Forced to close the new home without final walkthrough

C

caoc

New member
We closed our new house on 12/29.  The builder insisted to close it before the year end although the house was not "complete" and we didn't do the official final walk through.  They told us we would do final walkthrough after close sometimes this week and they would fix everything we noted.  As of today, they are still working on the house and there are still missing appliance parts because they ordered the wrong size, according to them.
Has anyone else had the similar situation?  Seems really not right to me that we closed the house and I started paying the interest and all other costs but I can't move in and they still have full access to the house although they handled me the keys.
 
caoc said:
We closed our new house on 12/29.  The builder insisted to close it before the year end although the house was not "complete" and we didn't do the official final walk through.  They told us we would do final walkthrough after close sometimes this week and they would fix everything we noted.  As of today, they are still working on the house and there are still missing appliance parts because they ordered the wrong size, according to them.
Has anyone else had the similar situation?  Seems really not right to me that we closed the house and I started paying the interest and all other costs but I can't move in and they still have full access to the house although they handled me the keys.
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I HIGHLY recommend that you get a 3rd party home inspection done at that walk-through.  Builders seem to be rushing these homes more and more.  Buyers should push back and not close until they are comfortable.
 
How do they still have full access to the house?  Once you put the owners key in the chamber, the builders key isn?t supposed to work anymore.  I?d be worried if their master key still works and they are coming and going as they please in your home.
 
aquabliss said:
How do they still have full access to the house?  Once you put the owners key in the chamber, the builders key isn?t supposed to work anymore.  I?d be worried if their master key still works and they are coming and going as they please in your home.
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Unfortunately I think thats an old wives tale the builders tell everyone - 6 months after our close date the builder's customer service were still able to let themselves in whenever I consented.  I know they must still have some master "skeleton" key from the lock manufacturer since I was never home to meet them.
 
paperboyNC said:
How can they force you to close? What would have happened if you refused?
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They basically told us we must close that day - the only scenario they wouldn't close was that if the gas meter was not in. And it was installed on that Friday morning.  I was telling them that I was not comfortable to close with all the outstanding items (about 20 items) and no final walk through.  They told me they would fix everything and both sales and construction VPs were involved.  The sales rep also said they could cancel the deal if I don't close that day.
I have some contractor work lined up so I didn't plan to move in immediately, but still bothers me how the whole thing was handled by the builder.
 
aquabliss said:
How do they still have full access to the house?  Once you put the owners key in the chamber, the builders key isn?t supposed to work anymore.  I?d be worried if their master key still works and they are coming and going as they please in your home.
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I am not sure, I thought they were not supposed to too.  I will ask them today again.  I asked the sales office when I got the key, she told me the construction crew won't have the key access to the house and they will ask for my permission when they need to get in to the house.  Apparently that was not the case.
 
caoc said:
paperboyNC said:
How can they force you to close? What would have happened if you refused?
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They basically told us we must close that day - the only scenario they wouldn't close was that if the gas meter was not in. And it was installed on that Friday morning.  I was telling them that I was not comfortable to close with all the outstanding items (about 20 items) and no final walk through.  They told me they would fix everything and both sales and construction VPs were involved.  The sales rep also said they could cancel the deal if I don't close that day.
I have some contractor work lined up so I didn't plan to move in immediately, but still bothers me how the whole thing was handled by the builder.
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I guess it depends on what your contract says but that does not seem right to me.  Since it already happened, it is too late but it would have been good to tell them that you are talking to an attorney.

My sense is that they had to close for a number of reasons unrelated to you...extra costs/end of the year reporting. 
 
caoc said:
paperboyNC said:
How can they force you to close? What would have happened if you refused?
Click to expand...
They basically told us we must close that day - the only scenario they wouldn't close was that if the gas meter was not in. And it was installed on that Friday morning.  I was telling them that I was not comfortable to close with all the outstanding items (about 20 items) and no final walk through.  They told me they would fix everything and both sales and construction VPs were involved.  The sales rep also said they could cancel the deal if I don't close that day.
I have some contractor work lined up so I didn't plan to move in immediately, but still bothers me how the whole thing was handled by the builder.
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Our Irvine house they tried to pull that on us too. At that time we had only one walk thru but they insisted we sign our final papers before the walkthrough or no walkthrough and they would cancel the deal. (there were plenty of people on the waiting list and houses had gone up $150K for our model for the houses behind us).

I absolutely insisted we have the walkthrough first. The sales person actually started yelling at us and said "what could POSSIBLY BE WRONG!" In the heat of things I yelled back I don't know. Maybe the electricity doesn't work. LOL! Of course that really set her off but by then the customer service guy had come in the office and he interrupted us and said Edison "forgot to connect our street and the electricity isn't on". She still tried to get us to sign and I threatened to call the lender to see if they had a problem with the house not having any electricity hooked up.

In the end they had the electricity hooked up (president of Stan Pac got on the phone to Edison who came out and worked the entire weekend to get it done). We signed after the walkthrough. I wasn't budging.
 
Irvinecommuter said:
caoc said:
paperboyNC said:
How can they force you to close? What would have happened if you refused?
Click to expand...
They basically told us we must close that day - the only scenario they wouldn't close was that if the gas meter was not in. And it was installed on that Friday morning.  I was telling them that I was not comfortable to close with all the outstanding items (about 20 items) and no final walk through.  They told me they would fix everything and both sales and construction VPs were involved.  The sales rep also said they could cancel the deal if I don't close that day.
I have some contractor work lined up so I didn't plan to move in immediately, but still bothers me how the whole thing was handled by the builder.
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I guess it depends on what your contract says but that does not seem right to me.  Since it already happened, it is too late but it would have been good to tell them that you are talking to an attorney.

My sense is that they had to close for a number of reasons unrelated to you...extra costs/end of the year reporting. 
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Exactly right, it was to make quarterly "numbers" and/or not to get billed additional interest. 
 
I had a similar experience with my closing.  Builder wanted to close to make month end goal.  The builder was rushing to close out the development and the workmanship and quality was poor.  They even forgot to put some builder upgrades that i paid for.  Fixing things after close you have no leverage.  I am going thought this now with my builder.  No follow up or my calls being returned.  I'm weighing my options to see if need to hire an attorney. 
 
paydawg said:
Who is the builder?
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Yup, fastest way to get things done is to out the builder here on TI.  Then they will be scrambling to do damage control.  Remember that guy who had the black mold in Ellwood?  Things got fixed pronto!
 
if they were done and you did not have a final walkthrough signing off on everything you should not have had to close.  you are not responsible for their inability to finish a house on time and to make their numbers look good.
 
I know that in new homes, or at least in ours, there's no inspection contingency in the contract. We were told that after the final walkthrough, any things that need to be addressed would be resolved but that they would not delay COE because of them. Do we even have any leverage to push back the close until any major issues are resolved?
 
0day said:
I know that in new homes, or at least in ours, there's no inspection contingency in the contract. We were told that after the final walkthrough, any things that need to be addressed would be resolved but that they would not delay COE because of them. Do we even have any leverage to push back the close until any major issues are resolved?
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a realtor should chime in on this about any legal ramifications, but IMO you definitely should not close if the home is not finished to your satisfaction.  when you close, the builder gets PAID.  they should not get paid until their work is done.

when we closed on our new home, we did a final walkthrough and 3rd party inspection.  the builder was provided with a checklist of about 40-50 issues that needed to be addressed before we closed.  yes close was delayed but we simply refused to pay them until they fixed everything.  and they did so. promptly. because it was in their interest as they wanted to get paid.
 
At minimum my guess is a publicly traded builder.

In ye olde good days past, buyers with a less than satisfactory experience with their builder would put up signs on their lawn about being "ripped off". With most homes now being built within planned communities, my guess is that if one of these signs pops up overnight, HOA enforcers would come through and take them down.

Wonder if a dissatisfied home buyer might have an opportunity to express their feelings openly at some of the open mic shareholders meetings. If that's planned by some, let me know a week ahead of time so I can get plenty of Jiffy Pop on hand.

My .02c

SGIP
 
So the OP can't move in because of the builder still working on it? Or because appliances aren't working?

I would ask them to pay your mortgage for every day that is the case.

If you are choosing not to move in that may blur the situation.

And that whole "if you don't close we will cancel the sales contract" is hooey, I would have called them on that one because that would have been worse for their quarterly numbers and overall reputation.
 
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