Here’s a brief summary to catch you up to this point and will also explain the confusion I felt after a phone call with Jim Yeadon of Lennar:
I had been working with Lennar executives for three months towards resolving a rash of 80+ ongoing construction issues that started in 2013. After our second conference call to discuss the results of home inspections conducted by Lennar, I completely stopped hearing from them although they wanted to perform additional inspections, including an initial environmental inspection. The environmental inspection was requested by Mark Metheny because of unexplained metal corrosion, including the finding that the insides of my ceiling fans were rusted and corroded, as well as mold concerns due to frequent A/C malfunctions and floods.
After sending an email to Lennar’s C-suite executives explaining the situation and no longer receiving any responses from the local executives, these senior executives sent me a legal letter in response to my customer complaint. The contents of the letter were confusing to me, as there was still so much to be discussed, but all discussions just stopped for no apparent reason.
After sending a letter to Lennar’s CEO and other executives, Lennar responds with a legal letter and calls it ‘settlement negotiations.’
Now you should be caught up with the most important Lennar communications up to this point.
Absolutely. This kind of behavior is just unacceptable.
— Kamyar Shah (@kshahwork) November 8, 2017
My call to Christine Green
I waited the weekend to try and put my mind around the Lennar response and called Christine Green – Lennar Associate General Counsel – on Monday, August 14, 2017. She was not available, so I left a message for explaining the purpose of my call (“I understand very little about this letter.”) and to return my call as soon as she could.
I never heard from her.
Jim Yeadon of Lennar calls me
Jim Yeadon, Director of Customer Relations at Lennar, calls and leaves a voicemail message with me at 3:38 PM EST on August 14, 2017. As a reminder, Jim was one of three Lennar executives that visited my home on March 2, 2017. I had very little involvement with him past that point (he was not even copied on the countless emails and communications during this time). That was all about to change.
Here is the voicemail that Jim Yeadon left that day:
I returned his call shortly after and left him a voicemail message.
He returned my call and left a second voicemail message:
IMO – you can hear the tension in the voicemail message. I already knew it wasn’t going to be a fun conversation.
I call Jim Yeadon back
I returned Jim’s call at 5:19 PM EST and the call lasted 34 minutes. Why am I being this detailed in my communications? It helps to show how confusing the upcoming communications were to me.
The call with Jim Yeadon on August 14, 2017, lasted 34 minutes.
Summary of the call with Jim Yeadon
To say I ended the call more confused and frustrated is an understatement. I was on speaker phone, and in between statements there would be pauses and ‘pings’ coming from his computer. I can’t be for certain, but it seemed to me he was messaging someone while he was on the call with me.
Basically, I would ask a question or make a statement and he would repeat it back to me. That was the general format. Occasionally he would preface it with, “So what you are saying is…” or “What you are asking is…”
Why did everything stop?
I told him I was disappointed with trying to catch him up as much as possible over the last several months since he had not been on the communications. He indicated that he was kept informed. I then asked him,
Why did everything stop and why were the last promises not followed through on by Mark, Steve and Rick?
He didn’t really have an answer.
A/C repair vs replace and why only one system?
I indicated that one point of confusion from the letter – and was a point of confusion as to the last conference call – was why is nothing noted about the upstairs office A/C unit that is full of mold? The inspection report and letter indicate that only the one A/C system would be ‘repaired.’
My second what that I was told on the same call that it would be ‘replaced’ not ‘repaired’ as indicated in the letter. These were just a couple of many things we had all agreed to revisit during future inspections.
As a reminder, there are two A/C systems:
- One in the main house and in the attic
- One in the upstairs office/guest retreat located above the detached garage and that A/C unit is smaller and is in a closet.
Mark Metheny of Lennar wanted to bring in an environmental inspection company in addition to other home inspections based on the numerous construction issues and evidence of metal corrosion. These inspections never happened. I only received one more communication from Mark Metheny after this indicating he would respond to my messages ASAP.
Jim Yeadon’s response:
Lennar means replace the A/C system, and by system, we see that as one system through the entire house so both systems – the one in the main house and the one in the guest retreat – would be replaced as a repair.
I literally dropped my jaw at the response and paused for a bit.
This is what I mean, Jim. Tell me, please tell me. How am I supposed to know based on this letter that repair means replace – those are completely different terms – and that ‘the A/C system’ actually means that two, physically and completely separate A/C systems that aren’t related at all, will be replaced?
If you haven’t realized just by reading a few posts, this is how precise you must be with the builder, and how absolutely confusing Lennar makes everything. I’ve since come to confidently suspect that confusing and frustrating is the goal so you just give up on it.
Lennar release
I told Jim Yeadon that I had many questions about the release required for repairs, and had indicated them in the comments of the release document (that’s a link to the documents and comments – notice the date of 5/23/2017 on the comments) I sent to the other three executives before the first review of inspection items.
I had several questions and comments about the required Lennar release for construction repairs that were never addressed. The date of the comments is 5/23/2017. I was talking to Jim Yeadon and being asked to repeat the questions again on 8/14/2017 – almost three months later.
He asked what my questions were and I reminded him that he should have the document. He indicated he didn’t (although he said earlier he had everything from all the discussions he wasn’t involved with earlier). I told him I didn’t have access to it (I was talking to him from my kitchen) but would ask them off the top of my head (you can open the Lennar release document for the specific questions and comments I had).
When I got to the social media question, he abruptly stopped and with a rather ‘angry’ tone asked:
Why are you trashing us on social media?!
I paused because I was confused as to 1) where this was coming from and 2) what was the relevance to the question that we were having about the release document? I simply replied:
Why in the world would I give Lennar ‘kuddos’ after all of this and the conversation we are having right now. To be clear, I’ve said good things and ‘thanked’ Lennar on social media in the past. You deserved it at the time.
Here’s an example of a positive Lennar tweet I’ve made and referencing the night I first met with the three Lennar executives at my home. I hope Lennar is happy now.
The team @Lennar in Tampa did great tonight. Thank you @LennarTampa. You've got talent. 👍🎉👍
— Kris Fannin (@krisfannin) March 3, 2017
It was a rather odd exchange and he didn’t answer any of my release questions. I figured he was writing them down.
Repair and inspection questions
I then indicated to Jim I had many questions about the repairs and additional inspections. I told him we were all confused after the last two conference calls and that was what we were supposed to be working on in additional meetings. I also indicated that I never received the updated spreadsheet I was promised from the last meeting we had.
His response? Organize it all and send it to him. I asked him how am I supposed to do that based on things I haven’t received back and was promised?
Starting over – again
Basically what Jim Yeadon was telling me to do is to start the process all over again and this time on my own. What I gathered is he wanted me to organize everything that happened in the three months I had to continued to cooperate with Lennar and then everything just suddenly stopped.
The burden was yet again on me to catch him up and then start the entire process over again.
Needless to say, I got off the phone and had a few tears out of absolute confusion and frustration. If you know me, you know I’m not a crier at all.
I was exhausted by the last several months, not to mention the more than four years before, I was confused as to what was happening, and I was beyond frustrated by the lack of repsonse and then the sudden response of people who hadn’t been involved at all in the previous several months.
I’m sure you can begin to imagine it all just from reading this. It’s exhausting just to write, but that’s part of the goal is so that I never have to spend my energy explaining it all – especially the inconsistencies and erratic behavior of Lennar – ever again.
Note: As of the date of this publication, all the Lennar executives went silent and none of the construction repairs were ever made, including the promised replacements of two, improperly installed and defective A/C units causing extensive mold exposure and health issues.
Next Lennar communication: Jim Yeadon Confirms Both A/C Units Replaced
Previous Lennar communication: Lennar CEO’s Unbelievable Response to Email
