While in the process of removing the landscape and sidewalk in the front yard, Lennar crew tore up part of my front yard and damaged my Christmas decorations. After arriving home late the day in which I assumed the damage occured since I hadn't noticed the hole before, I inadvertantly stepped into the hole and twisted my ankle pretty badly. I contacted Lennar after 10 days because my anle was not feeling any better, Mr James Perry, the Corporate Customer Care Manager in General Counsels's office, told me I was an incompetant fool for not seeing the hole and I needed to handle the issue myself. When I also advised him of the damage to my Christmas decorations in which I had firm evidence that the construction crew caused the damage, he stated that I should call 911 immdeiatley.

Lennar hires the worst contractors and doesn't stand behind their sales pitch or offer any kind of a decent warranty. We bought a brand new Lennar home and the air conditioner and dishwasher have already gone out. The plumbing's sub-par, there are cracks in the ceiling and the paint on the cabinets chips off easily.

We've lived in a Lennar townhouse for 5 years now and have seen all types issues with the homes in the neighborhood. We were some of the first to buy and had visions of nice homes with nice neighborhood amenities: First, imagine a row of 10 attached homes where the siding is mismatched and falling off. The entire building built only 3 years ago behind us has 2 different shades of siding throughout it, not per design for sure! During heavier winds, badly attached shutters fall of and blow away. Worse still is that the neighborhood went condo in the middle of the builds but it's the owners' task to have these shutters fixed...but the property manager doesn't know where or how to get matching ones! I've been in the homes as they were being built and found warped studs, bowed drywall. All 10 houses in our building had valves installed backwards in the HVAC vent stack so condensation ran back into the heat pump and shut it down. Our end unit house developed a foundation crack 6 months after we moved in, another in our building, a few months later. A neighbor's roof is falling apart after 5 years, a 30-year roof. The shingles are coming up in what looks like a 3 ft diameter bubble.
Once the builder finished the neighborhood, customer care was done. Promises of neighborhood amenities during the push to sell fell by the wayside and took fighting tooth and nail to finally get. Unfortunately we did buy early in the builds and timed it right before the bubble burst, we are stuck for awhile but I hate to see others end up the same situation.

I bought Lennar's home and it was closed November 23, 2005. We had a number of warranty issues with this property, due to poor construction well below Lennar standards. The warranty department was unresponsive, or slow at best, and bordered on hostility at times. They demanded that we sign off the unrepaired open items when the normal warranty period expired. These issues culminated in a refusal of the first Tenant to renew their lease and strained relations with the next Tenant to the point we had to release them from their contract. I am suffering significant loss due to these problems.

Warranty issues included an inoperable dishwasher that took forever to get repaired, ill-fitting doors that were hung so poorly that one could insert a finger in the crack and see sunlight from inside a closed door, and other issues discussed below.

The present issue at this time is the air conditioning system. Problems with the A/C surfaced in the pre-closing walk-through on November 11, 2005 when it was noted that the A/C does not cool. The home is a rental property and was occupied in December 2005 and the A/C worked until August, 2006. It failed on August 15 2006 and we reported the issue on the Customer Care/Warranty process on the Lennar web site. We got no response until Lennar acknowledged the request on August 22, a week later.

We emailed Lennar once again on August 28, 2006 (still under warantty) that the A/C did not work. Lennar's system says a representative from Christian Plumbing and Air Conditioning went to the home on August 29, but the Tenant says no such repairperson ever showed up, and because we had rekeyed the house there is no way Christiansen could have accessed the house without the Tenant there to let them in. On October 10, we reported that the repairs reported in August had not yet been done and the work was accomplished until a week later on October 17. The technical details of the A/C problems can be sent, unfortunately can't be attached here.

The same problems resumed and our request for repairs of January 2, 2007 was not answered until January 9, 2007 when the Lennar warranty rep said it was out of warranty without regard to the variable parts/labor warranty periods on the A/C. On March 3, 2007 the new Tenant complained bitterly about the A/C. Christiansen Plumbing and Air Conditioning responded six days later that the defrost board was out, with parts under warranty but labor was not, and finally did the work on or about March 16, 2007.

This did not remedy the problem so we had to send our own A/C technician, A K Air, Inc., who found a Freon leak and re-welded the copper pipes to the outside unit. He also found the defrost board out of order again, as well as a number of other issues. The unit needed a new compressor, possibly because it had been running on low Freon and lack a Freon filter dryer, which permitted trash and debris to circulate freely in the system. It may also need replacement of the 4-way valve. The Freon filter dryer was missing. Since the zoning controller was not working, he changed the system from a dual zone to a single zone, and realigned the zoning controller for a single zone.

It was the opinion of our A/C technician that the crew that originally installed the A/C were poorly trained. The welding of the copper Freon pipes to the exterior unit was rough and leaked. The unit had no Freon filter dryer, which exposed the system and compressor to damage from bits of trash and debris in the roughly welded system – the poor workmanship of the installation suggests it is likely the copper pipes had a lot of trash and debris in them. The defrost board was defective and the zoning control board was not properly installed. It is not clear that the 4-way valve is installed or working correctly, and it can’t be tested properly until there is a proper compressor to provide the needed pressure. In either event, the 4-way valve may have been factory installed or it may have been shipped with the York unit to be installed in the field – their factory rep says York works both ways.

Overall, the warranty service system was inept at best and was possibly conniving. Constant delays of a week or more to respond to simple repair requests appear more like efforts to drag feet until the warranty expires than an effort to cure construction problems.

We are asking for a full reimbursement of the $4, 369.99 it cost us to replace the system, plus the approximate $425 to replace the 4-way valve if it is found damaged after the system is replaced and pressure is available to test the 4-way valve.

After, we bought a brand new house. Should we expect to spend close to $5000 for repairing cost only in the beginning of its second year? PLEASE HELP! Please let us know what we can do! and we will do it!

Be very aware of Lennar Homes!!! First, they pre-approved me for a loan and told me that it would be easy to be approved for the final loan even though I had not the greatest credit. So we chose a house and put $1, 000 down on it. Then, they decided NOT to approve me through the credit company. What has ensued is a nightmare. I have a signed cancellation agreement on 3-5-09 for the full $1, 000 to come back to me. I was told it would take 6 to 8 weeks to receive it. Not only is it past 8 weeks, but now they are informing me of this (this is their exact e-mail to me, unedited):

Mary
I am so sorry I did not call you, I have not forgotten about you and just got confirmation that they are going to refund your earnest deposit but they are withholding 250 of the deposit for administrative and credit report. They use to refund the whole earnest but cancellations and denials have cost the company so much money they are now exercising their rite to the 250 that is stated in the contract.
I was told you need to sign one more form and it will be processed. Please call me and let me know when we can meet or I can
Brooke

Not only have they ignored me repeatedly with e-mails and phone calls, but it is NOT stated in the contract that they get $250 for administrative costs. I've attempted to contact Brooke again by phone and e-mail saying that I expect the fully $1000 back. I've also asked what type of form I need to sign now that it's gone past 8 weeks and why they didn't have me sign this form in the first place? Lennar Homes is a rip-off. I gave them my deposit based on the fact that they pre-approved me for a loan. Now they've had all of this time to earn interest on my money and I fear they are pre-approving people that they know they will not approve in the final outcome just to get your down payment. Then they get to earn interest off of YOUR money and also, they hope that you'll just happen to "forget" about this money if it takes too long to get it back. In addition to saying they're going to take $250 of your money if they don't approve you. What a scheme!!!

What a