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| - They don't even honor a written down promise!
There are tons of articles warning against trusting a builder's oral promise. Hardly would anyone expect a builder to break a written promise. But this is exactly my experience with Meritage Homes. Meritage Homes promised to build two HVAC units. After they mistakenly installed a single-unit system, they refused to replace it with the right system.
I ordered to build a new house with Meritage Homes at Oviedo Gardens in January 2017. Before signing the contract, I asked the sales associate how many HVAC units there will be for the two-floor house. She checked the plan and confirmed through email that there will be two. Satisfied with the answer, I chose the model and paid the deposit.
However, Meritage Homes mistakenly installed a single-unit damper HVAC instead of the promised two units. I researched and found that damper systems are far worse than two-unit systems except that the damper systems are cheaper to build and install. I brought up the issue to the construction manager and the sales associates. They told me that their company forgot to synchronize the plans the construction team and the sales team use, and the two teams end up using different plans. They admitted it was Meritage Home's fault and believed their company would replace the wrong system with the right one.
However the Orlando division rejected the switch. Joe, VP of operations, first offered to switch with a two-unit system, on the condition that we must accept a reduced total tonnage. Two weeks later, he changed his mind and declined to make any switch. To justify the breaking of promise, he came up with all kinds of funny excuses that contradict with his own words. Because of word limit, I have no space to write down all the funny reasons he provided. Throughout the process, I was over and over again shocked by Meritage Homes' arrogance and unprofessionalism.
I've been looking for ways to sue Meritage Homes but under the current legal system, there is really nothing a house buyer can do to protect himself, not even with a written promise or contract. All I can do is to warn future buyers about Meritage Homes. I think the problem lies in their corporate culture, which definitely doesn't put customers' interest first. I doubt those people even care about the company's reputation or long-term profit. Whenever issues emerged, their first response is to play hawkish on customers. They seemed to believe that all customers would concede sooner or later. Sometimes they wouldn't hesitate to lie to customers to avoid trouble.
Speaking of lies, here's another example. The side width of the countertop of my kitchen island is 7 inches shorter than that of the countertop in the inventory house. To make sure the inventory house should be right, I checked Meritage Homes' promotion house of the same model on YouTube, which has the same size of countertop as the inventory house. The overhang of my countertop is so small that the person who sits on the chair by the kitchen island would have no room for legs. I reported the issue to the construction manager. He replied the inventory house was wrong and mine was correct. I asked for the plan. He sent it to me and the plan almost perfectly matches the inventory house. He threatened that if I continued to complain, he'd lift my countertop and cut the width even shorter than before. Up till now, Meritage Homes still insisted that my countertop is the only one that's correct. It seems that they would regard the plan wrong because it doesn't match my countertop.
The building process has been a nightmare. For example, the sod company has come five times but a big part of lawn is still bare. Each time, the sod company failed to bring enough sods. I asked sod workers why. They said they brought what the builder estimated to need. No need to say how much waste is involved. If Meritage Homes really wants to save money, they should improve building management rather than skip a HVAC, cut corners on countertops or lie to customers.
Update 6/11: Just found out that they've canceled the contract without even notifying me, and they are reselling the house while still holding my deposit. Isn't it fraud?
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