United-Bilt Homes – Sherman

My experience with United Built Homes by Paul Yoder
My experience with UBH began in February, with a call to
their Sherman office. I talked to their receptionist, who conducted herself in
a professional manner, and referred me to their representative Robert
Guzman.  We told him we were interested
in the home known as ?Highland?, which is a model home that is on display at
the Sherman office. We agreed to meet on Saturday, February 16, 2013.
When we arrived at the Sherman office on 2/16, Mr. Guzman
met us and told us to do a self-conducted tour of the house.  We walked through the house, and liked its
layout and construction. We returned to the office, where Mr. Guzman told us
the house was available ?as shown? for $140,000.00, with free granite
countertop upgrade. ?As shown? the house was carpeted, bricked, with a two car
garage, with refrigerator, range, microwave above the range in cabinet, granite
countertops throughout, dishwasher and garbage disposal. We assumed that ?as
shown? meant ?as shown?. We agreed to talk it over and get back to him in the
next week.
We called Mr. Guzman repeatedly over the next six weeks,
with poor results. He repeatedly said ?I?ll call you back?, and never one time
did he return a call. After 8 weeks of waiting for a return call, we contacted
the UBH office in Tulsa, who said he was very interested in building a home for
us. Three days later, he called back to apologize and said we would have to
deal with the Sherman office, and gave me Mike Porter?s name.
We contacted Mr. Porter in late April. He was professional
in manner, and requested a meeting with myself and my wife Barbara, along with
Dee Dee Armstrong, a UBH representative. We met in Sawyer OK, and began
negotiations. At this time we were told that the ?Highland? that we were
interested in was $160,000.00, plus brick plus granite countertops, which was
out of our price range. Needless to say, we were very disappointed.
After my wife and I discussed it at home for several days,
Ms. Armstrong suggested the ?Saratoga?. We reviewed the floor plans, decided
against the ?Saratoga? and selected the ?Shiloh? instead. Mr. Porter and Ms.
Armstrong met with us several more times, and after negotiations we signed the
contract for the ?Shiloh?, at a price of $143,000.00. This reflects a reduction
in square footage from what Mr. Guzman told us, with a price increase of
$3,000.00, without carpet or brick and no appliances in the kitchen.  We had to pay extra for granite countertops
in the kitchen.  At the time we started
talking to Mr. Guzman, UBH was advertising free granite countertop upgrade,
which we could have taken advantage of if Mr. Guzman had not continually put us
off.
Following several weeks of rain delays, a survey was
completed and a gentleman showed up and did the ground prep work. The surveyor
and the soil prep man were very professional and did a good job of preparing
the building site.
That?s when the real
trouble began. A man named Javier showed up with a helper and built the
form for the concrete slab. Following more rain delays, the trenching for the
footer and reinforcements was done and the plumbing was installed. At the
completion of the plumbing installation, I noticed that the plumbing was
incorrectly installed too close to the edge of the slab, and the cold water
inlet pipe and the sewer outlet pipe were incorrectly located 90 degrees from
where they should have been. It also seems the plumber?s plans did not reflect
the rock ledge which Mr. Porter and I had agreed on and which is on my plans.
Further, the plumber simply misread
his plans and placed the water and sewer pipes incorrectly. The next
day, the plumber returned, corrected some of his mistakes, but the sewer pipe is still incorrectly
placed and necessitates additional digging, more bends in the sewer line, and
additional expense on my part.
Several days later, ?Javier? returned and poured the
concrete with the help of a concrete pump. I was there during the pouring,
which was completed without incident. Several hours later, I returned to find
that the finishing machine (power float) would not run. I determined it was due
to water in the fuel, and helped ?Javier? get the motor running. This reflects
poor equipment maintenance and lack of preparation in my opinion.
Several days later, ?Sergio? arrived with a crew to do the
framing. As they laid out the framing and chalk lined the floor plan, he discovered a very serious error on
the part of ?Javier?. It seems ?Javier? had mis-measured the dimensions of the
slab and located the front door entrance and front porch 4 feet inside the
house. ?Sergio told me that ?Javier? would return the very next day and ?fix?
the problem. This was not done, and ?Sergio? and his crew went ahead and built
the framework for the house over non-existent concrete propped up on wooden
blocks. In my opinion, this simply compounded the mistake. I informed Bruce
Copeland, the ?construction superintendent?, who assured me the problem would
be taken care of.
Several days later, ?Javier? returned with his son and
?fixed? the problem. They dug another footer and simply poured more concrete on
top of the existing slab, without
removing the wooden blocks, without covering the exterior of the wooden blocks,
without finishing the outside edges of the concrete pour, leaving a seam in the
porch, an obvious seam with holes inside the front entrance of the house, an
obvious seam with holes in the center bedroom of the house, with a ½? drop from
the seam to the front door and a ½? drop in the slab from the seam in the
bedroom to under the front window. At this point I became very upset, and
contacted Mr. Copeland again, who assured me it would be ?fixed?. Two
days later I contacted Ms. Armstrong, sent her pictures, and informed her we
needed to talk. She responded immediately, and was at the house site the next
day. I showed her the obvious problems and she agreed it was unacceptable, and
pointed out several other things that needed to be corrected. I would like to
commend Ms. Armstrong for her care and prompt attention and her help in
attempting to correct the situation.
The following Monday morning, Ms. Armstrong met with Mr.
Porter, and they had Mr. Copeland contact me. Mr. Copeland assured me again
that the wooden blocks would be removed, the bottom piece of siding would be
removed, the front of the re-pour would be finished, the inside seams would be
polished, the high spots of the seam ground down and the low spots raised by
re-pouring over the dips. I was assured that he (Mr. Copeland) would inspect to
assure that things were done correctly this time.
On 7/23/2013, some unknown person arrived while I was not at
the house site, patched the front of the unfinished re-pour without removing the siding and the
wooden blocks, and left, with concrete splashed on the siding. At this
time, I feel it may be necessary to contact an attorney to see what my rights
are, contact the Better Business Bureau with a formal complaint, and to see if
I can force the removal of the wall that was built over non-existent concrete,
force the removal of what will now be a 4 piece slab, and force the proper
repair of this whole sordid mess at the expense of UBH, with proper
compensation for my loss of sleep/stress/aggravation and damage to th