Our builder - part 3

continued....

I told our builder rep "according to the Tarion New Home Warranty program, we are entited to $100/day if we were not given proper notice."

She said "that is only if we delayed you more than 120 days past your original closing date."

I said "no, you were suppose to give us notice IN WRITING 35 days in advance of the delay if it is going to be more than 5 days."

She replied "that is neither here nor there."

Um, it is VERY here or there to me and my family!!!!!!

We then had a conversation where she said that they could move us in with a working kitchen sink and toilet without the rest of the house being completely finished. She also wanted to know why we couldn't stay in our existing house.

I explained that our house was sold and closing on Oct.3rd, that we had 2 small children under the age of 2.5 years old, that moving them twice was extremely disruptive to our lives and that having everything we own in storage was expensive and an inconvenience. She explained how they COULD move us in without the kitchen, but we wouldn't want that.

GAME ON!!!!!!!!

I felt like she was threatening us and decided to call her bluff. I told her that we weren't completly adverse to moving in 5 days later than our closing date and she should communicate to our lawyers. It turns out that they were trying to sneak the paperwork by us saying that we mutually agreed upon Nov,6th. If we signed the paper, we wouldn't receive any compensation.

Since then we have been going back and forth with our lawyers. We went by the house and they did put in temporary cabinets (one set) in the kitchen, just enough to hold a sink with a a piece of wood for a counter top. We talked to the construction supervisor (who is quite nice) and he said that for some reason someone at head office seems to have it out for us. He was told to make it "livable" for us so they could force us in. He hated the idea of that because it would then take 6 months to finish the house as they would always have to book appointments to do anything.

After much back and forth we told our lawyer that we would settle for our actual costs incurred as a result of the delay and would not seek the $100/day if they could move us in, house complete, by November 6th.

On Friday we heard that now the kitchen cabinets look like they are delayed again, so now we have no idea what is going to happen. Our lawyer is away this week, so hopefully we will have some answers next week.

Our builder - part 2

When he finally reached the person we were suppose to be talking to, she didn't really have a good answer. She basically said that they just found out that very day that we were going to be delayed (which wasn't true). My husband asked her about compensation due to them not giving us proper notice in writing and she told us we needed to contact Tarion (the new home warranty program). She also mentioned that we were now looking at a November closing, but couldn't give us a proper date.

Since we didn't hear back from her, we decided to call and leave her messages every day for several days until she finally returned our call. I don't usually like being a pest, but we needed to schedule things with the movers, the bank, utilities, etc.! She finally left us the date of November 6th. We called back and left a message indicating that we would like it in writing. She said that due to the fact that it was so close to our old closing date, she would need it drafted by their lawyers and have it sent to our lawyers. Whatever, just do it!

A few days later our lawyer received the letter/fax. He was concerned that the wording saying that we "mutually agreed upon the new date" would prevent us from receiving compensation if we signed it. We called everyone including the buidler, Tarion, a friend who is a real estate agent, etc looking to see if this was true.

The first person to call us back was the rep from the builder. I answered the phone. She mentioned that my husband had left a message expressing some concern over the fax that they had sent to our lawyer with the new date. I said to her "yes, we are concerned that if we sign it that we will not get any compensation for the delay."

She said "What compensation do you think you are entitled to exactly?!" As soon as I heard those words out of her mouth, I knew we were in for some problems!

to be cont...

Our builder - part 1

Honestly, I am really having bad feelings towards our builder. I expected delays and a few issues here and there, I think that is just "par for the course" with a new home. What I didn't expect were the lies, lack of communication and threats that we have been dealing with.

Our original move in date was set for August 1st. Through the Tarion New Home Warranty Program the builder needs to give you notice in writing 60 days in advance if they are going to delay you more than 35 days. We received notice in writing exactly the amount of days they needed to. Fine, whatever. We had an offer on our old house and the potential owners were agreeable to that closing date.

Our new move in date was set to October 3rd. And, guess what, we're not in our new house. And, we aren't exactly sure when it is going to happen.

About a month ago we went to our new house, as we usually do, to poke around and see the status. While in there we noticed that at couple of upgrades we had paid for weren't done. We found the construction supervisor and told him about them. While talking to him he said "so you heard you guys are delayed again?" Um.....no! He said he told the head office a month prior that our kitchen was going to be delayed from the supplier. No one told us! We got all of the upgrade issues straightened out and my husband called the head office to ask about our latest delay and why no one notified us (they have to give you 35 days notice in writing if they are going to delay you more than 15 days).

To be continued.........