Fernbrook Homes

Had my closing a few months ago for a townhouse built by Fernbrook Homes and the following are my comments/experience:

Pros
- Sales representative was easy to work with and quick to respond to questions throughout the process up until closing.
- Customer Service, site office staff and office staff will work with you and respond promptly to delay compensation issues, deficiencies and rectifying upgrades that were not installed or missed (either refund buyer or fix the problem).
- Although technology was very outdated and everything was done manually at the Decor Center, the staff there did work with customers carefully choosing the best upgrades according to budget and offered lots of advice.

Cons
- Even when all the items listed in the feature sheet formed part of the Purchase Agreement, construction related items maybe substituted to save costs without compensation nor consent from buyer. Fernbrook will simply state that building codes were met or the approved drawing did not specified item to be required (e.g. exterior sliding door replaced with swing door that intrude into interior space, steel beam replaced with laminated lumber beam, etc.). Note: Fernbrook and Tarion will both use "meeting building codes" as definition for "substitution with equal or better quality", so as long as the item meets the minimum building codes, builder could substitute any construction features even when the promised feature is of better quality/material than the substitution (if a feature is important to buyer, it is not enough to include it in the Purchase Agreement, must ask lawyer to put in language to prevent substitution for the particular item(s)).
- Workmanship in general was very poor, rather than fixing the obvious items before the PDI, Fernbrook would let buyer identify them and waste everyone's time to have each trade come in fixing one thing at a time. Builder also overbooked slots for rectifying defects and promised slot would be missed because the customer service technician was asked to drop my appointment to work on something else without notifying me. My agent did actually agreed that the workmanship at my home was really bad as she just looked at another client's home also built by Fernbrook and the workmanship there was much better but closing was delayed for more than a year. So, looks like Fernrbook does have crew that are good but buyer might suffer a much longer delay, and to avoid delays, Fernbrook would employ contractors that are quick but do a sloppy job to speed things up.
- Lots of garbage (e.g. lunch boxes, socks, shoes, plastic bottle filled with yellow liquid, cigarette boxes, used tape, etc.) were left in the ducting, under vanity cabinets, under kitchen cabinets, any crevices or nooks.
- When closing, check each adjustment carefully against the Purchase Agreement with your lawyer, builder's lawyer overcharged on many items (either they have too many closing at the same time and used a template to save time, or overcharging simply hoping buyers would missed them).
- Issues with water tank rental agreement is nothing new (e.g. no definite termination date, unreasonable rental charges that could also increase anytime in the future, no clear buyout schedule, etc.), but always check to see if buyer can include a reasonable buyout option/amount in the Purchase Agreement to have a way out if the charges or terms in the rental agreement is unfavorable (which I learnt the hard way).