We bought our house February, 2015, as new construction from Crown Communities in Greenville County, South Carolina. Since we purchased during the Winter, rainfall was at a minimum and I did not notice the massive erosion/drainage issues with our lot. To paint the picture, our house is situated in a Crown Communities subdivision, with our lot being relatively flat, with a large retaining wall in our backyard (over 6' tall) holding back a steeply graded hill leading to the lot behind/above us. The lot behind us is not developed and is currently a dirt slope with silt fence surrounding it.
Come the beginning of Spring and all the rain it has brought with it, we have experienced massive mudslides, washouts, erosion and flooding and drainage issues. Every time it rains, since the purchase of our home, all the water from the dirt lot above/behind us collects along the black silt fence at the top of our retaining wall hill, until the water either collapses the fence, or simply overflows right over the top of it.
11 weeks ago (April 19th, 2015) we experienced a heavy rainfall of ~2", which caused the fence to collapse sending thousands of gallons of water rushing down our retaining wall hill causing a huge mudslide in our backyard. It took over a week and for us to post videos on social media and contacting the Better Business Burea for Crown to finally reach out to us and communicate with us on a regular basis about cleaning up and fixing the problem.
11 weeks have since passed and we have now tallied countless small washouts and 3 major mudslides. Over the first 9 weeks nothing more was done other than to send a crew out with shovels to scoop dirt from our ruined backyard back onto the hill. After the 9th week we were able to get WYFF Channel 4 news to cover a story on our mudslides and Crown's lack of response and lack of resolution. It took that for them to finally get a grader out with heavy equipment in the lot above/behind us to dig a swale for proper drainage. For weeks and weeks I have been told over and over how they are going to replace my ruined sod, fix the landscaping on the hill, replace my washed out and missing bushes, and clean up my backyard. Nothing has happened. During this period Crown has managed to Grade and Sod 5 new construction homes in my subdivision alone. Yet this entire time I've been lied to with the most ridiculous excuses on why they haven't been able to manage to get get my lot re-graded and sodded.
Due to our numerous mudslides, my neighbor's lot has also sustained sediment washout and damaged sod and it took over 10 weeks for Crown to finally respond to their numerous complaints and requests about cleaning up and fixing their yard. On top of that, another new home owner has had their basement flood multiple times over the first couple of months of home ownership and all that crown was able to say was "I thought we fixed that". Not once did they bother disclosing the fact that the house had drainage problems or that the basement had flooded multiple times including an instance which caused the original buyer to back out of the contract.
This company is completely unethical, totally unprofessional and horrible to work with from a customer service stand point. They said it themselves when the head of the sales department told a neighborhood homeowner who was having drainage issues that "we are not a customer service company, we are a production company." If you do decide to purchase a home from crown- good luck. Yes they may have an A+ rating on the better business bureau but read the actual complaints. Several cases are closed and displayed as "corrected/completed with home owner approval" where the homeowner has left comments suggesting that they are not satisfied with the response or repair.
Buyers beware. If you purchase a home with crown, expect them to play games throughout and leading up to closing. Expect them to procrastinate, fail to perform all repairs, fail to effectively communicate with you and Overpromise and Under-deliver. This company would rather drag their name through the mud, throw everyone under the bus, completely neglect, lie to, and frustrate their current homeowners just so they can hurry up and sell another new house.
I have told them, my wife has told them, and I will continue to seek out and find any and all new homebuyers to tell: I would Never buy another home from Crown Communities.
P.S. (Did I mention I am in the 11th week with a ruined backyard and landscaping, still awaiting repairs on my property while during this time period 5 new homes in my subdivision alone have been graded and sodded - all the while sitting here being told excuses on why they can't come out week after week to fix this issues - how horrible is that?!)
Crown Communities, Inc. Reviews
We bought our house February, 2015, as new construction from Crown Communities in Greenville County, South Carolina. Since we purchased during the Winter, rainfall was at a minimum and I did not notice the massive erosion/drainage issues with our lot. To paint the picture, our house is situated in a Crown Communities subdivision, with our lot being relatively flat, with a large retaining wall in our backyard (over 6' tall) holding back a steeply graded hill leading to the lot behind/above us. The lot behind us is not developed and is currently a dirt slope with silt fence surrounding it.
Come the beginning of Spring and all the rain it has brought with it, we have experienced massive mudslides, washouts, erosion and flooding and drainage issues. Every time it rains, since the purchase of our home, all the water from the dirt lot above/behind us collects along the black silt fence at the top of our retaining wall hill, until the water either collapses the fence, or simply overflows right over the top of it.
11 weeks ago (April 19th, 2015) we experienced a heavy rainfall of ~2", which caused the fence to collapse sending thousands of gallons of water rushing down our retaining wall hill causing a huge mudslide in our backyard. It took over a week and for us to post videos on social media and contacting the Better Business Burea for Crown to finally reach out to us and communicate with us on a regular basis about cleaning up and fixing the problem.
11 weeks have since passed and we have now tallied countless small washouts and 3 major mudslides. Over the first 9 weeks nothing more was done other than to send a crew out with shovels to scoop dirt from our ruined backyard back onto the hill. After the 9th week we were able to get WYFF Channel 4 news to cover a story on our mudslides and Crown's lack of response and lack of resolution. It took that for them to finally get a grader out with heavy equipment in the lot above/behind us to dig a swale for proper drainage. For weeks and weeks I have been told over and over how they are going to replace my ruined sod, fix the landscaping on the hill, replace my washed out and missing bushes, and clean up my backyard. Nothing has happened. During this period Crown has managed to Grade and Sod 5 new construction homes in my subdivision alone. Yet this entire time I've been lied to with the most ridiculous excuses on why they haven't been able to manage to get get my lot re-graded and sodded.
Due to our numerous mudslides, my neighbor's lot has also sustained sediment washout and damaged sod and it took over 10 weeks for Crown to finally respond to their numerous complaints and requests about cleaning up and fixing their yard. On top of that, another new home owner has had their basement flood multiple times over the first couple of months of home ownership and all that crown was able to say was "I thought we fixed that". Not once did they bother disclosing the fact that the house had drainage problems or that the basement had flooded multiple times including an instance which caused the original buyer to back out of the contract.
This company is completely unethical, totally unprofessional and horrible to work with from a customer service stand point. They said it themselves when the head of the sales department told a neighborhood homeowner who was having drainage issues that "we are not a customer service company, we are a production company." If you do decide to purchase a home from crown- good luck. Yes they may have an A+ rating on the better business bureau but read the actual complaints. Several cases are closed and displayed as "corrected/completed with home owner approval" where the homeowner has left comments suggesting that they are not satisfied with the response or repair.
Buyers beware. If you purchase a home with crown, expect them to play games throughout and leading up to closing. Expect them to procrastinate, fail to perform all repairs, fail to effectively communicate with you and Overpromise and Under-deliver. This company would rather drag their name through the mud, throw everyone under the bus, completely neglect, lie to, and frustrate their current homeowners just so they can hurry up and sell another new house.
I have told them, my wife has told them, and I will continue to seek out and find any and all new homebuyers to tell: I would Never buy another home from Crown Communities.
P.S. (Did I mention I am in the 11th week with a ruined backyard and landscaping, still awaiting repairs on my property while during this time period 5 new homes in my subdivision alone have been graded and sodded - all the while sitting here being told excuses on why they can't come out week after week to fix this issues - how horrible is that?!)