Pacesetter Homes

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• By Anissa J.

  February 28, 2022

  Build a home

  $179,000

  BUYER BEWARE, the warranty of your new home is WORTHLESS!

  I purchased my home 4-years ago. Pacesetter new homes come with a 1-year warranty, they will make cosmetic repairs (IF you can get them to come do the work). When that warranty expires, you then have a Bonded Builders warranty to cover the major portions of your home such as the FOUNDATION.

  Right away, I noticed some cracks in my sheetrock, some cracking around my pantry, some doors that stuck, my driveway was CRACKED IN HALF, and some tight windows when opening them. Under the 1-year warranty, they repaired the sheetrock cracks and realigned the doors. I had to put up a fuss for them to repair the driveway, they eventually replaced the two driveway panels that were cracked. Little did I know that all of these little signs were pointing to a BIGGER issue! My foundation is literally cracked in half, the ENTIRE width of my home has at least an ⅛” crack!

  I contacted the Bonded Builders warranty company, thinking that they’d clearly see that this is/was an issue with the load-bearing portion of my house FAILING and repair it. Nope! The reply that I received from the company is/was:

  In response to your concerns, the home was recently inspected at the request of Centricity. A copy of the engineer report is attached for your review. Per the express terms of the Express Limited Major Structural Defect Warranty, four conditions must be present to qualify for coverage:

  1. Actual physical damage;
  2. to the designated load-bearing portions of a Home;
  3. caused by failure of such load-bearing portions that affects their load-bearing functions; and 4. to the extent that the Home becomes unsafe, unsanitary, or otherwise unlivable.

  The warranty also reads that “all four portions of the definition must be met to qualify the home for Major Structural Defect Warranty Coverage”. The engineer concluded that your home does not meet the criteria to qualify for warranty coverage. Since the home does not meet these criteria, your claim must respectfully be denied.

  Clearly, items 1-3 are met. I’m guessing that the walls have to be falling down for #4 to be met. Any rational person would know that it IS unsanitary to be in a home with a cracked foundation because, the more it moves, the more issues that will pop up. I am starting to notice more insects and I fear that one day it will start bursting pipes….which will then REALLY not be covered.

  So, I contacted a real estate attorney and was told that they’d need a $10,000 retainer to take the case and it can cost $75,000 or more (likely more) to litigate the case. NO median home buyer has that kind of cash laying around.

  So, the options are:
  Spend a fortune fighting a legal battle that has no guarantee of winning
  Spend the money to repair the foundation
  Let the home keep moving and wait for it to become unsafe.

  All of those options are insanity considering that my home is ONLY 4-years old! IF the construction of my home was quality, my foundation would NOT have cracked in half even with minor movement of the ground. I hate to think about the future of this house because once foundation issues begin, bigger and more costly issues will pop-up.

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