Trendmaker Homes Trendmaker Development Trendamker does not care about customer satisfaction. Houston , Texas

About 6 years ago I toured the Trendmaker model home in the Woodcreek Reserve neighborhood and fell in love with it. At the time there was no way that we could afford the house, so I made owning a Trendmaker home part of my five year plan. I wish I knew then what I know now.
 
We did eventually buy our Trendmaker home in August of 2010. Our builder was nice and worked to make sure that the house was ready to close when we needed it. Apparently this caused some items to be overlooked and the house was not completed the way it should have been.
 
On February 2, 2011, there was a freeze. When we got up in the morning we had no hot water. I called the warranty department and was told not to worry about it, the pipes would thaw out and it would be fine. I left for work and didnt worry about it.
 
My mother came over to my house about 3pm to let our dogs out and found our house completely flooded. A pipe had burst in the ceiling over the kitchen, causing the ceiling to collapse and the entire first floor to be covered in water. When I came home the water had been off for over an hour and there was still a steady flow of water draining through my garage and down the driveway.
 
I walked into a three hundred thousand dollar disaster. Our dream home was a wreck. I called the warranty department again and they told me that I was on my own. I called my insurance company and they sent out Servpro to try and get the water up.
 
The house was unlivable. We had 33 fans and 6 industrial dehumidifiers running 24/7. Our insurance company put us in a hotel and we had to board our dogs.
 
Once Servpro removed the fans we had our contractor come in to start the repairs. We moved back into the only usable section of the house, our bedroom. I use the term livable loosely, because all of the trim was out and some sections of the drywall and there was drywall dust everywhere.
 
The disaster was worse in the more immediately affected rooms. The carpet upstairs had to be pulled out. The furniture in every room was piled in the middle of the room and covered with plastic. There was no trim and some sections of the drywall had to be completely pulled out.  Additionally, all of the wood floors downstairs had to be removed and replaced and there was warping of the crown molding due to extreme moisture and dehumidifying.  Our kitchen and appliances were unusable and many of the outlets did not work.
 
We thought this wouldnt last long and that living in just the bedroom would be short term. It turned out that it took two and a half months of construction. We couldnt use anything and even our dogs had to be boarded the entire time. It was horrible.
 
During the rebuilding process we discovered that it was inferior products and poor construction that lead to the leak. The manifold was made of plastic or PVC, the pipes were not insulated and the exterior walls surrounding them were not insulated either. The plumbing supply company would not even sell a replacement manifold like the one that was put in my luxury home because of the likelihood of failure.
 
On a side note: there was only a manifold put in for the hot water, none for the cold. The point of having a manifold is to be able to stop a leak without disrupting the entire home. Does cold water not leak? My moms $170k Village Builder home has a better system than my $310k Trendmaker luxury home.
 
Your warranty department was less than helpful, they seemed to just want the problem to go away. I was pretty surprised by this because I thought Trendmaker was more service oriented. I felt like the people I spoke to were agitated that I would even bother them with this.
 
Eventually EPI (the plumber contracted through Trendmaker for the build) admitted fault. This meant that now I not only had to live in a useless construction zone, work fulltime, direct several contractors, file claims and paperwork to my insurance company, but now I had to deal with EPIs insurance company as well.
 
Prior to the manifold leak, we had already experienced a host of other warranty issues with the house.  In November 2010, we submitted a service request to have someone from your warranty department come to our home to fix a leak in the guest shower upstairs, as water was pouring through the light fixture in our garage, causing the ceiling in the garage to sag from moisture.  All of this had to be repaired and repainted, as well as new pieces of tile needed to be installed around the leaking shower fixture.  We have had an ongoing issue with standing water in the back yard along the fenceline and against the house.  Someone from Trendmaker spread a small amount of dirt in a couple of low-lying spots which ultimately had no impact on the problem, which still exists. 
 
In April of 2011, we submitted a service request to have another leak in the upstairs shower in our sons bedroom repaired, as it had been leaking out of the stall and caused damage to the drywall, which ultimately had to be torn out and replaced and repainted.  This same service request included a problem with an office plug outlet that needed to be replaced because it did not work, and a broken sprinkler pipe in our front yard that was not attached properly underground, came loose and needed to be fixed.  Additionally, we have had the AC people come out multiple times to fix loud whirring noises with the air conditioner caused by a very short tube from the unit to the intake that had to be replaced and re-routed.  The AC in the home is still not balanced and rooms are at significantly different temperatures. 
 
To date, I have still not had any reimbursement from EPIs insurance company, not even my $3200 deductible. They were also unwilling to offer any compensation for the loss of use on my house. With their unwilling to compensate me, it now falls on Trendmaker.
 I was unable to use my home for two and a half months. I want to have my mortgage back for the time I couldnt use the home. My monthly payment is $2800, so that would be $7000 for the time the house was under repairs. I also want my deductible back, which is again $3200. This gives a total of $10,200 that I expect from Trendmaker or EPIs insurance company.