We have had a horrible experience with the builder of our home. We want to educate people so they do not fall into the trap we fell into. I would say to anyone, take pictures of every problem you have with your builder and most importantly send a letter each and every time after you call and ask him or her to come out and fix something. You will not remember every date and detail, that is what the letters do for you. The letters are the documentation that you can refer to in the future.

The very first thing I have to say is that under Georgia law, I cannot say who the builder is without it being slander. It does not matter that what I am saying is 100% true, as truth is not a defense in slander under Georgia law. Personally, I have never heard of such a thing. I didn't know that if I told the truth, I could be sued. When I told my lawyer I wanted to put a sign in my front yard, that is when I learned of this law. This same law does not apply in most other states, and I am not from Georgia, so I am having to learn these things the hard way.

We moved to Georgia in June 2005, and bought this house in September 2005. The builder was agreeable to almost anything before we bought the house, however after purchase that was another story. It seemed that almost every fix had to be negotiated, if I was willing to give in to something then he would be willing to fix the problem. If you buy a new car, you do not have to go through this process, nor should you. If it is incorrectly built, it needs to be fixed by the person who built it. When I had my woodworking business, that was how I operated, I figured anyone else with an ounce of ethics would operate the same way.

Secondly, if you are thinking of purchasing a new house, do not buy one that has a clause where you agree to binding arbitration. All this does is protect the builder. When something goes wrong, the builder will tell you to call the warranty company for the wonderful 2-10 home warranty he purchased for you. My first thought when we were presented with a 2-10 warranty at signing, was that we were going to be protected. This is not the same as your homeowners insurance. I believed that if anything went wrong we would be covered. Well now it is obvious that the only one it protects is the builder. The warranty is so restrictive, that we will not get any of the items on our extensive list fixed by this company. With our home warranty, you have one year to file a claim, and the builder has 3 months to respond, which basically cuts the one year down to 9 months. If you fail to file within the one year than you have no claim. Most homeowners expect to not have a problem within one year. The next step is arbitration. I have been told by multiple people who have gone through this that I will most certainly lose. The arbitrators do not follow the law and basically side with the builder in nearly 100% of the cases.

Now the builder has offered to buy our house back from us for our purchase price of $275,900.00, which is a step in the right direction. The only problem is that we have put in over $30,000.00 worth of upgrades, and spent $15,000.00 on lawyers, engineers, contractors and home inspectors to identify the deficiencies and put a number to fixing the deficiencies. On his first offer, I countered with $300,000.00, we would forgo the extra money we spent and walk away from the problem, he never responded back. His second offer was for the same amount, only this time he put stipulations in his offer which basically stated all of the upgrades had to stay with the house, we had to sign a covenant to which we agree never to sue him, and he had to inspect the house to make sure we would not leave it damaged. I found this completely insulting, because he is offering $45,000.00 less than what we have put into it, and the biggest slap in the face is that he put us in this situation because he built this crummy house. Obviously he could care less about doing the right thing. He is hoping to buy it back at a discount and make a profit on it a second time.