Firstly, this is the last time I use a builder without first searching for as much customer feedback as possible. I really wish I had read these reviews before I signed the purchase agreement....
Secondly, I don't even know where to start....maybe I will start with something nice. I have come across a few Rohit employees that have tried very hard to make things right, although, Rohit likes to move staff around on a regular basis so you never deal with just one person and as the next person takes over a position, you end up starting from the beginning all over again...makes me wonder, is this a tactic to avoid dealing with issues? Do they hope to just wear you down until you give up and go away?
One of the biggest 'beefs' in my dealings with Rohit is the totally unprofessional and incompetent (lazy?/untrained?) trades people they use. My latest experience is having them come in and repair drywall (6 months since possession - no 3 month walk through ever done or contacted to make arrangements) among other things. I would estimate that about 75% of the walls needed work (my brand NEW town home). Some minor, some really bad and one really, really bad...I am talking about a huge vertical 'hump' running the full height of the wall?!?!? They have tried to fix it with drywall mud, but as the drywaller said, 'mud is for fixing holes, not fixing humps'. The hump sticks out 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch more then the rest of the wall. I can only assume a bad stud was used and they have tried to just drywall over it??? Also, it looks like the original drywaller was not good at cutting out for outlets etc. and often cut too big, some repairs were done (with the switch plate already screwed on thus mudding the plate to the wall...), some were just left with holes around the plate...I could stick a pencil in the hole, to give you an idea of how big the hole was. This is not even going into detail on the areas that were mudded, but not sanded, but painted over.
The paint color in my 'board' was white for walls and a slightly different white for the trim. Unfortunately white is also the same color as the primer....see where I am going with this? You can tell which walls didn't receive their full share of paint, they look/feel totally different but somehow passed several inspections? I even mentioned this in my pre-possession walk thru but it was brushed off (I am just a stupid woman who doesn't know what I am talking about...right?).
Then there is the paint transfer/splatter....oh, the splatter. Personally, if I am going to paint, anything, I get some drop cloths and cover up the things I don't want to get paint on, including the floor. This is apparently not something taught to Rohit painters. Part of the wall fix ups was cleaning up the paint transfer from the original painters...this was indeed done for the most part. BUT, when the painters came to repaint the touch ups, we are back to square one (even worse then before, maybe...). Every single wall that was re-painted has paint drips, smears a/o splatter on the floor below, furniture around and even the carpet. There are 3 pieces of furniture in the 'nook' area and all 3 had splatter or smears, like they put the paint can on the solid wood bookcase and there was paint residue on the bottom of the can...thus now on my bookcase. I have a little set of shelves (built by my father, as a teen, who was recently killed in a work place accident - I just about cried) and granted it doesn't look like much but again, someone put a dirty paint can on it and left paint residue! It is like the painters either think they are next to gods and can do no wrong with their paint or it is beyond their status, as professional painters, to use drop cloths! I even bought some drop cloths and left one for them to use, just in case....it is still in the package.
Then, besides the odd globs of silicon or glue left on walls, floors, sink pedestals etc. there are the items outside....the back deck has beveled spindles, they were all attached with the beveled edge facing to the side, not out. The spacing of the spindles is so sad...they used their piece of 2x4 to make sure the spaces were less then 4"...but...they start out evenly spaced until you get to the next post and then the last 3 or 4 spindles are squished together, for each segment of railing. The chain link fence is so bad that my 14 year old walked into the house and looked out to the back and with one brief glance said, 'there is something wrong with that fence...' You see, the yard is on a slope and there is a total of 3 fence posts. The full length of the fence was made with one single piece of chain link. Near the center post there is a good two feet or so where it is 7-8 inches from the bottom of the fence to the ground! My small dog (or even a small child) can climb/roll under it. I had to put up a section of portable dog fencing, along my new fence, just to keep my dog in my yard! Then we go the grading of the back yard, this wouldn't be an issue but for the steps on the deck...they are jammed right up to the ground so when I had to water the fresh sod or the snow melts, the moisture all runs directly to the bottom of the steps (this appears to be the lowest spot in whole yard). You are always, either stepping in a big puddle or solid ice. If the steps weren't jammed into the ground the water would run past the steps and keep going.
If we go back to the current touch ups taking place this week...after all repairs were supposedly complete, they brought in cleaners. The term 'cleaners' here is used very loosely. I was excited to come home to a clean house but was soooo disappointed to find that I was going to have to clean after all! There was a lot of drywall repairs, mud sanding and thus the dust. I am not sure what all the cleaners actually cleaned but I can tell you what all they didn't clean. They cleaned the middle of the floor, but not the edges...I'm not even sure if they mopped any of the floor but certainly not the edges, maybe just vacuumed?! As someone who has done construction cleaning before I know one of the big items to clean are the baseboards...they collect drywall dust, probably the most. The baseboards, window sills and stairs did NOT get cleaned (among other areas). There is still the same piles of drywall dust on the stairs as earlier in the day as well as some areas that have paint transfer onto the carpet. I don't think there is even one stair that was completely 'clean'. No floor mats were moved or lifted up to clean under/around. I can see where the rag missed when 'dusting' around items, also not picked up or moved. The bathroom sinks were not cleaned with cleaner, maybe rinsed?!? The soap bottle was not moved or cleaned behind in either bathroom, nor was the soap bottle wiped down. There are literal piles of drywall dust on the door hinges of most doors. I work online from home but was out, visiting my 14 yr. old niece in the hospital who just had brain surgery for a cancerous tumor the day before, while the cleaners were working today. I left a note asking them to not touch/clean my work area that takes up one small corner of the living room. Apparently this was taken to mean they didn't have to clean any of the living room! So I get home from sitting at the hospital all day and have to wipe down all the surfaces in the living room before I can sit down and try to relax., not to mention try to catch up on my work. The area rug was also NOT vacuumed fully, maybe the edges were done?! I know this because nothing was moved, no stools, not the box that was moved from another part of the room the day before...nothing was disturbed, period. Then we get to my front door mats (inner/outer)...at least one person, maybe more, did not take off their muddy boots when they came into the house. You can see the muddy foot prints coming up the outer front cement steps (not sure where the mud has come from because there is none around my house). Instead of taking off their boots outside (covered front stoop in above zero temps.) they wore them into the house and took them off there. Now the lighter beige mat is very noticeably more soiled then it was at the beginning of the day when
I left the house. I am talking about the kind of dirt/mud that doesn't come out with a simply vacuuming. It will need to be cleaned with an actual carpet shampooer or by a truck mount. I mentioned this but it was not addressed. So, I will be spending my weekend cleaning what the cleaners were supposed to have cleaned, renting a carpet cleaner etc...I will be keeping track of the time it takes me so I can bill Rohit. What is the going rate for house cleaning these days....?!
These issues don't even start to address the process between signing papers and actually getting to move in. I was told the best estimate for move-in was September '18, this was in June. They didn't break ground until end of October and this messed up the sale of my home at the time and by the time I had an idea of when we would be able to move in, the housing market had tanked and I lost about $40K in profit and had to float two mortgages over the summer and run an AirBnB out of the first home to cover expenses (keep in mind I am a single mom of two teenage girls...one income). All I got to do this summer was CLEAN, no exaggeration! Due to staff turn over/quitting/firing there were numerous miscommunications where forms/information never reached head office or was sent to me and thus I almost lost the built in vac. (at least 3 times I had to reject the 'no' I received from head office to finally get my vac.) and lost the toe kick feature in the kitchen regardless.
I was repeatedly told by Rohit supervisors to get everything in writing...otherwise Rohit will not guarantee anything.
**NOTE: I realize this next part sounds crazy, like overkill, and it is, but I highly recommend taking a recording (bring a fully charged phone or tablet) or get a transcript somehow of ALL conversations with any/all Rohit employee at any time/point in the process, even before you sign anything, because you WILL need proof to get anything done.
*If you sign any paper work, make sure you do NOT walk away without your own copy. DO NOT trust them when they say they will 'email you a copy later', not good enough, that employee may end up transferred/fired before they hit send on the email and Rohit will claim they have no record of it and you have no way to prove it! Even if the employee shows you a blue print and you think, 'hey, this should be final/legit, I mean, I saw the completed blue prints...'. Nope, I was burned there too!
*NEVER buy a Rohit property, of any kind, without first seeing a show home of that EXACT floor plan. Things that they verbally swear will be 'exactly the same' in your floor plan...may NOT be true. For example, they may confirm multiple times that the kitchen in your floor plan will be 'exactly the same' as the one in the show home, even though the show home is a duplex and you are buying the townhouse in a very similar plan. You will end up with a total of 3 small drawers in the kitchen when the show home has 6 much larger drawers.
**BUYER BEWARE!**
I'd include photos but there are just too many and I doubt I would be allowed to upload even a portion of them.....
