Arya said she refused to settle despite promises from Ryland sales staff that most items would be fixed shortly. Instead, the first-time buyer set out to determine her rights, but continued to press for completion quickly. Her apartment lease would expire Nov. 15. "We were running out of time," she said.
After a round of calls to higher-ups at Ryland and at consumer agencies, the couple settled a week after the original date. Sonali Arya credits Bob Rademacher, Ryland's local vice president of sales and marketing, with turning her experience around. "The house had improved 99.5 percent" by the day of the rescheduled closing, said Arya.
Sonali Arya found that her house was far from finished at the time of the walk-through.
(Emilie Sommer For The Washington Post)
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Less Stress at Settlement
Here are some tips from experts on how to reduce stress when buying and closing on a new house:
• Look for a reputable builder. Check him out by talking to three to 10 previous buyers.
• Ask people who have already moved into the community about their experience with closing: Was settlement delayed? Why? And did the builder offer to pay for storage space or for any part of the delay?
• Know what is in your contract. Hire a lawyer experienced with residential real estate law and with the contract laws of your community. Put any changes to the contract, such as more time for notification of a settlement date or for appliance upgrades, in writing. This includes any changes promised orally by salespeople or other builder representatives.
• Don't be afraid to ask for changes in a contract. Though production builders generally do not make changes, sometimes they will, according to local real estate lawyers. "It doesn't hurt to ask," said David N. Crump, director of legal research for the National Association of Home Builders. "They're going to work with you; they don't want to create any hostile environment."
• Hire a private home inspector before the house is built, to follow it through construction and to accompany you on the final walk-through. Don't rely on county inspectors to find problems.
Sometimes builders will balk at allowing a separate inspection, so include that in a contract addendum. Be prepared if a builder asks to approve the inspector because he has had a bad experience with one in the past.
• Some contracts say the builder must give just five days' notice of the settlement date. Columnist and new-home-book author Katherine Salant says, "You should insist on changing this to have adequate time to arrange for a move." She recommends asking for at least 14 days' notice and as much as 30 days.
• Make sure you get a certificate of occupancy from the local jurisdiction. The certificate indicates that all the county inspections have been completed.
• Recognize that punch-lists, which tally up the items in the house that are not ready, are routine and that builders' contracts give them time, sometimes as much as two years, to make fixes.
• Remember that problems happen. Stay calm.
• Call city or county building officials if you think there is a code violation.
Many local jurisdictions also have special consumer affairs offices that deal with complaints about new-home builders or contractors.
• If you have a problem, document everything in writing and send all correspondence by certified mail.
-- Sandra Fleishman
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The Aryas' experience was atypical, according to local builders, because a basic requirement for occupancy, the heating system, was not operating.
Ryland spokeswoman Melissa Bailey said the system had previously worked and that a certificate of occupancy had been issued before Oct. 31. Bailey said that when the system did not operate properly at the walk-through, the company offered to postpone. Bailey said the company could not get the contractor back to fix the system before settlement.
Arya and Bailey disagree about the offer to postpone and about whether the staff was attempting to meet a quota.
Bailey said the company does not have quotas that would drive closings of homes before they are ready. "At Ryland we absolutely do not put pressure on people to close before the house is ready," she said. Doing so "would only end up causing more problems down the line."
Settlement delays, rather than rushed closings, are the rule these days, according to local new-house market researcher Debbie Rosenstein. Builders are being stretched by bad weather and strong demand.
"People have been missing their settlements since time immemorial, and this year is no different," said Rosenstein. But she notes that 2003 has been the wettest year since 1982. "It's just been wet all the time," she said.
The NVBIA's Williams says delivery times have been creeping up in recent years because of the high volume of sales and the weather. While a typical house used to take about four months to complete, this year's bad weather has led to deliveries after six or seven months, he said.
In 2001, when sales first exploded, delivery took as much as 13 months, he said.
Christopher Cos.' standard contracts now set delivery within 18 months of signing, to cover possible delays, said Havenner. The contracts also give the purchaser the right to a refund of the deposit if that deadline is not met.
The company is delivering homes "well within that time frame," generally within a year, Havenner said. But he noted that "homes sold in July haven't been started yet."
The sales contract lays out the boundaries when it comes to locking in a buyer or a builder to any terms, including a settlement date, said Crump, director of legal research for the national home builders group.
Reasons for a delay in settlement could include bad weather, labor strikes, material shortages, problems with permits, "or whatever else might make it impossible to turn over the house for occupancy on a date certain," he said.
