BAD BUILDERS

Man: To the right of that gray one was going to be my house.

Michael Holigan: This is a builder's worst nightmare. A local television station has come to a neighborhood of new houses to do an expose' about the problems his customers are having with their homes. Allegations of poor workmanship, unfinished business and unkept promises.

Female: She told us that everything was on time, that everything was on schedule, but when you come out here you see it stopped.

MH: And for the homeowners, shattered dreams.

Man: I feel real hurt because I brought my children out here and we took pictures and we thought we was going to get a home being built over here and it's...now I have to go back and tell my children that we can't really have that American Dream like they really want, like a house and a backyard.

MH: Thirty miles away, another neighborhood, a similar scene, the same builder. Empty lots, unfinished houses and more disappointed homeowners.

Kelli Sandlin: It was like my dream come true. It was my first home, me and my son. I'm a single mom and it's something that I feel like I accomplished on my own and then that's when the nightmare started.

MH: Kelli Sandlin and her son, Christian, knew something was not right the day they arrived with the movers.

KS: We show up and he's nowhere to be found. There's a carpet layer in here. There's no electricity, no wiring, nothing. The house is totally incomplete.

MH: After a week of staying in hotels, Kelli says the builder called her at work rushing her to close on the house that day without doing a walk-through or filling out a punch list. He said if she hesitated she would lose her loan.

KS: If we wait till tomorrow it'll be too late. You will not get your low fixed interest rate. Your payments will be higher. We don't know what the interest rate will be at that time.

MH: Against her better judgement she moved in and immediately started noticing problems, like the lack of insulation in the attic and sloppy plaster work in the dining room and in the bedroom. Then there's the wobbly ceiling fan in the living room.

KS: It's so loud and noisy that every time you turn it on for any length of time that it rattles and knocks and sounds like it's going to fall out of the ceiling.

MH: In the kitchen the linoleum is badly lain and there's a ripple where, according to an engineer, the foundation is already cracking. The house also has misfit vents, sloppy brickwork, and rusted and unfinished doorjambs. And outside, very few neighbors, but plenty of unfinished houses. And the builder? Kelli says the phone number has been disconnected. She's heard he's gone out of business.

KS: It's so hard for me to look somebody in the eyes and been trusting to them and think that they're a crook or a sneak, but the evidence shows it.

MH: How do you keep this from happening to you? Walk the builder's subdivision on a Saturday. Talk to homeowners who are out working in their yard. Ask them how their building experience went, plus the follow-up and warranty. Was the builder there when they needed them? How about the utility bills? Are they high? Are they low? All of this is going to help you determine what type of builder you're talking to. Another simple thing is to call the local Better Business Bureau to check the builder's complaint history. A history of unresolved complaints is a strong warning sign. Call the local chapter of the Home Builder's Association. Most reputable builders will be members and the association can tell you if the builder is a member in good standing. Call the city inspectors and head inspectors to find out about the builder's record with them. If a builder's houses consistently failed standard inspections it could be a sign of trouble. Remember that a home is one of the biggest investments you're even going to make in your life. A few hours investigation could save you thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars. And learn from the experience of others.

KS: I believed and I trusted him and I should have just trusted the paperwork and probably my intuition.

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Episode 63 1997 - 98 Season

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