BUILDER is taking a LONG time HIGHLAND (The Colony: 2015, apartment)

[Sbullen]

We bought in The Colony with Highland in early May 2015. They have been stalling to get us a completion date this week. I'm figuring they need at least 8 more weeks. Is 10 month build time normal here? We are from CA.
The house is at least 5 weeks behind because the kitchen lower cabinets were done wrong twice. We are now over our apartment lease and will have to pay higher rent as well as longer storage time. Last week they laid the tile wrong in the master shower, since it has to be reordered and they don't know how long it will take they don't want to give a completion date. It is always something!
Any advice to get this moving along is appreciated.

[nissan]

Our build took 11 months (started in Nov. '14). We didn't get a completion date estimate until 4 weeks out bc there were too many moving parts. Ours did get delayed due to a foundation leak, but I've heard anything from 9-11 months is pretty much the norm.

Contractually, there's not much that you can do to get it done quicker. I would just continue to pressure the builder and let them know you're not satisfied. Hopefully, there's some of their bonus tied to cust. satisfaction surveys which they may care about.

[MckinneyOwnr]

Sounds like you need to be visiting every day to make sure things are being done right, and catch stuff in the beginning rather than after the fact.

A buddy of mine is building right now, they told him originally the house would be ready for the first week of Dec. Now they are saying first week of Feb.

[BigDGeek]

I know only one person whose house was built on time according to the builder's original estimate, and they've been fixing problems non-stop for two years.

Be patient but persistent, and good luck.

[rok8man]

Our house build took over 11 months. So its usual. We had to extend our apt lease by three months. Going month to month doubled the rent but if you did it in chunks of 3/6/9 mos then it wasnt as bad. We decided to hedge our bets on 3 months and it worked out for us. We had to push the builder every week to meet the deadline.

[DevilDocWife]

Ask the builder to cover the overage for the month to month rent. I just negotiated that with additional storage fees as well for a client. It never hurts to ask!
The builder is giving us a credit on closing costs.

[GrandParent555]

This is pretty normal for a booming market as builders are very busy and their is a shortage of skilled labor and building supplies. Highland is a reputable builder so they won't hire inexperienced labor or use low quality material while they promised better. Be patient and hope that homes around you are built before yours, living in a construction zone is a nightmare.

[BigDGeek]

Wonder if the 12/26 tornado is going to have any effect on residential construction timelines, as many homes were destroyed and have to be rebuilt?

[mikestrong]

Originally Posted by DevilDocWife

Ask the builder to cover the overage for the month to month rent. I just negotiated that with additional storage fees as well for a client. It never hurts to ask!
The builder is giving us a credit on closing costs.

I dont know of any builders(and I have friends and most all of them) that do that anymore. Not with the market the way it is. All builder contracts generally have a clause that states the have up to 2 years to build the home.

[Sbullen]

Thank you all for your feedback. I'm trying to be patient and I am visiting weekly. Hard to believe the delays even with keeping a close eye.