state? OH We are building a new house and so far the builder and subs have done nothing correct. Briefly, 1. the house was sited in the wrong place on the lot, 2. the house specific plan was never drawn to the lot topography and so we have a 9 ft drop between the house and the attached garage, which means a lot of steps and extra supplies to meet that distance difference, 3. the house plan drawing was determined to not be structurally sound by our structural engineer, 4. the the foundation walls have significant cold seams, cracks to me, (where there was a break in the time between when they poured different trucks of concrete) without vertical rebar so also not structurally sound and will eventually leak in these spots, 5. we have one wall that is bowing (and may not be able to have bricks put on top--our last hope still investigating the severity), 6. builder and site coordinator each have a full time job at a company (which we feel is misrepresentation), 7. no one was present when the concrete was poured, 8. we have in the contract that we would be present for the waterproofing and we were not; also they put on damp proofing instead of waterproofing also specified in the contract, 9. were not consulted for siting the septic system even though we asked for that, 10. concrete trucks got stuck and put LARGE ruts in front of the construction site and ruined our driveway and the street drainpipe, 11. there is so place for the steel beam in the basement because they stepped down the foundation too quickly, there is more but those are the main problems, WHOO.
Our structural engineer says that we have to have lots of rework and braces throughout the basement to support the walls, but we want to just tear down and start over with another builder because these braces would be VERY obvious and would cut significantly out usable square footage of our basement. Still, the lawyer thinks that we have to settle with the builder, pay for the concrete because the concrete tested to be the appropriate strength and the concrete subs say that the concrete is "up to industry standards", and may have to pay them profit that they would have lost for breaking the contract. We do not have an exit clause in our contract, but we have a statement that says that "quality workmanship" in the contract. That is our only way to get out of the contract, but we will still have to settle with them and lose lots of money (i.e. $12K to builder, $14K for concrete, $6K testing/lawyer fees (increasing every day), $6K to tear down the walls). I am grasping at straws to look for ideas our lawyer may have missed to cut into what we have to give them to get rid of them. I think that we have them on breech of contract. ANY SUGGESTIONS???? He thinks that we can cut into the profit a little for the cost of the rework, even though we are getting rid of the concrete. THANKS FOR ANY INFO to help a poor working person who got #crewed by a jerky builder and uses the National Homebuilders' Association to back his shoddy work.
Our structural engineer says that we have to have lots of rework and braces throughout the basement to support the walls, but we want to just tear down and start over with another builder because these braces would be VERY obvious and would cut significantly out usable square footage of our basement. Still, the lawyer thinks that we have to settle with the builder, pay for the concrete because the concrete tested to be the appropriate strength and the concrete subs say that the concrete is "up to industry standards", and may have to pay them profit that they would have lost for breaking the contract. We do not have an exit clause in our contract, but we have a statement that says that "quality workmanship" in the contract. That is our only way to get out of the contract, but we will still have to settle with them and lose lots of money (i.e. $12K to builder, $14K for concrete, $6K testing/lawyer fees (increasing every day), $6K to tear down the walls). I am grasping at straws to look for ideas our lawyer may have missed to cut into what we have to give them to get rid of them. I think that we have them on breech of contract. ANY SUGGESTIONS???? He thinks that we can cut into the profit a little for the cost of the rework, even though we are getting rid of the concrete. THANKS FOR ANY INFO to help a poor working person who got #crewed by a jerky builder and uses the National Homebuilders' Association to back his shoddy work.