ComplaintsforNew Wave Builders

• Initial Complaint

  06/03/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Bradley and his team has tried to change prices without approval and charge more for work done without invoices or receipts to prove it and also does not have a signed affidavit of cost like the contract says for escalation charges. He is not even completing work the way it was promised. Materials are changed without written notice to cheaper versions. Appliances and doors are purchased at a damaged discounts prices per receipts. Our home was promised to be built in 4 to 6 months and it has been well over 2 years since we signed and were supposed to start. He is now asking for more money fraudulently but is insisting that he will receive that money no matter what. We have already paid more than what we owe, even though the work wasn't completed and now I have to do it myself. He sent a spreadsheet attached with inflated fraudulent prices that didn't match receipts/invoices and he figured out cost adjustments incorrectly.

  Business response

  06/25/2024

  New Wave Builders values its reputation, and it has built goodwill and a solid customer base since its inception. New Wave Builders takes any complaints seriously and appreciates the opportunity to set the record straight and correct the inaccuracies and false accusations in the customer’s complaint. We note from the outset that this customer’s complaint was made in the context of a payment dispute after New Wave Builders requested final payment. The homeowners have lived in the house for some 16 months and still have not made the final payment called for in the contract. The complaint is not justified, and New Wave Builders firmly denies the claims. 
  
  Evidence of Owner’s Understanding and Acceptance of Escalation Agreement:
  
  We have fully disclosed all costs, receipts, invoices and proof of payments for the completed work to justify the related escalation charges per our contract. The owner previously agreed to the escalation terms of the contract, accepted and paid accordingly and is now in breach of the agreement and attempting to change what the contract states.
  
  Due to the extreme inflation of lumber pricing during the pandemic, the owners chose to delay the framing phase of the project until prices came down. On July 13th, 2022, the additional lumber costs were at a price acceptable to the owner and a re-estimation was sent to owners which also included our cost and overhead for the entire project. On July 14th, 2022 the change order documenting the escalation of lumber costs was agreed upon by the owner and all funds were wired.  
  
  Non specification of materials and substitutions: 
  
  The owners provided no material specification for many of the building materials. For example, our contract specifies a 1x6” base board and a 1x4” door and window trim to be used, which were installed. There was, however, no specification provided for the type of material to be used such as wood, MDF, PVC, etc. Therefore, in those situations selection of material appropriate for the project was at the builder’s discretion. 
  
  False accusation of damaged appliances and doors:
  
  The claim that appliances and doors were purchased at damaged discount prices is not true. The appliances were purchased brand new from **** ***** as part of a Black Friday sale on 11/25/2022 and were discounted because of the sale and not because of damage.  Further, there was no damage to the appliances and we have been provided no notice of this damage until the date this complaint was submitted.  The homeowners have lived in the house now for approximately 16 months, so a complaint of damaged appliances now, after this much time of usage, lacks credibility and appears to be a pretext to excuse their nonpayment. 
  
  The front door supplier was selected by the owner and provided to us by the owner after which they approved the door prior to us purchasing.  After installation, the owner notified us that one of the door panels was warped. A new door was approved by the owner and installed.
  
  Project timeline and excusable delays of the contract:
  
  The assertion that the house took 2 years to start from contract signing is completely false.  The construction commencement date in the contract is defined by the receipt of the survey and commencement of footing excavation, which were March 28th and March 26th 2022 respectively.  The Certificate of Occupancy for the home was issued by Greenville County on February 20th, 2023 upon approval of all final inspections and thus the home was built in approximately 11 months’ time.  
  
  Furthermore, there were multiple excusable delays that added time to the completion date of the contract.  Per our contract, for each day of excusable delay, the required date of completion shall be extended by 1 ½ days.  The excusable delays include, unsuitable soil conditions requiring additional testing and verification which resulted in additional sitework and soil import requirements, supplier material availability and weather delays as well as Owner Delays, pandemics and effects on workforce and material delays, change order delays or by such additional occurrences that impede the progress of the work that are outside the Contractor’s direction or ability to control.   As a result of the excusable days, we were not in violation of the “time of completion” terms in the contract.  We have detailed the existence of excusable delays totaling 304.5 days which added to the completion time. These delays included:  
  
  1. The contract had a financing contingency, and the bank did not finalize the loan for over 3 months
  2. Unsuitable Soil Remediation and site access limitations
  3. Site conditions made it impossible to concurrently construct all parts of the house 
  4. Rain delays and concrete availability 
  5. Owner pauses project due to framing material escalation
  6. Framing delivery staggering and owner design change requests
  7. Fireplace material supply delays and Owner delays due to his requesting changes
  8. Owner’s interference with progress payments and refusal to release bank draws

  
  We must also respond to the slanderous accusations of “fraudulently inflated prices” and “fraudulently” asking for more money.  Before substantial completion of the project we began a full reconciliation of receipts, payments to subcontractors, suppliers and invoices we had at that time and provided the owners a copy of every cost associated with the project as of March 19th 2023, as well as a spreadsheet breaking down each line item from the contract with a corresponding folder for each line item containing what we had as totaling to those amounts including any escalation cost overages. Now they claim that they have recalculated the cost overruns as a way to avoid making final payment. We disagree with their calculations and their methodology.  
  
  The homeowners denied that they owed any of the escalation charges, although these charges are specified in the contract and the owners had paid them previously in the course of dealing. The owners then provided New Wave Builders with a series of “punchlists” as a way to delay final payment and induce us to continue to do work for them. New Wave Builders has worked diligently to meet the homeowners’ often unreasonable expectations and payment delays over the past 15 months, yet the owners have still not made final payment. Over the last year we have been at the property nearly every month. Other than an owner offered repair credit for a raised stair nosing, we completed the original punchlist that we received a month prior to construction completion as well as subsequent punchlists, the owner always seemed to find new things he wanted done or items that would be a warranted repair, he would add more items as justification to never let us be fully complete. The owners continued to withhold any payments under the threat that the punchlist items need to be resolved before they allow the bank to do their final inspection. At this time, we are having to retain legal counsel to obtain final payment of $48,693.39, plus interest, delay damages, and other fees including attorney’s fees under our contract, which is long past due. 
  

  
  

  Customer response

  07/01/2024

  The consumer stated this issue has been resolved.

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