the order in when we decided and because dendor had waited til December to order the tiles many of the tiles were out of stock til after the holidays. (Dendor blamed this delay on us but later admitted this delay in there discoverys that it was there fault) 
So we ended up going the next day to choose new tile and marble to kept things on track. Not only did we lose two days doing so, we paid for many of tiles and use our vehicle to deliver them and we had to unload them aswell. What was the point of paying dendor...
 
Then dendor sent us an email saying our house will not close do to the plumbing not been chosen. 
We`re sick of the excuses, always blaming someone else for there screw ups. My wife then went out and choose and paid for all the plumbing, toilets, faucets. And had it rush delivery for first thing 7:00am the next morning and even met the supplier at the house so that they could be delievered and still dendor could not come up with a firm completion date. 
 
We tried to keep the project moving and we would go to the project only to find nobody has even showed up to work for days.  when dendor did finaly show up to work it was time for the kitchen to be installed. Our dealings with dendors kitchen installer. We originally we`re going to use dendors kitchen installer. Dendor had recommended there kitchen installer to do the kitchen in our old house and had failed miserably. The fridge would not fit under the upper cabnets, certain doors would not open all the way.

Our dealings with Astro kitchens in Barrie ont. We told dendor we are not going to use there kitchen installer and hired our own.When the kitchen was being installed, of course we went over budget according to dendor. 
We we`re not given a budget, what dendor likes to do is pull budgets out of the air after the work is almost complete, then wants to count it as an extra. Astro kitchens said we`re over budget by $14000, so we paid astro kitchens cash. Are argument with astro is they did not follow there contract and had missing pull out draws and lights in the upper glass cabinets. We confronted astro kitchens and they said that we had made a change but astro kitchens could not prove it because we did not agree and sign. So of course astro kitchens would not honour there work and we lost $1200 for the missing items, so we figure that dendor got a kick back for using them. 

All in all dendor had delayed our home for six months and five days with no agreement and they could not give us a firm completion date. We lost a huge amount of money paying for two homes.

On April 30th we had received an email from dendor saying, ``we would like to close the house on May 5th let me know`` thats it, no phone call or anything. We had emailed dendor back and said we will be there and what do we need to bring with us... Dendor reply, this gives you four days to have our full payment plus extras. 
We then went to the house on may 5th for 5:00pm just like dendor asked. We then did the PDI 
(Pre delivery inspection) We had found many problems with the home. The stone above the fire place is wrong. No mantle like we asked. The gas fire place did not even work and dendor could not figure out why it would not work. Dendor does a lot of useless chit chat and hoping you will miss things and keep walking, as they pushed us through the house as fast as they could so we would not see a lot of the problems. Hot and cold water was backwards in the master bath corner shower, and glass inclosure and glass door was missing.Dendor said if we pay them the full amount, they would come back and finish. Dendor said ``come on you can trust us`` after this brutal six month delay and lies, they we`re not ready to be paid.Dendor wanted full payment and almost three thousand dollar extra, we said for what, dendor said ``extra electrical`` where is this extra electrical... dendor had come up with several different anwsers later. (1) its for all the plugs and switches in the kitchen, (2) the vanity lighting under the cabnets, (3) lighting above the cabinets. Dendor does not even know what they are doing. This so called extra was for the HYDRO bill from the whole time a small heater was running 24 hours a day and all the trades working and lights on.  

Golden rule, you do not get paid until the job is done. I didnt see dendor paying there trades before they we`re done there job. A few days later dendor had put a lien on the property. Then lawyers got involved, we ended up getting the keys to the home through our lawyer on May 22nd. from May 5th to May 22nd dendor had people in the house. And found cigarette butts in the main floor bath toilet, so it is obviously some one had been smoking in our home. Dendor just has no respect at all. 

 We then sold our old house and lost $80,000 doing so just to get it out of the way. 
We moved in to the new home even though it was not complete but we did not have a choice. 
With in a week and a half the alarm sounded for the bio filter septic tanks. So we then called the installer (eisses brothers excavation) they said that we did not pay for the service agreement, we said we did not know about this service agreement as dendor did not explain this to us.  we said to eissie brothers fine we will pay you when you get here, they reply, ``we`re to busy but don`t use the water or toilets or the septic will back up into the house`` we then called the bio filter septic dealer in waterloo ont, they said they would call eisses brothers excavation and call us back. They called us back and said they talked to eisses brothers, and they said `` if we go and fix the septic that we would never work for dendor again``
 
Thats nice of dendor, they even treat there trades poorly. So then the bio filter company recomended another company to fix the septic problem. This company found that there was parts missing from the system and it had been wired backwards and it is very poorly installed. We have all the notes from this company. On the end, it cost us over $1600 to have it fixed. Dendor had cut down trees on our property to install the septic bed with out asking us.
They just don`t care about anything its amazing.  
    

Are argument was that dendor had no intentions of coming back to finish. As they screwed up the outside yard so bad it could not be fixed with out spending a lot of money. For one the back yard needed a retaining wall after dendor was finished with it. I got a price for a retaining wall, $100,000 minimum because of the size it needed to be. 
Dendor pushed the developer to say yes, but the developer said no it didnt need a retaining wall. Because dendor just wanted to charge extra. We bought the property because the developer told us it didnt need a retaining wall. And thats part of the reason why dendor was not coming back to finish the outside work. Pretrial number three, it as November and the judge told dendor to get back up to the house and finish the outside work while the weather is still good, and when the weather turns bad, fix and finish the inside work. The next day we made an offer to dendor of $40,000 and the rest when your done, no reply, for two weeks our lawyer continued to get ahold of dendors lawyer and no response. Then we got hit with a major snow storm and what do you know, we got a response from dendors lawyer saying, ``do to the weather the outside work can not be done`` go figure, that just shows how bad dendor is.    

Our dealing with Tarion home warranty was a complete nighmare as well.With all the problems with this poorly built house like, five interior doors did not close, Huge problem with the septic system that cost us $1600. Eighty deficiencys all together and dendor had wrote a letter to Tarion and said, ``to whom it may concern, it is obvious that this home owner is trying to get something for nothing`` all the pictures will tell the truth, cant believe the nerve on these people. With all the doors not closing in the summer is because of the humidity in the summer of course, tarion said to just use the A.C and then the doors will close. wow thats clever. i wonder who thought of that.  The Tarion rep had lied for dendor many times.  this rep was paid off.  The first day the Tarion rep came to the house dendor had come with him. I did not know dendor was attending this meeting with Tarion.

In August we had our lawyer, dendor and there lawyer come to the house to see the huge problem and to try and get problems off the list. And when dendor came with the tarion rep, I said to the rep, I want to talk to you for about ten minutes alone before we start our list. The tarion rep asked dendor, do you mind... dendor replyed, we`ll just leave, I said no stay, so dendor left on there own. The Tarion rep and I went in the kitchen to start our meeting, first thing the rep says, ``we do not cover any heating systems`` did not know where he got that.... We ended up going through the list and it was a waste of my time of course and a day of work lost just to have the Tarion rep treat me very poorly. just in our laundry room, there was five cracked travertine tiles and no GFI outlet right beside the sink. Should not have passed electrical inspection. The rep said about the tiles, ``i wouldnt worry about these tiles and its a lot of work to change them`` I said, I want what I paid for! very shoddy work. Even the plumber did not know what he was doing, master bath shower, the hot and cold water was backwards. Brutal. Cheap trades. 

The big one in our home was all the windows. Our contract states, ``Double glazed low E argon white vinyl windows and doors to front and sides, TRIPLE glazed to rear, design as per plan. All operating windows to have screens``Double glazed windows we`re installed all through out the house.. I said to the tarion rep, last thing on our list on the main floor is the windows, from about twelve feet away, right away the rep says, ``all the windows are triple pane`` I said to the rep, wow thats amazing you can see that all the way over there... then I said no there not, and I told the rep how I knew, hold a light in front of the glass, if theres two reflections its double pane, and if theres three reflections, there triple pane, plus we had an engineer test the windows and proved there all double pane. The tarion rep had nothing to say, ``but we don`t cover windows either so its not my problem`` I said what is the point of paying tarion if they do not do anything... the rep said, ``because its the law`` nice. And the strange thing is, tarion said they do not cover heating, well after fighting and arguing with tarion for months after, tarion sent there heat loss engineer to test the whole heating system. 

 The engineer had took his calculations and then notified us and tarion with his results and found that HRV needed to be balanced and the furnace was way to small (110,000 BTU) and vents and cold returns we`re to small. On the end, the cold returns had been replaced along with a (125,000 BTU furnace. This proved that Tarion worked with dendor to replace the furnace and duct work because it is a major building code violation. Dendor was very upset with Tarion. We received an email from our lawyer from dendors lawyer, it said, ``Tarion is simply wrong``and Where was the building inspector during all this... 

 It turns out dendor had passed through that the basement was not going to be finished when it was in our contract. The basement was going to be finished at the same time as the house was being built. 
We ended up geting three different heat loss plans and not one of them matched our home. 
1st heat loss plan was based on an unfinished basement, 2nd heat loss plan was close, but nope not it. 3rd was a littlie better but still not good enough. Springwater township had requested a proper heat loss plan when the inspector gave occupancy but dendor never handed one in. 

 The chief building inspector had to ask once again for the heat loss plan. Six months later dendor finally dendor handed in a heat loss plan, it was all wrong. dendor must have guessed on this heat loss plan. Through our lawyer we had requested the proper heat loss plan. With in time we had recieved one, still not right, so we had called the engineer directly and had a nice chat about dendor. This engineer had said that dendor had come to him and said ``the home owner now wants the basement finished and need a revised heat loss plan, and of course this engineer had designed a new heat loss plan to compensate the finished basement. We asked, how long ago did dendor request this revised heat loss plan... the engineers reply, just a couple weeks ago, we said we have been living in this house for a year and a half. The engineer did not know what to say at first. The engineer had said, dendor told me the house was still under construction. This engineer has written us a letter and said what had happen....  Dendor is very deceitful. 
We had called the chief building inspector and told him what had happen, his reply was, ``why are you so worried about it, your heating has been fixed`` well for one, the chief building inspector should be doing his job. And i was told, and because dendor had never finished our property, swales, and all the grading to be ready for sod and seed. Tarion also said, if dendor does not finish your property, it is the townships responsibility to fix and finish the property and then the township go`s after the builder. Springwater township just it is not there responsibililty.     

We had gone to Springwater township many times and asked for our file on our home and it would always be missing, nobody could ever find it, it was never on the shelf along with the rest. We we`re never allow to see our file. We figure because half the inspections we`re never done. Springwater township knew i was looking for our file for our home so the chief building inspector had back dated inspections. I`ve been told this happens a lot. 

On the end, dendor had let most of the items on the list go to Tarion home warranty. End result, over $20,000 worth. 

There is so much more to be said. This is a true event. We lived this nightmare for three years and it is still not done. Dendor is unbelievable petty people. And just will not let it go.
 
To us it was not about the money, we just wanted our house fixed and finished so we could sell it. It was
an embarrassment living in this shoddy house.  but dendor felt they we`re to important, and do not honour there work.
On the end, the mortgage company would not renew do to the house still not finished after three years. So we lost the house. And paying tens of thousands of dollars for lawyers and engineers.  The same appraiser that came three years before had come again, he said everything is the same, nothing has changed.  
We have all the documents and many emails that supports our strict proof.

I hope dendor fine homes is proud of them selves.