Century Communities representatives and more than 60 Erie residents met Thursday evening to discuss consistent problems with homes built in Erie Commons, Morgan Hills and Colliers Hill.
Multiple residents brought up a variety of issues they had with their homes, ranging from problems with foundations and air conditioning units to gas leaks and water leaks, to warranties not being honored. Residents felt their problems were not being heard by Century, the neighborhoods’ builder. Homes were built within the past few years.
Both Century and town representatives brought up that Erie has soil problems. However, multiple residents interjected, saying that if it was a soil problem in Erie, then the problem would be throughout the town. Residents said concrete problems, such as significant cracks or gaping, were only happening in Century-built homes, and concrete issues are not seen throughout all of town or on town-managed sidewalks.
Carl Nelson, division president for Century, said Century would honor all past warranty claim tickets. He said the company is currently examining warranty claims from September 2022 but that the company would look even further back. Nelson said residents should all reopen past warranty claims, which the company would examine and address the issues.
Multiple residents interjected and stated their warranty ticket claims had been closed with no inspection, they submitted a claim but their warranty period expired before the issue was addressed or their claim had simply never been addressed in the first place.
“I don’t have weeks of time to chase these warranty tickets,” one attendee said.
The issue of accountability and responsibility was also brought up by multiple residents. One resident said it is laborious to continuously make sure their warranty claims were being heard and addressed. One resident said the homeowners still have their lives to attend to and that it is impossible for them to put their lives on hold to fix a problem in their homes that should have been addressed by the builder and covered under a warranty.
“Everyone here puts their trust in us to build their homes, and we have let you down,” Nelson said.
Nelson said “no amount of ‘I’m sorry’ will fix the issues.” Nelson asked all attendees and residents to contact him or Century to address the issues and talk about the specific problems they were facing.
Trustee Dan Hoback explained that his neighborhood had similar issues with a different developer and that the neighborhood pursued legal action against that developer. But he said the measure was an extreme one, and he asked that residents first give Century a chance to fix the problems before jumping to legal action.
Trustee Emily Baer acknowledged the complaints from the Century Communities homeowners are not normal and that the town does not usually have to deal with these issues. Trustee Andrew Bell said homeowners have trust issues with Century and that Century has to show that it is committed to addressing the issue and developing a process to deal with the many problems homeowners are facing.
Residents also said there was a customer service issue at Century, that they were bullied by Century representatives into not wanting to follow their warranty issues to completion.
Mayor Justin Brooks, along with other trustees, said they regret the town was unaware about the issues with Century homes. Brooks said the board will follow Century’s plan of action to address the issues and find a way to contact all Century homeowners, even those who had not attended the meeting. Brooks and Town Administrator Malcom Fleming both said they would consider opening an investigation against Century homes if the problem persists but stated they first wanted to give Century a chance to fix the issues.
Planning and Development Director Sarah Nurmela said town staff will work toward keeping Century accountable and communicating the plan with homeowners.
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