ComplaintsforBenko Construction Co., Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  08/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  We bought a house from Homes by Towne (Benko) in Feb of 2021. The house was finally delivered in Dec 2022. We did our walkthrough with *****, our *******. There were many issues most of which have been resolved, but the biggest was the cabinets in the house. They are very poorly finished and installed. I have complained to ***** of HBT several times about it but we still have no resolution. ***********, the contractor who build the cabinets, sent a representative on May 5th, 2023. **, *****, and ***** (our customer care manager) agreed that the installation was not acceptable. The Timbercreek rep took pictures and said that they would get back to us with some kind of resolution. However, it has been over 3 months and there is still no word from anyone. At the end of the day, it is Homes by Towne who we contracted with so it is up to them to satisfy the problem. This is why the complaint is with Benko (their construction arm). There are numerous issues. I have attached some pictures though this is not exhaustive:1) Cabinet doors and drawers are off center. 2) Cabinet doors are inconsistently stained. Some have drop marks where the stain was over applied 3) Trim finishing does not match cabinets and doesn't even match other trim 4) Some cabinets were chipped and very poorly repaired before we took possession. Repairs have come off revealing the chip again.This is not the quality of cabinets that is expected for a high end home. Apart from the fact that they are poorly installed, the staining and trim is very poorly done. The Timbercreek representative suggested that we would not be satisfied with replacement stained products at which point we agreed that we would be willing to take a painted product, even if it involved some kind of reasonable surcharge. Hopefully this complaint gets the gears moving on this issue.

• Initial Complaint

  03/14/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Purchased and built a brand NEW $800,000+ home from "Homes By Towne" in Lakehouse Cove in Sarasota, FL on July 8, 2021. At closing we did our walk through of the home to identify deficiencies that needed repair. This is a standard practice when buying a new home. One large item we found were obvious marks/flaws running a good length of the slab on the top of the island quartz countertop in the kitchen. The construction manager tried to remove the marks without any success. We were then turned over to the company's warranty department where we were told by (Bruce K.) manager of warranty to have patience as this had happened to other homes in the development and they'd rectify the issue and that the builder had to first negotiate it out with the countertop company. We waited over 4 months to then be told by Homes by Towne that the countertop wouldn't be fixed as it met industry standards. Tim S., VP of construction wrote us off without any further fix to the problem. We purchased a NEW home which shouldn't of been delivered with such marks/defects running down the island quartz island countertop. Very disappointed with the lack of integrity the builder used regarding this issue. Clearly, the builder can't get the manufacturer of the countertops to rectify the issue by replacement and they don't want to eat the cost or be bothered any further with the problem. The consumer (us) has been left with the financial obligation here to replace or live with it. The builder needs to be held accountable for doing the right thing for their customer and replace a legitimate defect they delivered to consumer at closing. Had they not noted it at walk through and gave us their word to fix it, we wouldn't have closed or would have held $$'s in escrow until the item was replaced.

  Business response

  03/25/2022

  The customer did indeed do a walk-through prior to closing on the home and signed a document with a list of all items that needed attention or repair. There were (10) items on the list. The Kitchen Island top was inspected, but nothing was mentioned at all about them being dissatisfied with the top at that time. The area of concern is minor in nature and can only be seen at a particular angle as well as when light is coming toward the counter top. We had the ******************* who did the installation look at it and say that the counter top was within industry standards, but would try to buff the counter top and could not guarantee that they could make it better. We are willing to bring in another company that will try to buff the counter top, but again we think it's within the standards of performance and can't guarantee it will be 100% no visible under certain conditions.

  Business response

  04/08/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/03/25) */ The customer did indeed do a walk-through prior to closing on the home and signed a document with a list of all items that needed attention or repair. There were (10) items on the list. The Kitchen Island top was inspected, but nothing was mentioned at all about them being dissatisfied with the top at that time. The area of concern is minor in nature and can only be seen at a particular angle as well as when light is coming toward the counter top. We had the Counter Top Company who did the installation look at it and say that the counter top was within industry standards, but would try to buff the counter top and could not guarantee that they could make it better. We are willing to bring in another company that will try to buff the counter top, but again we think it's within the standards of performance and can't guarantee it will be 100% no visible under certain conditions.

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