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Jason Golan, David Dorn, Kim Jaffurs, Christina Bratosin, Zach, Matt Roland, Todd Carpenter Deceptive Trade Practices & Shoddy Construction of Westin Homes Houston, Harris County Texas
I'm writing this report to alert and prevent other consumers from falling victims to Westin-Homes' constitute false, misleading, shady contract, and deceptive trade practices. After my husband moved back to Houston in summer with his new job, we decided to have our first home to be built. We started looking at several home builders, and we like others on this site were drawn to the floor plans and sqft that Westin Homes offered for the price. Holly cow... this was a hug mistake!!!
We signed a contract with Westin-Homes on July 1st, 2007 with an initial earnest deposit of $2000. We were told that this was the process along with submitting another 50% of Upgrade money that was due at redline. The Sales team (Christina & Clair) in the Canyon Lakes at Stone Gate division seemed very nice and helpful during the building process. Little we knew that this was nothing more than a cover up for their shady building process.
Because of Un-Permitted of Residential Building & Driveway, the Westin-Homes builder was building my home with many code violations (I have evidences); they also uses inferior materials, unskilled workers are unsupervised, especially, a project manager, Matt Roland's offering of band-aid reparation and using a falsified document (see our 2nd complaint letter & an invalid document Champion Window's letter for more details in the link dzidzom.com/Deceptive_Westin_Homes).
The home is under-construction with 1 story floor plan and locates in NewLight Bending subdivision in Canyon Lakes at Stone Gate Community, is at the end of Phase II construction (pre-sheetrock). We hired a Professional Inspector on the end of 11/2007 to inspect the home and we found a lot of problems. Some problems which truly concern us including: improperly window flashing, electrical issue, bucked shingle roof, warped studs, A/C air duct and systems, unsound window frame structure, unleveled foundation ground, unleveled front porch, missing standard feature, and etc. It has turned out to be a nightmare.
We have taken pictures of the entire building process and all of it is put together terribly. We had numerous complaints and issues that we noticed during the building process but seemed not to be properly addressed by the actual building contractor.
The builder, corporate management people, sales team, all acknowledged these problems but the building contractors have denied their shoddy works and refused fixing or repairing these problems in a proper manner. They said that there is nothing wrong with "their ways" of construction and installation techniques since they've practicing for 12 years!?!! However, "their ways of construction" are incompliant with the Standardized Building Codes and the band-aid reparation, and are violated the legislative building (un-permitted residential building & driveway).
Despite of the Violation Notice was posted at the site from Harris County, Public Infrastructure Department Engineer Division; the builder did not cease the construction and still has continuing on this construction. Used by unskilled workmanship, many crooked brick walls were latterly installed and covered up some of those unfixed found-issues. If we did not file many complaints to the Westin Homes Corporation, we believe that the contractor will not repair or fix the problems and the construction would have gone on according its schedule. In fact, the builder has acknowledged all the found issues but still refused to repair many of them.
Since these problems have been appearing and developing, and resolved inappropriately, we do not want to take risk to buy this UNSOUND and UNSAFE home because of foreseeable issues such as: toxic mold, unsound structural frame, dangerous and physical damage, and etc. We believe that nobody would want to live in a home that is riddled with defects. We do not want to be the future homeowners who would be the victims of Deficient Dwelling-Houses that built by shoddy construction and poor workmanship of the Westin Homes builder.
Also, the Sale Manager, Christina Bratosin, has suggested us twice that we should give up and should not buy this home since we have gotten too many troubles and unpleasant experience with this home construction. We are exhausted and tired of suffering all the problems, stresses, etc they have put us through. So that, we were writing a letter to corporate to request the Westin Homes should return our full deposits (earnest money and options money) due to their false trade practices, breach of warranty and contract. However, they ignored our request.
DO NOT do business with Westin-Homes in Texas. They do NOT care about customer satisfaction. It's almost like Westin Homes know that they do not build a quality product and will either manipulate consumers or deny you your earnest money when you've identified issues with the building process.
www.westin-homes.com is FULL OF LIES. There is NO providing the best product and NO "reputation of delivering the highest levels of satisfaction to every customer, at every step".
Right now we're at the point that we are glad that we didn't move into the Westin Homes. We don't want others to get burned by Westin Homes. We've considered sending out emails to our friends, co-workers and church members in an effort to prevent others from falling victim to these deceptive trade practices. Our mistake might serve as a blessing to others if we are able to get the word out.
We believe and know that we are not the only victims of the Westin Homes. Therefore, we have sent our complaints to BBB (Better Business Bereau), Federal Trade Commission, Texas Attorney General, TRCC (Texas Residential Construction Commission), HOBB (Homeowners for Better Building), HADD (Homeowners Against Deceitful Dwellings), etc to report and ask for their helps to stop the Deceptive and False Trade Practices of the Westin Homes in Texas. Having a Consumer Attorney to help us to handle this issue is also one of our other considerations. More importantly, we get to make the Westin Homes address their practices and quality issues, and need to do something to stop their deceptive and false trade practices.