It was my understanding that FHA was “looking out for the buyer” and helping us, the first time homebuyers, live safely in our new home. However, for us this was not the case. I recently purchased a house with my fiancée in Ridley Park, PA. On May 25 2010 we went for our final walk through of the house. When we first got to the house the first thing I noticed was that our front steps were not finished even though we were told that they would be and there was a cracked cement block tire tracks into our grass. Once our realtor arrived, Mr. John Casey of Century 21 I asked him about the steps. Mr. Casey told us that the steps were to be poured and completed by Milano Contractors first thing the next morning at 9:00 am. I explained that I was not comfortable with this seeing as that is the day of our settlement, but I was assured that there would not be problems because the FHA inspector would be coming to make sure that the steps were finished correctly. The next morning my fiancée and I drove past the house at 9:30 am and still no one was at the house pouring the steps. We were on our way to our 10:00am appointment with Mr. Casey for settlement so we deiced to bring it up to him once we got there. Mr. Casey again assured us that they were pouring the steps “as we speak” and that the FHA inspector was going to be there to assure that they are done correctly.
After settlement was completed, we were told that we could not go to the house until we got the call from the FHA inspector that the steps were safe and done correctly. A friend lives in the neighborhood so we went to his house to wait. The FHA inspector arrived around 12 pm, walked up to the steps took a picture and walked away from the steps and left. Shortly after that, we received a call from Mr. Casey that the steps are fine and we are now the owners of the home. As not only new but first time home owners we were very excited to start our new lives, but our excitement quickly vanished once we were told by numerous family and friends (who are also contractors) that the steps are not up to code and are instead what’s called a “tripper”. Our steps measure at: first step 7 ¼”, second step 7” and the third step is 3 ½”. Once we found this out we immediately called Mr. Casey to ask him about it. He assured us that Milano Contractors back up their work and that he would follow up with them to assure that this was not the case. My fiancée also contacted Norm from Milano Contractors who told him that there was nothing he could do for the steps because that was the way they were poured prior to this.
In the mean time, I attempted to contact the borough and spoke with a woman named Elaine. When I explained the situation to Elaine she informed me that there was never a permit pulled for the steps to be done in the first place, she said that I needed to contact a man by the name of Bob and transferred me to his direct line. I left numerous messages for Bob to call me but to this day he has still not called back. In addition, Mr. Casey has told me that the steps are done right and that they were inspected by a man named Paul from the borough. I have also tried to call Paul and left messages with him to call me back. I received a text message from Mr. Casey on June 11, 2010 asking if I have paid Milano Contractors, I replied to him that no I have not because the borough has not come for an inspection as I requested and they still have not fixed the cement block that they (Milano Contractors) cracked. Mr. Casey wrote back an unprofessional text message, I than called him, he proceeded to yell at me that I was being insecure, unprofessional and unreasonable. Mr. Casey continued to “remind” me of all of the money that we saved by having Milano Contractors do our cement work, I reminded him that we did not pay for the cement work a check was given to us to cover the cost by the sellers of the home, Mr. Casey hung up on me. Since my last attempt to contact the borough on Monday June 14, 2010 we have mailed in a check to Milano Contractors to cover the cost of the other work that they did properly.
I have attached pictures of our steps the way they currently look and want to thank you for taking the time to read this letter. I am not writing this letter with expectations that anything will be done, instead I am writing to make everyone aware of the situation at hand so that this does not happen to future home buyers.