Negligent Home Builder's crew left my garage door open & theft of my business invent

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Vickster

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Hello!

I am glad to see this forum as my home builder has left us with no option but to take them to court. I will attach an email that we sent to the home builder at the end of this message if you'll like to read more details about my case.

In a nut shell, me and my boyfriend purchased a new home from a builder in 2006. The worksmanship on the house was shoddy, just to name a FEW: wet basement, inproperly installed front door casing, and the carpet in our dinning room was a shade off from the rest of the house. The house is brand new, so it's under the builder's warranty. When they came out to fix some of the problems in March 07, the crew left my garage door open when they left my house. I found the garage door wide open with nobody around!! I shut the door in dismay. Several days later I found out that I was missing several boxes of my home business inventory kept in the garage. I called my direct contact at the builder, the project manager. She suggested a couple other possibilities: boxes were gone before the crew showed up, or I had a break-in. And of course, it could not have been a result of the crew left my garage door open.

Another builder representative was even the more laughable. He asked me if I had "physically saw them (the crew) removing the boxes". He also suggested that it is not that big of an issue that the crew had left the garage door open because "it's a rear-entry garage". Finally, a third representative from the builder offered us $250 for compensation over the phone. But we refused because the lost inventory is $2,000 in cost, plus ocean freight. Plus I had already sold some of the inventory, so I have lost income. Also, we are just really fed up the builder!!

In addition to the shoddy job on the house, their gross negligence, their irresponsible handling of the situation, their hostile and scare tactics, they ARE still trying to snake out from fixing what's wrong with the house! There is an inch gap between the outside front door casing and the stoop, the casing is curved outwards. The crew leader told me that was installed properly, it's just a little loose, and a couple fasteners would fix it. And of course, he had to scare me with the "you don't want water in the house" talk. The quality of their fix is really sub-standard. It's as if an amateur has done it. After they tried to fix my door casing, they left a couple noticeable cream paint spot on my red door. And when they fixed the outside of my kitchen cabinet, the nails missed the back side of the cabinet, and there are 2 inch long nails currently in my kitchen cabinet. Some of my neighbors are also suffering through their inadequate building skills. One across the street is having her porch fixed for the 3rd or 4th time. They just can't seem to get it right.

So at this point, I think I have a good case against a "well-established" home builder at western Pennsylvania. It's too bad that "well-established" does not translate to "responsible and competent" in this case.

As promised, this is a copy of the email I had sent to the builder's representative after he suggested that it's a mistake but it's no big deal because it's a rear-entry garage on the phone.

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You need to understand when the guys left the house with the garage door open, that was negligence. However, the way your company has handled the situation is NOT an accident. This is one last chance for us to resolve this civilly without involving the court. To refresh your memory;

For our 30-day review fix-ups, in March 20 and 21 of 2007, Ryan Homes' crew of 4 people was at our home to repair wall, paint, basement amongst others. The crew requested to open the garage door for them to bring in tools and materials. On the second day, the crew left the garage door open when they left our home, and they did not tell Vickie that they were leaving or that they were done with the garage door. Sometime later in the afternoon, Vickie was shocked to discover that the garage door was wide-open but nobody was around. She then closed the garage door. Although it is a rear garage door, but one would think the more responsible way would be to close it when they leave. I hope it is not your company's standard procedure to leave any garage door or any door/windows, front or rear, open and vulnerable to theft and possible damage when your crew leaves a home.

Later that week, March 25 early morning, Vickie discovered several boxes of inventory for our home business were missing. After checking, a total of 18 boxes were gone. The inventory was delivered only on March 7. Because these were part of an ocean freight shipment, all the boxes were numbered, and there is an itemized list of their contents.

Vickie called Jessica regarding the theft, Jessica claimed that our inventory could have been missing before the crew showed up. And she also suggested there could have been a break-in. Vickie explained to her our inventory was delivered only 2 weeks earlier, and all boxes were numbered with an itemized list. And we've had no visitors and no signs of break-ins. And Vickie also explained to her that the crew had left the garage door open when they left. Jessica continued to deny any responsibility. She said she would check with her boss, and several days later, we heard the same story from Jessica: the boxes could be missing prior to the crew's arrival, possible break-ins, etc. And she reaffirmed her theory that the missing boxes could not have been a result of the crew's negligent behavior by leaving the garage door open.

Till this day, we have not seen Ryan Homes take actions towards a resolution. We are very disappointed about how this situation has been handled, and we are weary of letting unknown person come in to our house because of the theft and also because of the irresponsible way Ryan Homes have dealt with this situation.

Jerry, we believed that when a homebuilder comes to a house for any warranty repair works, you are liable to keep the homeowner's possessions safe. Your crew left the content of the garage in a vulnerable situation by leaving the garage door open and without informing Vickie that they were leaving. As a direct consequence, 18 boxes (over $2,000 replacement value) of my home business inventory went missing from the garage. This is negligence. The continued refusal to resolve this situation is irresponsible and very possibly illegal. Seriously, Jerry, go and ask 2 people on the street and see if they think a homebuilder has to lock the door when they leave.

We realize we might have no options but to take legal actions, and we have filed a report with the Manor Police Department as you have mentioned.

They say the second most stressful event in your life is moving. This on top of starting a new home business, then to lost part of our inventory, and lost the revenues associated with the lost inventory just add more stress on top of an already stressful situation. As any victims of theft, the security of our brand new home has been taken away from us, all because of the negligence of your crew.

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As of now, I KNOW I have a case for both gross negligence and mental anguish. I still can't believe the builder's rep would suggest that I had a break-in albeit only limited to the garage area and the rest of the house, or that it is not big deal to leave the rear-entry garage door open! How silly is that???!!! They must have taken us for fools.

Also, it is possible to have a "vote of no confidence"? With the level of their skills, it seems their use of the cheapest subcontractors is not cutting it in both building the house and fixing the house.

Another question: with the wet basement issue, I think about 5 houses in our neighborhood built around the same time had different degree of wet basement. How much does it take to get a class action? They came out to fix the waterproofing issue. But I still have one noticeable wet spot in the garage!

If you have any suggestions/referrals, please let me know. We're right outside Pittsburgh. Thanks for reading my case!

Vickie
 
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