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IMPORTANT
UPDATE: I have my arbitration hearing shortly and the
law firm KB Home hired said they will appeal the
award even before an award is given on the purchase
contract and he doesn't mind fighting this forever, more
money in their pocket. So after you spend tens of
thousands of dollars, then you have to fight an appeal.
This is the most immoral, rip-off company I have ever
encountered. Buy from a good builder, do your research!
How
the Better Business Bureau works: When you file a
complaint with the BBB they write to the company if the
company responds then that is the end of it. If the
company ignores the letters, three letters are sent out
then at the BBB's option they could put a bad mark on
the company. After the BBB receives the letter from the
company you complained on did not live up to their word,
like KB Home did to me, nothing more is done unless you
go to arbitration through the BBB. If you win and the
company does not pay you the award, then they would get
a black mark. So don't be fooled like I was with high
rankings on KB Home, they know how this works and they
return a letter immediately to protect their rating.
My
KB Home has so many major construction issues that I was no longer able to
live there. I was told by one contractor it is a tear
down. The house was not built to code. I'm told
that the building inspectors did drive-by instead of
hands-on inspections, which is the only way that this
home could have passed building codes. I'm not the only
one with issues. My association dues went up because of all
the faulty homes that KB Home built in my complex. The
association had to hire both an engineer and an attorney
to deal with all of the faulty construction issues, both
of whom must be paid for by the homeowners. Some people
were savvy enough to hire their own inspectors to check
their home as it was being built. They were able to
catch issues, but it cost them thousands of dollars to
protect themselves from a defective home. They may have
gotten a home that was properly built, but they are
still paying higher association dues for the other homes
with structural issues.
I
was assaulted by a KB Home saleswoman, and had a
salesman drive by and shout vulgarities to me out of the
car window day after day because I tried to warn potential buyers against
the problems they might encounter if they purchased a KB
Home.
Do
you want to risk having your entire life put on hold,
living in a hotel room for years while you are going
through litigation? KB Home is also fighting me on my
expenses in not having a home that is livable condition.
Do your research and buy from a
good builder - don't get stuck with a disaster from KB
Home.
HOME ISSUES:
My
home is so poorly constructed that I can't live in it.
Water intrusion, mold growth, among
other things. KB Home used untreated wood (Virgin wood)
that by building code needs to be covered if it rains.
This was not done, which left the wood in a weakened
state, and moldy and is in am unusable condition by
code/industry standards. One of the many major issues is that the
soffits were installed at an angle towards the home,
which causes water to seep under the stucco into the
walls.
KB Home uses press board
instead of plywood, which crumbles and produces soft
spots when it gets wet. The floor has spot spots all
over. One worker who weighs about 140 lbs had his foot
go right through the sub floor while I was living there.
These are my inspection reports from Inspect
Solutions
and Whetstone.
It turns out that after I paid thousands of dollars to
have inspections done that the rafters are bad, most likely
from being water damaged. 
I'm
 glad KB Home screwed up and didn't cover
the lip of the stair with carpet - it clearly shows how
poor the work is. Just imagine what is covered up
that you would be totally unaware of. Their final fix
was to cut the lip off and not remove the damaged wood
underneath the flooring. Please click on my links to the
construction issues. I spent thousands of dollars to
have the house ripped apart, only to find it was not
built to code. The links to these reports are on the
left side of the page. I don't know if anyone else has
gone through the expense of tearing off the stucco and
walls, but I have spoken with a number of other owners
that have major water leakage and very poor workmanship
issues.
I had water leaking down from my
top deck. 
Holes cut to repair wiring
issues: 
They couldn't even paint
the wall properly after they made repairs: 
While trying to get the
repairs made I was unable to work. I had to spend a
great deal of time waiting for workers to come (who more
often than not never showed up), cleaning up after them,
moving things around, and completely unable to have a
life. There is so much more wrong with this house from
touch-up paint being a different color to major structural
issues. My KB Home has now been 3 1/2 years of hell and
hundreds of thousands of dollars lost. This is why
people are walking away fro their dream home or trying
to sell it.
LEGAL
& INSPECTION FEES:
WARNING: If you do buy a home the most important thing I can
stress is DO NOT SIGN AN ARBITRATION CLAUSE!
KB Home has an arbitration clause written into their
contract stating that you must go to arbitration first,
but you will not be able to recoup any of your
legal fees. Here is a link to am article published by
Consumer Affairs which documents a ruling from the FTC,
upheld by a Texas District Court, to force KB Home to
stop forcing consumers to sign an arbitration agreement:
consumeraffairs1. The cost of arbitration is
extremely expensive for the homeowner, and you will not
be reimbursed for the expense of legal fees. Your legal
fees will be $300.00 to $350.00 an hour for most attorneys,
then add all the inspections, depositions, taking up
years of your time. Many of these inspections involved
tearing down walls and pulling up floors to expose the
extent of the problems. Arbitration and the inspections
also cancel some or all of your future warranty
coverage. This is why people are walking away from their
KB "dream" homes. A number of owners have
given up and let the bank foreclose on their new faulty
KB Home, not wanting or able to spend tens of thousands
of dollars or more on fees that they can't afford and
won't be able to recoup. They figured bad credit is
better than losing more money and the aggravation and
years to fight KB Home on the piece of junk they
were sold. I found out that many people were offered
free upgrades in exchange for a good report rating to JD
Powers; even with that the company still has a poor
rating. JD Powers rates KB Home low in home
quality. Click
here to see the report.
WARRANTY
- PROTECTS THEM, NOT YOU
Some
paragraphs from the warranty:
"Home Owner also understands that KB shall not be obligated to incur any costs
for the repair or replacement of defects in the Home which, in the aggregate,
exceed the base purchase price for the Home paid by the original Home
Owner. Further, this Warranty does not entitle Home Owner to recover for any of the
following even in the event of an otherwise valid claim under the Warranty
Performance Standards: (1) consequential or incidental damages, (2) stigma
damages, (3) lost profits or (4) claims of bodily injury. All other warranties,
express or implied, including, but not limited to, all implied warranties of fitness,
merchantability or habitability, are disclaimed and excluded to the extent allowed
by law."
This
means that if you put $35,000 into upgrades and your home
is a tear down, you lose the entire cost of the upgrades.
"The decision to replace or repair an item or to reimburse Home Owner will be made
solely by KB and/or its subcontractors, suppliers or design professionals in its or their
sole discretion. These parties will also determine the materials and methods which
should be used in making any repair, and whether repair or replacement is most
appropriate, in their sole discretion. As described in the
warranty Performance Standards, substitutions of brands, colors or patterns may be necessary and perfect
matches are not guaranteed. "
"REPAIR MATERIALS/SUBCONTRACTORS
If KB elects to perform repairs, all repairs will be made with materials or components identical to, or of an equal
or better grade or quality than, the materials or components used in the original
construction of the Home. KB has the right to independently select the
contractors, subcontractors or trades people used for repair or replacement work in
its sole discretion. "
THIRD
PARTY CONTRACTORS:
My home is so poorly
constructed along with theft and breakage that I moved out. There are serious
construction problems. KB Home uses third party
contractors, one that was sent to my home was a convicted drug felon died while
working on my house.
Cause of death, cocaine abuse exacerbating
underlying heart disease, he was up all night before
coming over doing drugs and drinking. Do you want these
type people in your home? I have had so much stolen,
broken and just plain shoddy repairs.
Time and again, KB
Home has refused to fix my issues properly. Instead they
put in cheap fixes which
don’t work and/or are aesthetically very unattractive.
DESIGN
CENTER:
They impress you with a beautiful design center. I
had to fly out twice since they closed the center where
I went and some of my choices were no longer available.
This of course was at my own expense even though it was
due to something they fell short on. But what good is
pretty tile if your house is full of mold and major
construction faults, making it unsafe to inhabit? KB
Home directs their sales toward first time buyers. My
thought on it is first time buyers are naive and overly anxious
which makes for great sales. The washer and dishwasher
supplied by KB Home broke right away and I know many
people in my complex have had to buy new replacement
appliances after a very short period of time. If you do
buy through them, check to see the ratings on the
appliance you're getting.
WHAT
YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU MAY NOT GET:
KB
Sales staff were sweet as can could be - until the close of the
sale. Numerous lies were told to by the salesman
during the sale. What you see isn't necessarily what you
get I have one example here. Click
here to see the differences in the homes built
RENTAL
ISSUES:
I
was promised that they turn away investors and the
contract even states you can't rent the units out. More
lies and fraudulent statements from these people. They
sold to investors totally aware the property was being
purchased for a rental unit.
Think
about the resale value. How many homes did KB sell to
investors? If there are too many rentals in the complex
you can have trouble getting a mortgage, and when you
sell the new owners can have trouble getting one. Banks
don't like to lend when there is a high percentage of
rentals.
I
was able to get hold of an email from a KB Associate
that stated: "The 1
year hold was for a no compete against sales. This has
not been enforced. (So they can sell more homes).
Another from KB Home Corporate: "We do advertise the "no
rental" clause but cannot enforce. It has been
challenged in court and we lost. We ask the customer to
sign this but have no authority to enforce." I'd
like to see the court case on this and why did they
promise me they don't sell to investors. A letter from one
realtor states: "We have 5 investors with units totaling 12
in my complex." I was promised by the "honest"
sales staff that they turn away anyone who is looking to
purchase as rental. After I moved in I found a high
percent of people that bought as rentals with the sales
staff totally aware of it.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER
KBHomeDisaster.com, KBHomesDisasters.com, provides this site for information
and entertainment purposes regarding KB Homes customers
and their KB Homes Nightmares, and for the researching
of new home builders and consumer complaints on new home
builders and new homes for sale. This site is not
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