New Construction - Wrong Upgrades Installed

[Devan R.]

As I've mentioned previously the wife and I are under contract for a pre-construction home. The home is about 75% complete. The builders have asked the buyers not to visit the site (26 homes) that being built in the enclave due to safety and hazard concerns. They have indicated if we would like to see our homes we have to schedule an appointment with a representative from their company.

We were informed when we signed our contract that we would have 2 walk throughs 1) dry wall phase and 2) 90% completion phase. We have been visiting the site in the evenings and realized that the upgrades we paid for is wrong. (Probably shouldn't be visiting but excited and interested on how the progress is coming along)

--The downstairs bathroom was suppose to have granite however instead they installed culture marble.

--The wrong listello tile have been installed in our master bathroom and the listello is only in the shower and not as a back splash over the tub.

--On the garage our house number is not centered

We are scheduled to visit the home next Saturday with a representative from the builder. We have a slight cause of concern since we should have had our dry wall walk through - the home is already painted! We will not sign until these things are fixed - I'm sure there will be more things we will find that needs fixing. I just find it weird that the builders did not schedule a walk through with us and now will have to go back fix the mistakes. This is added cost to the builder.

Love to hear thoughts if anyone has experienced this during pre-construction.

[Joel Owens]

I can't give legal advice.

In your new home sales agreement there is generally verbage that says the builder can REPLACE certain products of similar styles due to construction or building supply shortages.

So there is the issue of did they just install the wrong items or was there a shortage of your selection and it is no longer available? You will have what is a punch list of items that MUST be completed prior to closing. If they are not completed you do not sign for closing. Be very adamant with the builder and say you will not accept that warranty will take care of it or the builder promises to get to it later right after closing etc. My experience is they are all about getting it done before closing to get to a sale and after closing you are an afterthought bugging them for months to get anything done.