NU CONCEPT HOMES

Immediately, finish-work problems caused massive construction delays. For example, it was discovered too late that the house would be too tall to fit under the 35-foot maximum height restriction in Monroe County (“someone’s math error”) so the roof pitch was changed at the building site and as a result, the HVAC system and hot water tank couldn’t be installed in the attic and had to be moved inside the house, which reduced my usable living space. Another big problem: Lytton’s contractors incorrectly installed the glass mosaic tiles for 3 bathrooms and a kitchen and they all had to be ripped out and redone. These, together with other smaller problems, caused extensive delays in finishing the modular home and cost me tens of thousands of dollars in additional bank-required builder’s wind risk insurance premiums and construction loan interest payments while it was still under construction. But, eventually, Monroe County COd my home in January 2009 and my two sons and I moved to The Keys in July after the school year ended. Immediately upon moving in, I noticed more problems with the house and I reported these to NuConcepts and Lytton. The ceramic floor tile began popping off the subflooring throughout my home. Lytton didn’t understand why, but agreed to have his contractors glue them down as they popped up, which was done on at least three occasions over the next 6 months. When the workers removed the popped tile, the back of the tile revealed that no adhesive had been spread on it, which I understand is required to ensure a secure bond to the subflooring. The popping problem continued to spread until more than 40% of my home’s tiles had to be re-glued before I gave up on the repair – a whole new floor is the only real fix and that will cost $45K. Besides, to do it right, the kitchen would also have to be ripped out because Lytton’s contractors had installed the kitchen before laying the floor tile, and the kitchen cabinets and appliances are literally sunk into the floor, such that if they ever need to be replaced or repaired, the floor tiles would have to be removed first. The cost of a new kitchen is another $50K. At the same time as the floors popped, mold and mushrooms began appearing on my home’s exterior, along with ugly brown tar-like stains that were visible on the siding after every rain. At first, Lytton insisted these were “dirt”, then relented and said they were mold but also said “hey, you live in Florida now, get used to mold,” implying that this was normal and to be expected. After my repeated complaints, Lytton finally offered to re-caulk the windows, but I refused this fix, suspecting that the problem was caused by more than faulty window caulking since the roof soffits were also covered in mold. In May 2010, Lytton finally said “I don’t know what I did wrong on your house and I don’t know how to fix it.” At that point, I stopped talking to Lytton and hired an engineer in September 2010 to investigate the situation. Several thousand dollars later, I had my engineer’s report and the findings were alarming. In addition to the mold and tile problems, I learned, among other things, that my roof had no ridge vents when 8 were required under the Monroe County Building Code at the time the house was built. When I questioned this fact with Monroe County building inspector Tucker Phinney, I was informed that the Code was actually only a “guideline,” that he would stand by the quality of his inspections, and he refused to come to the house to investigate the problems. The engineer’s report also specified numerous discrepancies between what was actually built on site and what was in the sealed plans that were on file at the Building Department, so it’s unclear how the house received a CO at all. In December 2010, I retained an attorney and filed workmanship defect claims against Nationwide, NuConcepts, and Lytton Construction. But after many thousands of dollars in legal fees and more than a year later, it appears that the law can’t help. Nationwide and Lytton are both bankrupt, NuConcepts hasn’t answered my complaint, and Lytton’s business insurance company, Preferred Contractor’s Insurance, has so far refused to cover my losses citing “policy exclusions” that don’t cover work “incorrectly performed.” To make matters worse, ASI, my own homeowner’s insurance company, has dropped my policy citing “lack of maintenance” on my home as the reason for discontinuing coverage. My insurance broker has told me that this will make it hard for me to get competitive insurance rates in the future because insurance history follows the property. In October 2011, I hired Rick Williams Roofing to install the missing roof ventilation and Cisneros Construction to demo and replace my observation deck, which was covered in black mold due to the faulty installation of the deck and the ceiling below it. These repairs, together with Certified Mold Treatment’s clean up of the black mold, cost me $13K, draining the rest of my savings. The next step to resolve this situation would be to go to court, but this remedy is only available to those who can afford another $45K - $65K to cover the associated legal and court fees. The court process can be lengthy and there is no guarantee of a favorable outcome – and with mold problems, time is of the essence. So to fix at least the water and mold problems before the 2012 hurricane season starts in June, in December I was forced to take a loan against my retirement savings plan to hire Sweetwater Homes to do the siding repair. When the construction crews started removing the siding, however, they discovered the true cause of the water infiltration problem: Lytton’s contractors had installed the windows without the flashing that should direct rain water away from the house, they had trimmed the Tyvek wrap about 3 inches too short around window openings, and they had used interior caulk rather than exterior caulk on all the windows (except one window which had no caulking at all!) This allowed every rainstorm over the past 3 years to soak the OSB, the insulation, and the supporting beams and studs, creating a perfect environment for mold and mushrooms to grow, and causing the OSB glue to run out through seams and weep holes in the siding to stain the exterior of my home. At this writing, Sweetwater is removing the damaged materials and literally rebuilding my home from the outside-in, all the way to the interior drywall. The initial estimate of $45K to replace just the siding won’t cover the additional repairs, so the final cost for this particular project is yet to be determined. I also received assessments from several local tile companies as to the cause of the tile-popping problem, and all agreed that a wall tile bonding agent had been used on the floors rather than the multi-flex floor tile bonding agent that should have been used. The cost to demolish and redo the flooring is another $45K, and I would have to move out of my home with all my possessions while the job is underway, costing me thousands of dollars in temporary housing expenses. The tile replacement project is on hold indefinitely because I have no money to pay for the re-installation. My position: As a homeowner, I should be able to rely on my general contractor and the County’s inspectors to ensure that a proper job is done, but that hasn’t been the case here. Also, insurance companies should not be allowed to take premium payments and not pay out when a legitimate and well-documented claim arises. Because the people who should have protected me didn’t, building my home has cost me my retirement.