For coastal residents, Hurricane Matthew was a devastating, even life-changing storm. For those living inland, it was more a mild inconvenience.
But for residents of one brand-new DR Horton community, the storm was a wake-up call about what a new home warrantee is really worth.
“Our maximum gusts were 37 miles per hour,” says Nick Lulli, ”who has a digital weather station in the backyard of his Spring Pointe subdivision on the city’s Westside. “It was the equivalent of a regular thunderstorm.”
So Lulli was mystified, mid-storm, when water started pouring from his ceiling vents. There were no trees down, no shingles missing – no damage.
Lulli, who closed on his house in January, immediately filed a warranty claim. Just as quickly, DR Horton denied it.
“Without asking me to elaborate or coming out to inspect it, they [said] … it was the result of hurricane damage,” he says. "You can tell by looking there is no damage."
Lulli learned that several neighbors had the same problem. Eight of them signed a complaint attesting to “water damage as the result of poor design by the builder.”
“I might as well live in a teepee or a wigwam than live in a home with leaks like this,” he says.
Several miles to the south, in World Golf Village, Enelda Negroni experienced the same rain-flooded vents. Negroni, who closed on her house in May, was certain her new-home warranty would pay for the damage. DR Horton refused, saying the leaks were storm related.
“It's not really hurricane damage, because I didn’t have a tree down, just an excessive amount of rain,” she says. “It could have been from anything.”
DR Horton dubs itself “America’s Homebuilder,” and has built 545,000 homes in 27 states. That includes hundreds of communities throughout Florida and Georgia, and dozens on the First Coast.
With a footprint that large, it’s not surprising that any builder would generate complaints. Tracking just how many isn’t easy, since new home contracts require disputes to be settled in secret arbitration proceedings, rather than open court.
First Coast News has reported at least one case that escaped the secret proceedings -- a landmark construction defect case brought by the Heron’s Landing Condo Owners Association. In that case, a jury found DR Horton negligent, and awarded 240 condo owners a $9.6 million.
But such cases are rare. Ron Woods is a structural engineer with 30 years’ experience, and he calls the state of home construction lamentable.
“This problem should most likely be remedied by the builder and the warrantee,” he says of Lulli’s water leaks. He says the builder may have installed the wrong vent for the roof slope, “But they’d have to come out an inspect [the roof vents].”
That hasn’t happened. In fact, Lulli and Negroni say they can’t even make contact with the builder anymore. “They are now refusing to communicate with me,” says Lulli.
“I can’t really get through to anyone,” says Negroni.
It’s a feeling Tamara Joiner knows well. The Mandarin resident has had issues with her $350,000 Mandarin home since she moved in, in 2013. “It was the same thing, over and over and over and over,” she says. “They would never come out and fix it, they just kept putting me off and then: Surprise! You’re out of warrantee.”
A joint First Coast News/ABC investigation found that delays that became denials after a warrantee expired were common. DR Horton did not return calls for comment. They sent a brief statement, saying they are “dedicated to superior customer service and providing families with quality homes and … committed to taking care of our homeowners both during the construction of their new home and after closing.”
Joiner says that claim is laughable.
Three months after moving in she discovered a slow leak had filled her walls with water -- and mold. It would be the first of four mold infestations, and the start of a litany of failures. Six replacement toilets necessitated by a defect, a faulty sprinkler system, pipes clogged with construction debris that caused the house to flood and the ceiling to collapse.
She has a record of every complaint, but says repairs often compounded the problem. A tile company never returned to finish the job, leaving her to clean the grout and seal it herself. A central vacuum serviceman cut the hose and its destroyed suction – rendering the unit useless. One team of plumbers returned six times to replace toilets, often leaving fresh damage in their wake.
“I just got so frustrated with going back and forth that I just threw my hands up,” she says.
At some point, Joiner says, her focus shifted from getting repairs -- to just getting out.
“I feel like I have to get out of the house before I can’t sell it,” she says. “Isn’t that awful? I was at my old house for 20 years. But now I’m afraid that something is going to happen that I either can’t afford to pay for, or I’m going to have to disclose that prohibits me from selling.
“I feel like I’m going to get stuck,” she adds. “And that’s really scary.”