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Report: #193636

Complaint Review: Jacobsen Homes - Nationwide

  • Submitted:
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  • Reported By: Zephyrhills Florida
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
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  • Jacobsen Homes jacobsenhomes.com/company.html Nationwide U.S.A.

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More and more senior citizens are retiring to Florida to enjoy the good life. Most retire to senior communities which are age restrictive so they can be with people in their age group who share similar generational histories. The majority of these places are in manufactured home settings where you buy or lease your land, purchase and install a manufactured home on said property to live out your life in a relative serene environment.

This experience is usually painless unless people who care more for the corporate profit than the goods they sell are involved. One such example is Jacobsen Homes located in Safety Harbor Florida. It seems the president of this company can, at his or her whim, dictate if the HALO warranty they include with a sale of one of their units will be valid for the full five (5) years, one (1) year, or never. This has already occurred which indicates this person most likely has voided additional consumer warranties based upon the bottom line. One can only hope this is the motive, if not then maybe it is based upon selfish or vindictive motives.

A major problems of floor buckling at every joint was reported to Jacobsen homes and they refused to correct the problem. The dealer was kind enough to fix it at his expense. Another problem was reported that involved a wall that his service repair people messed up. The brought the top of a wall out 1 1/2 inch to correct a warpped header but left the bottom where it was so the wall is on a angle. It was caused by their people and is also covered under the 5 year HALO warranty. A complant filed to BBB resulted in the presiden of the company stating "What part of.." This case is closed "...don't you people understand. This is not up for debate. The BBB has absolutely no jurisdiction concerning this matter. The DMV of Florida does. I suggest they be contacted. Thank You."

Dennis Schrader, the president of the company is fully aware the state agency he referred them to will only deal with structural issues and has no jurisdiction over anything else. This is how Jacobsen Homes gets around the 5 year HALO warranty they advertise for all their new homes. They seem do what they think they have to and then ignore the rest, leaving the consumer with no recourse. There is no state agency which deals with warranty issues or consumer protection issues as far as manufactured homes are concerned. Since most senior citizens live in manufactured homes within retirement communities one would think the state of Florida would have some protection for its senior citizens.

After a problem was reported to State Representative Ken Littlefield, his office sent the concerns to the Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles, who can do nothing as they only handle structural issues. State Senator Tom Lee's representative sent the concerns to the Attorney General's office who did call advising contacting the Florida Department of Community Affairs. Unfortunately, the Department of Community Affairs only addresses issues relating to modular homes; they do not deal with issues relating to mobile and/or manufactured homes. The FMHO organization was another option per Senator Lee's representative but this organization deals with part 723 which is lease lots for seniors.

The info was also sent to AARP which is now a big business and does not care to get involved in senior problems.

The state of Florida is sorely lacking in consumer protection laws for seniors. There are no statutes, laws, regulations, etc., protecting the consumer against manufactured home warranty violations. As long as a manufacturer of manufactured homes makes the home structurally sound, they can have the interior walls bulged or sloped, ceiling bulged in most areas and floors buckled. The plumbing is classified as non structural along with the electrical wiring so any problems in these areas also are the buyer's responsibility. Left unchecked, Florida will become the most senior citizen unfriendly state in the union with no laws to protect a very large voting block. Florida needs to amend the laws of the DMV to give a large voting block some protection from unscrupulous manufactures.

This is going to to warn that do not buy a manufacture home from Jacobsen as you are gambling that you will have no problems down the line.

Dave
Zephyrhills, Florida
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 05/28/2006 05:54 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/jacobsen-homes/nationwide/jacobsen-homes-ripoff-safety-harbor-florida-193636. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
1Author
1Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#2 Author of original report

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AUTHOR: Dave - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, July 14, 2011

I see that Jacobsen is being disingenuous about the facts.  The wall was repaired by his people as being bowed in the middle of the wall.  His people removed the sheetrock and found that the header was warped.  His people then shimmed the top part of the wall out to remove the bow and replaced 1-2x4 that was bad.  His people then did not shim out the bottom of the wall which caused it to be 1 out.

If the president of the company thinks that an inside wall can be buckled inward by 1 which is caused by set-up then lets think this through.  First, the wall is 30 from the centerline of the home, approx.  Second, the wall is attached at the top with a header.  Third, the wall is attached at the bottom by 2x4s attached to a 2x4 nailed into the floor.   Now lets say that they did not nail the 2x4 in the floor to the floor joists and only into the plywood.  The nails they would use is 3 nails, so that means that you have to lift the centerline of the house at the point of 2 feet away, to more than the 3 to pull the nails out of the floor to move the wall.  Now I do not know the angle that this plywood would break over a 30 span, but lets put it at 30 degrees to be at a maximum possible angle.  You can visualize what the height of the buckle would be and to say it is more than 10 is conservative.  

As the Dennis knows, the state only deals with MAJOR problems and the cosmetic items are to be repaired by the warranty.   What the President did was say he was not going to honor any warranty items.  Would you buy a product from a person that does not honor his own warranty?

As for the court case, when it came up I was in California attending to a terminal relative and could not get back.  The judge dismissed the case not on merits but on I was not there.  The photos of the work being done by HIS people and the photos of the wall being 1 off was enough proof that the company was at fault.

The fact that they offered to pay for the floor was OK, BUT money was not the object.  The floor was the object and we did not care about the money and only wanted the floor fixed.

As is public record, the president of the company does not like the BBB as can be seen from what he wrote to them.  As for the letters to the state, they are on file and will be used to build a case against Jacobsen if there are enough complaints to warrant it.   I still only hope that his motives are profit and not being vindictive to customers.

DO I care if Jacobsen fixes the wall, nope, I no longer live there and bought a beautiful Palm Harbor home that was perfect.  There is no comparison as if you want the best, buy the best and in my opinion having both, it is Palm Harbor.  Now should Dennis fix the wall for the current owner, I do not care, but she lives alone and only has Social Security as income. 

This is 1 of 6 sites that consumers can post what happens to them and write about it.  Jacobsen found 1, 5 more to go.

Does Jacobsen have a rebuttal, I guess so, is Jacobsen telling the complete truth, you be the judge and let the buyer be warned.

Dave

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#1 UPDATE Employee

Jacobsen Homes Zephyrhills Rebuttal

AUTHOR: Dennis - (United States of America)

POSTED: Monday, July 04, 2011

Person, Dave... Zephyrhills, Florida.

Dave posted a rip off report concerning Jacobsen Homes, Safety Harbor, Florida on May 28, 2006.
Our apologives for Dave's misleading information in his article.

A major problem, he reports, was a buckling floor at the joints which Dave reports the dealer fixed.
This is true as the dealer was sited by the inspectors for the State of Floida ( DMV ) on a violations
report (2/2/06) and the dealer's responsibility was to correct the problem. Dave also reported a wall
out of plumb by 1 1/2inch. This per the state inspectors was a problem caused by the set-up crew
who was hired by the dealer. Not a Jacobsen manufactering defect. In fact the DMV inspection
report of 2/2/06 reveals "No Manufacturer Non-Compliances." All problems reported were the sole
responsibility of "others." I must add that per the Federal Standards set out by HUD, a sub-part I
inspection determined "No Jacobsen Homes Responsibility."

However, to show good faith, Jacobsen Homes contacted a sub contractor to estimate the cost to
remidy Dave's problem. The estimate was $2,500.00. Jacobsen Homes proceeded to offer Dave the
$2,500.00 to have the problem corrected. Dave refused.

Instead Dave filed a lawsuit on 1/4/07 at the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court of Pasco County, Florida.
On February 19thy, 2007, Judge William G. Sestak dismissed this case.

Dave wrote to a State Representative, a State Senator, the Attorney General's Office, The Department of Community Affairs, the FMHO and the AARP. The above departments must have seen there was no wrong doing by Jacobseh Homes. A Judge dismissed the case. Now does Jacobsen Homes have a clear cut rebutle here ? You be the Judge. Thank You.

Dennis
Jacobsen Homes

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