Complaint Review: Fleetwood Homes (Texas) - Waco Texas

My husband and I bought a 2005 Fleetwood model Beacon Hill 3443R double wide Mobile home in June 2006. The home was moved out to our home site in July and we moved in July 9. The first year we had the house, several smaller cosmetic problems came up, like the middle shelf in the pantry fell down in the bottom, the door frame had to be replaced due to uneven build and several nails had to be evened out so they did not stick out of the wall too far and catch on clothes and skin as we walked by. Fleetwood sent out a repair man to fix these issues with no problems.

However, it was after that first year that things went downhill, quickly. We noticed how poorly built the house was after living there for several months, but what happened next really opened our eyes. One morning I leaned over my daughter's toddler bed to get something that was against the wall and braced my hand on the wall so I didn't fall over. Well, my hand sank and sank. Our walls were mushy. At first I thought that it was the paint. I had just spent over $150 and 2 days to paint her room a pink with pink and white stripes.it was the perfect room for a little girl. But it was several walls, not just those in her room, so that ruled that out. I mean they were so bad that you could literally see fingerprints in the vinyl covering on the drywall, or should I say wetwall? We checked around and found that several more walls in her room were like this, 4-5 panels in the living room, 4-5 panels in our kitchen and washroom, 4-5 panels in both of our bathrooms and probably 3-4 panels in our bedroom were soft and mushy.

Wait, it does not stop there. The floor walking out of the kitchen and into the washroom was warping, quite badly, the only sign of the hidden mold growing underneath. There was mold growing on our door frame, inside and out. Now, we live in Texas, so I can see how it might grow outside, but not inside where my daughter and husband both live with asthma. This got us thinking. If there is mold growing on the wall, what does it look like inside? We cut about five 1 inch by 1 inch squares out of several of the soggy walls, and you guessed it, we had mold. Green, white and a little black, it was fuzzily growing on the inside of our walls. Not a good situation for people with asthma and allergies

We noticed water dripping out of the light sockets that are above the sinks in both of our bathrooms. The worst was when we opened our breaker box. There was water hanging above our breaker box, dripping down onto the breakers. It had already rusted out several spots on the inside of the breaker box, and we were scared it would cause the house to catch on fire. So, we had to leave the breaker box cover off so the water would not hang. This was a hazard, as well, since we had a then 3 year old walking around.

We reported the problem to Fleetwood towards the end of July in 2007 about this issue. They said they would send someone out to do an inspection, and they did. Well, finally, towards the end of November, first of December, they came out. We were out of our house for 7-8 days. In that time, the company sent out a man to supervise the crew to "wrap" the outside of our house. This involved taking plastic and putting it under the siding on the house to keep the moisture out. While we were gone, our neighbors told us they came over to check on things and found the crew sitting around on our furniture, playing our surround sound system and also playing video games on our television, on our Playstation. We found this out after they had already left. They did leave the house fairly clean, but there were issues left behind that made it worse...

Our bathtub was cracked, the floor that they fixed where the board was warping due to moisture was repaired, but there was a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch gap left where the linoleum was sagging down into it, not to mention the nail head under the linoleum that were sticking up, threatening to poke holes in the new linoleum. They did not have the same style of linoleum that the home was originally built with, so they had to replace it all with a new style of flooring. That was fine with us, but the crew read the plan that Fleetwood worked up incorrectly and ripped out the carpet in my bedroom and laid down linoleum...instead of ripping up the linoleum in my bedroom CLOSET. Then they left the old linoleum in the closet!

So, we called Fleetwood and told them all of this and they said they would get in touch with the crew who did the work. Well, we waited and waited and never heard from them. We decided that these issues were ones we could live with in order to not have to contact the company again.

Wrong. This story is far from over. They repaired the house at the end of 2007. By June of 2008, the exact same problem was back. Now, please keep in mind that each time they came in to do repairs; we had to pack up everything in our house, like we were moving. Essentially we were. Now, after just having moved into the house in 2006, then packing up in 2007 for the repairs, then unpacking, well, we were a little upset about the thought of having to do it again. But we did. They finally came out in January 2009, (about 4 months ago) to re-do the repairs.

This time they had a planthey were going to wrap the inside of the house, as well. They put plastic between the drywall and the middle wall. We were out of the house 8 days this time. There was still water hanging over the breaker box, so they did something, (I am not sure what), that is supposed to keep that from happening again.

Both times we stayed in a hotel that put us WAY out of our way to get my daughter to school and us to work. We had to leave an hour earlier than normal to get there in time. Not only did this use gas, which was expensive, it made us lose sleep. While the new crew was out at the house working on it, a Supervisor in Waco who we had spoke with was telling us that they had no mention of the bathtub being cracked in their previous reports. They had everything else we told them was wrong after the first crew left, but not the information on the bathtub. They told us they were not going to pay for it, that we would have to. Well, this set my husband off and suffice to say, we got the bathtub.

Now here it is, 4 months later, and guess what? Your right! Our walls are mushy again. We have contacted Fleetwood, just yesterday, and they want to send the same man out that worked on the house the last time for an inspection. I had no problem with him or his work, mainly because I believe it was the way the house was put together and nothing he did. This time, I am searching for an attorney. I still have not unpacked everything from the last go round and I do not feel like packing it all up again so soon. It is like you are movingand we have moved 3 times in the last not-quite-3-years. I don't believe that this house can be fixed and I just want out of it. I am tired of wondering if my house is going to catch fire or if my daughter will wake up again not being able to breathe because of the mold and drywall dust. If you do nothing else, please think about the problems you have read about here and do your research before you purchase a mobile home. Don't get stuck in a situation like my families. We are just getting started in life and I would hate to see someone else go through the nerves and frustrations that we have gone through in the last 3 years.

Lisa

Gilmer, Texas

U.S.A.