Shumaker Homes (Irmo: sale, real estate, for rent)

[mssbsb]

Hi Everyone, I've responded to a couple of other threads but wanted to start a new one to let everyone know about my experience with this builder. Please read this if you are even considering purchasing a home from Shumaker or you are in the real estate field and show their homes to clients. In 2006 my husband and I purchased a brand new home in the Milford Park subdivision in Balletine/Irmo. We were relocating from Florida and couldn't visit the house during construction. On the two occasions that we did visit their was significant amounts of water standing in the back yard. We had a clause added to our contract stating that "the yard would be graded away from the house to prevent standing water". We were assured by Harry Shurg, the construction supervisor, that they would fix the problem before the closing date. Our closing was delayed 3 times because of the water issues. (We were being told it was because we didn't have the correct mortgage information completed, we used their mortgage company!) Because we were finding more problems with the house and their unprofessional staff we were going to walk away from the house and lose our down payment. Harry Shurg told us "I am a vietnam vet and I would not lie to you. If there is a problem with this house, we will fix it! You won't so much as have to turn a screw the first year." Unfortunately, we went against our instincts and closed on the house. Within the first few days it rained and we had about 6 inches of standing water in the backyard. I called Shumaker and that was the first of over 30 phone calls with very little response. After 4 months of begging them to fix the drainage problems in the backyard we discovered mold in our attic, crawl space, and inside the walls of the house. The water was sitting under our house and slowly rotting it. They still wouldn't respond to our calls to fix the problems and after 8 months we filed a lawsuit against Shumaker Homes and Shumaker Realty. We spent over $75,000 in legal fees, inspections, repairs, and witnesses in the 3 years it took to fight them. They eventually settled the case by buying our house back at the original sale price $269,000 plus paying us damages. (the house was only worth $140,000 because of all the issues) Save yourself the trouble, if I had it to do all over again I would NEVER have even driven past one of their houses much less bought one. We hoped that they would fix the problems before letting someone else live there but they put it up for rent one week after buying it back. We couldn't even live in the house because of allergies to the mold. The lawsuit is public record in Richland County. I would hate for anyone to have to go through what my family has been through because of this builder!