Hunterbrook Media’s investment affiliate, Hunterbrook Capital, does not have any positions related to this article at the time of publication. Positions may change at any time. Hunterbrook Media is working with litigators on potential lawsuits based on our investigation. If you are a victim, we invite you to share your story by emailing ideas@hntrbrk.com — […]

Cover Photo.

You’re in what you thought would be your dream house — until it wasn’t.

The living room ceiling has been ripped out after sewage water backed up and flooded the upstairs bathroom. With the drywall gone, you can spot loose nails and concerning gaps between the floor joists. Rainwater seeps through the cracks around the front door.

Insects crawl through the window frames — even though the windows were reinstalled because they weren’t installed properly in the first place. And most of your bathrooms are unusable, awaiting repairs the builder promised more than a year ago.

It feels like a nightmare — but it’s reality, according to Danielle Antonucci, who invited a Hunterbrook Media reporter to the home she and her husband bought just four years ago in Sarasota, Florida, built by the nation’s largest homebuilder, D.R. Horton ($DHI). In an email provided to Hunterbrook, Antonucci desperately pleaded with D.R. Horton to address the numerous defects rendering their home nearly uninhabitable: “I keep getting the response that this matter has been escalated to the Sarasota office,” she wrote. “It has been 21 months!”

  • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    Oh man, let me tell you. We built our house a few years ago and it was an ordeal. After a while I just stopped asking the builder to fix things because I knew it would be faster and better to fix them myself or get someone else to fix them. It has added tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of the home, and all of that has come out of our own pocket, we didn’t get to roll all those extra costs into the mortgage loan.

    Some of the corners they cut were unbelievable. They didn’t put any insulation in our attic. None. Our master shower drain was just draining directly into the crawl space, not hooked up the drain pipe at all. There was also no insulation in the crawl space, nor was there a vapor barrier. Poor workmanship everywhere, the floors especially are ass.

    Several people have told me I should sue the builder, and I probably should, but I’d have to pay for a lawyer, and it would probably take months and months. It’s an expense and a hassle I don’t want, so instead I just tell everyone to never, ever use Taylor Homes of Nashville. Ever. Even though, every other builder is probably just as bad.

    • Cyrus Draegur@lemmy.zipEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      … It’s like we forgot, as a whole society, how to build houses. What the fuck is wrong with us. Jesus fucking CHRIST.

      I’m never giving up this house. My grandparents bought it in 1953. I can’t imagine any “production” house will ever be as good as this one and it’s not like this one is even particularly great. Basic competency is becoming rarer by the year.

      • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
        0·
        2 months ago

        The problem is these builders don’t want to pay for competency. They’d rather pay immigrants pennies on the dollar for shoddy work. They charge the same for the houses and just pocket the difference. We get a shitty house and the builder gets greater profits.

        • Cyrus Draegur@lemmy.zipEnglish
          0·
          2 months ago

          They’d rather pay immigrants pennies on the dollar…

          …yeah that strat isn’t gonna carry water much longer the way shit’s going lately >_>;;;

          • Chip_Rat@lemmy.world
            0·
            2 months ago

            ? What do you mean? It will be even cheaper to use immigrants now because they will have even fewer protections, and you can always cycle out all the complainers and anyone who takes too long to get anything done.