We purchased a David Weekley home based on promises and representations made by the sales staff, marketing materials, past awards and your reputation in the Tampa area. Let me outline the list of problems that we have had or still have with what was to be our dream home. This list is by no means inclusive of our problems, but rather a mere sampling.
1) Told by sales staff on 3 occasions, there was a front porch across house. It doesn’t have one.
2) We were supposed to have a full lanai in back. After moving across country from California, we find out that 8 feet of our lanai houses two air conditioning units. We were not told this or formally notified of a design change until 3 months after we signed a contract. We were not given an option to have the units placed elsewhere. Several houses on the same street have units placed by master bedroom.
3) There are major structural issues with the house.
4) The roof trusses are jimmied in to fit, rather than flush.
5) The roof is so uneven that it looks like there are waves on our house.
6) The foundation is not level. In some spots, it is an inch higher than the surrounding area.
7) There are several large (1/4”-3/8”) cracks in the foundation
8) There are several major design problems. For example, the cabinet in one bathroom protrudes into the molding around door. The door was not placed far enough to one side to account for the cabinet. We were told all the Tyson units are designed this way.
9) We were told that we had a 3 car garage, yet the third space is taken up by air conditioner units.
10) There is not a straight wall in our house. Some walls bow in 1-2”.
11) There is not a molding in the house that is mitered correctly.
12) We have a severe erosion problem in the back yard.
13) Windows are so uneven that there are some windows that the top and bottom measurement differ by 1-2”.
14) We were told by a David Weekly employee that “green wood was used”, causing many of the problems, including the uneven walls and windows.
15) Interior walls were not placed correctly, resulting in several rooms that are off on one side by 2-3”.
16) Water softener plumber forgot to include a drain.
17) We never got a paint touch up set.
18) We still don’t have a listing of all the numbers to call for repairs, or a listing of our colors. We didn’t receive our homeowner portfolio until the day of closing.
19) The main wall in the Great Room was so uneven and bowed; the warranty department had to put crown molding to cover up fixes. We were originally told that David Weekly was going to put crown molding in the entire room, but when the fix occurred, it was only put in on the wall and let unpainted. So we had to pay to put it on the other walls and paint it.
20) Condenser units installed incorrectly.
This is merely a sampling of the many errors. So we go through the process with the warranty department. Nothing is ever fixed the first time. In many situations we have had to have work done on items 3-4 times. For example, the side porch, it took them 4 times to fix and it is still not right. Not to mentioned, during one of the fixes they splattered paint on our walls and our neighbor’s walls. This has yet to be repainted. Or the tile guy uses the wrong color grout (not even close enough in color to try an argue it is a dye lot issue) so all the repairs are noticeable.
Employees spend more time blaming someone else than actually fixing the problem. For example, to repair the poor miter cuts in the molding, the painters were supposed to repair and repaint the molding. They repainted the molding but told us the carpenter had to fix the molding. The carpenter, of course says it is the painters responsibility.
To add insult to injury, we have had items stolen from our house by your employees. My husband is self-employed, so when he is there supervising your staff to ensure that the items get fixed and we are not robbed, he is loosing money. The few times when items were actually repaired, the repairman usually break something else in the process. For example, the molding guy damaged several of our tiles by throwing his power tool on the floor when putting up the crown molding in the great room and repairing the baseboards around the island in the kitchen.
We are not some picky homeowners, or as we were told by one of your employees “Boy, California must have good building codes, because the problems you have are nothing compared to what gets built in Florida”. All I wanted was a house constructed with appropriate materials and built by competent employees. I understand there are always going to be minor repairs and problems with a new house. Our problems are not minor. Other David Weekly homeowners in Wilderness Lake Preserve Phase II have expressed similar concerns.
Company details:
David Weekley Homes
Corporate Office
1111 North Post Oak Road
Houston, Texas 77055
[protected] phone
[protected] fax
dwhomes.com
Local Division
4505 Woodland Corporate Blvd. Suite 200
Tampa, FL 33614
Fax: [protected]
Re: Wilderness Lake Preserve
Plan 3936 B
Job #: [protected]
Purchase Date: April 02, 2005
Move-in date: October 31, 2005
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer's satisfaction.
This is our second David Weekley home and we are completely satisfied and pleased. We have been in our new home in Harvest in Argyle TX for 4 months now, with outstanding service for the minor issues that have arisen. Our sales person, Dan, and our builder, Randall, were both constantly updating us and available. We highly recommend David Weekley homes in the DFW area.
We have built four homes, with four different builders. The one we built with David Weekley was the worst experience we have had in all four. They told us it would take 6 months, but it was five months before they even dug the hole. It actually took 10 months from start to finish. We asked for weekly updates from the beginning, and only got those after the construction started. Warranty service has been awful. Our microwave went out on Thanksgiving day, and wasn't fixed until February. Our gate still doesn't work. And BTW - the radon levels are the highest the mitigation company had ever seen. I really want to love this home, but with all the negative experiences I just can't. And now with radon unable to be mitigated, we will never be able to sell our home. I just hope that nobody in my family dies from lung cancer because of this.
Where are you located? We are considering a build in Jacksonville, FL.
David Weekley used to build a damn fine home. That was some years ago. Now they a are just another Lennar, Centex, etc. Something happened, on a corporate level, and their mission statement changed; not to mention that the northern Florida area is experiencing such a building frenzy that decent (competent) subs are so hard to find that undocumented immigrants are learning the construction trade on your dime. Sadly, this is true of many builders. If the market slows down, then only the good subs will continue to work and the bad ones will go back to washing dishes and flipping hamburgers. I do not own a David Weekley home, but at one point his was the only home I would even consider building...not anymore. The homes I've seen lately are totally unrecognizable when compared to the Weekley homes of yore. Another one bites the dust...too bad, so sad. They are installing 'super showers' in most of their spec homes now, in lieu of shower/tub. Their trim work leaves a lot to be desired, and they are terribly overpriced for a 'Centex' type home. I'm waiting for them to do away with their 2x6 exterior walls next, one of the few good things they still do. When you pay Weekley prices, you should expect a little more than a 'Centex' home.
These guys are so crooked that they have to spend millions lobbying the state so they get sued less. Weekley homes are 100% garbage. Save yourself heartache and just throw your money in the trash instead of buy a Weekley home.
Buyer Beware! Woodside at West Clay. Do not buy, especially any quick move in "deal." They will tell you how great of a deal you are getting and then continue to remind you when things go wrong. We have lived in our home for under 5 months and are already to move. The warranty team is awful and the people above them are worse. We have drainage issues in our backyard and nobody is willing to take the responsibility for the mistake they made or even help fix the issue. The send slimy men out to justify the wrong doing and call it correct. They will talk in circles like trained robots until you have to ask them to leave your property. Then they will send you emails warning you to not make a negative review of the company, because you could make money on the "great deal" you received. Shady business practice. I wish somebody had warned me. This is your warning.
1) shorted carpet that had to be replaced
2) closet shelves not installed properly
3) multiple stones falling off the home
4) hose spouts leaking falling off the house and "repaired" with caulk that looks terrible and continues to be loose
5) a backyard that floods and will never grow grass (def do not buy in the winter)
6) broken oven for over a month
7) unfinished stone work making the house (over a half million dollar home) look like a modular home
8) slimy men/robots you have to deal with
I will try to post pictures.
My advice... stay away. Build custom or buy an older QUALITY home.
I wish I had seen this page a month ago... Absolute nightmare...
Here’s a little story for anyone considering building a home in Tampa Bay with David Weekley Homes. The short version: DON’T!
What a week... after losing our darling Enzo following his fight with cancer this week, we have now also had to walk away from what we thought was going to be our dream forever home. At the beginning of this month we were thrilled to have found a floor plan we loved, put money down on a lot we loved, signed a thorough contract which included every detail of what we wanted, asked a million questions, made additional visits to the lot, got our official Homebuyer Portfolio, picked out design options in their portal, and scheduled our design meetings. We were so excited. Then a couple of days ago and despite it being over a week beyond the window for changes to the signed contract, David Weekley suddenly asked that we fork over an additional nearly $9k because their team supposedly wrote something incorrectly in the contract... BAM we were out of our carefully planed and already expanded budget. To be clear, the item in question was one we had thoroughly discussed both in person and in writing and sure enough, there it was, clear as day, included in the contract we had signed. At this point we were willing to meet them half way. What’s a little more cash for our forever home; after all, mistakes happen. We expected and had planned for some surprises along the way. We were ready to eat almost $5k and move on to our design meeting.
Then we get a calendar notification... that our design meeting has been cancelled. No notice, no call, no email, no text, no reason given, no communication of any kind. We wonder what’s going on... Our realtor reaches out and not only is she refused access to speak to management, but the sales agent we have worked with now says they have given us a discount already and won’t even consider other options to work with us; it’s either pay for her mistake or lose our home. The discount to which she is referring, you ask? Their company standard Military discount that was offered on our first walk through. We must pay at least half of the amount for something that was 100% their mistake, we cannot change sales agents (even if we now have no trust or confidence in who we’ve been working with), and that if we do not respond within hours, they will go ahead and sell the lot we have already put money down on.
Is it because the offered military discount lost them 1% of their massive profit margin? We don’t know. Was the post-contractual raised pricing invented to cover what we saved with the military discount? We don’t know. Did they bully us into walking away because prices increased and they could get more money from someone else by screwing us? We don’t know. What we do know is that David Weekley homes does not have the integrity to own their mistakes, that they will make decisions for buyers without their knowledge or consent, and that what you sign and agree to means nothing to them unless it falls in their favor. They will sell our dream lot immediately while we wait 4 weeks for our money to be returned. We simply cannot work with a company that won’t work with us, and encourage anyone looking to build a home in Tampa Bay to consider other builders. We are devastated by the added loss this week but are confident that if this is how David Weekley treats its clients, they are not the right builder for us. The way you treat people matters. Shame on you, David Weekley Homes Tampa Bay.
Today we got a call from the division President of David Weekley, Mike, regarding the above. We had expected this seasoned sales person and self proclaimed “client relationship expert” to come to us with some options to reassure us that this isn’t the David Weekley experience any customer should have and offer some resolution. Not only did he not try to regain our trust or business he flat out refused to consider having us move forward with another sales agent (others are available in the community). We then discovered that Ariana, who we had been working with and who had made mistakes/taken steps to cover them (essentially bullying us to walk away), has only been with David Weekley for 4 months... We are more certain than ever that we made the right decision to seek out another builder and strongly urge our friends and local realtors to look elsewhere for respect, customer service, and a positive home building experience. What a waste of time for a completely empty apology. BUYERS BEWARE!
Stay away from David Weekely homes. Poor, poor management with zero follow up or follow through. We never received final landscaping plans, but get an email yesterday that we have 5 days to approve or we are out of compliance- potentially could lose all our earnest money= $50K. You will never feel like a valuable customer using this builder.
Please do not buy David Weekley homes. I have been there for almost 2 years. For every problem their answer is this is normal. They replaced the floor at some parts of the house still it cracks. I called the flooring company and they told its not normal and the flooring is defective but because david weekley has to pay them they keep telling me its normal. Contacted the warranty guy numerous times. Called his manager and his manager's manager as well. Called the corporate office as well but no update.
Extremely poor customer service in Veranda Richmond, TX. Stay far away. If the sales team is an absolute disaster(Tara Mayfield) I could only imagine if something was to go wrong and needed warranty service.
As owner of a 2 year old "Build on your lot" Weekley home, I can honestly say we received an excellent home for our money. The sales process was straightforward and easy, our construction supervisor was easy to work with, and the issues that occurred during construction were all fixed/resolved to our satisfaction. From what I gather from other websites, it really boils down to the supervising manager and their sub contractor's skill. In our case, in Central Texas, the team and process were great. For those that experienced bad outcomes I hope you get resolution.