This homeowner review comes from Lennar Hills of Crown Ridge in Frisco, Texas and was originally posted on the Pissed Consumer review website. If you prefer to read the interview instead of watching the video, I’ve included a transcript below.
Lennar complaint – experience in buying a new home
Lennar complaint video transcript
“The issue I have is with a company called Lennar Homes. They built a home for me and when I moved in, it wasn’t ready.
There were problems with the heater. I had to pay out of pocket to have it fixed. They [Lennar] are not willing to repay me anything for any of the damages that were done in the house.
The area we live in was anywhere between 19 and 25 degrees for the next few weeks. When we moved in the heater wasn’t working. The first couple of days we didn’t really notice it because we were busy moving and the doors were open, so no big deal.
But Friday and Saturday came around and it became an issue because we were already settled in the house and having to wear jackets full time. We kept turning the heater up and it [the temperature in the Lennar home] just wouldn’t climb. It stayed at 58 degrees roughly for the first four days.
We called the builder [Lennar Homes] to come by and take a look and they said,
“Call the company that installed it.”
We called Tempo and they sent a guy out. He looked at it and said,
“There is a part that’s broken. We’ll have to order it, so it’ll be a few days.”
Something is wrong, I don’t know how it’s wrong on a brand new house, but whatever.
So we had to do what we had to do to survive that weekend and that week. So we turned on the heater full time – we had it running full time – both upstairs and downstairs. We have a fireplace that’s gas and we turned it on and just sat next to the fireplace for the entire week.
A week later, they install the part and they start working on it [the heater] again, but it’s still not climbing temperature wise. So they tried something else.
He said he had to remove some duct work. I don’t know what that really means. He had to move some things around to get the air to start circulating around the house. Once he did that, the temperature started to go up to 62 and then he said to just give it time and it should go up.
It went up to – I think – like 66 degrees was what it was in the house. Much better than 58, but still not something we would want to be living in during the 19 degree outside temperature, but it was good enough to live in.
So then a couple of weeks went by and the temperature was still pretty low – closer to the 30s, but we still couldn’t get the heater to go above 66 degrees, no matter how long we ran the heater – both day and night. It was constantly going and not getting any hotter.
The upstairs was starting to get hot – it was getting to 78 or 80 degrees upstairs but not downstairs. So something else must be wrong and we called them back.
This is probably a week or two later and they come out and they do a balance is what they called it. He goes in and sets some fans to run at different intervals and supposedly that would push the heat where it needed to go.
He opened some vents and did some various things. Now, for the most part, we have hit 72 degrees and that’s what we are liking it at.
But then the bill came.
The bill came and it was $417 for gas. Historically our gas bill is $30, so this is alarming. We called the builder [Lennar] and said something is wrong. I called the people and installed it. Something is wrong. Someone needs to figure out this gas bill.
Three weeks later, nobody called me back on either side. When I finally got a hold of them, supposedly they were talking amongst themselves trying to figure out what to do.
Finally, someone from the gas company called and said you need to talk to your builder because we aren’t going to do anything. The gas got into your house, so that’s on you.
The builder [Lennar Homes] said the gas company would fix it because they installed the heater. The builder said the best thing we can do is when you get your next bill, give us a copy of your next bill, and we’ll compare it and see what the rates are and then maybe then we’ll talk about compensation.
That’s where we are at this point, waiting for the bill to come to find out what a standard heating bill is.
How should Lennar solve the problem?
The desired resolution at this point is for them to cover the cost of the original bill. We aren’t talking about thousands of dollars. And it was more of a customer service issue than it was anything else.
The lack of response. The lack of owning up to the problem they created. That’s really all I’m looking for.
