Complain about a product or service

Meritage Homes

Diamantina of Sahuarita AZ (08/19/08)
I feel bad for the consumers who had a bad experience with Meritage. It seems that most of the complaints are in states other than Arizona. The Arizona complaints seem frivolous and somewhat non factual. When you are in the market for a home you should expect varied prices on homes.

Anyway we had a great experience with Meritage Homes. Their customer service is top notch. Any little matter that we were not happy with they fixed right away. Even when I changed my mind about an island at the last minute. They gave me no grief for not wanting it anymore. All of the people associated with this company were very professional and friendly. Plus the extra gifts in the mail after closing was very thoughtful of them. Once a consumer makes the purchase there is really no need to offer gifts, but they did. We got great incentives and our home is beautiful. Thank you Meritage

Pearlie of Spring TX (08/19/08)
cracks in the wall unleveled second floor bedroom door that will not close concrete in drive way has a hole garage door has too much gap closet bars are still not holding. bricks are coming apart at door. they came out once to fix the carpet on the step, and to fix the closets bars, one fell again. the floor upstairs they never came back to address the issue. also the cracks in the ceiling and cornors. also the hole around the pipe in the half bath.

O.scott of Tomball TX (08/09/08)
i recently brought a home from mertiage homes and they have been all problems.they dont fix the things they said that they would.i was given a bad bath tub and they have been out to try to fix four times,no luck and they refused to change it or do anything.they had the nerve to send out a certified letter stating that they cannot do anything more for us.the work on the house was so bad that as the time goes on we see all the terrible workmanship.so make sure that you look out when you are dealing with them.they bring you in and then they let you go with out keeping they word.

i have the worst looking tub that if i am going to sell i have to change the tub at my expense

Carolyn of Las Vegas NV (02/15/08)
On May 4, 2007, I closed on my new home in phase 1. I purchase the Charleston model in Andover at Northern Terrace. Phase one incentive money was $15,000 for that model, and I was told that you could not negotiate the incentive money offered. Recently, I had the opportunity to meet a new neighbor who purchased the same home that I did, only in phase II. The incentive money for that model in phase II went up to $20,000. I did not have a problem with this. What I did have a problem with was that the neighbor negotiated an additional $30,000 in incentive money. When she thought about backing out of the deal, Meritage Homes found her an additional $30,000. Buyer beware...do not believe what the sales office tells you. Additionally, the same home in subsequent phases has gone down in price; therefore, I have lost money on the purchase and the home is worth less than what I purchased it for.

Unlike my neighbor, I had to pay for some of my upgrades, my backyard landscaping and my LIDs. If Meritage Homes can find additional incentive money for some home buyers. They can find it for all home buyers, including those who have already closed on their homes. I find this a different case of discrimination. The incentive money is in the contract. Her contract had $20,000 before they found her the additional $30,000.

Carol of Richardson TX (02/11/08)
My problem has been ongoing with trying to build a home in Craig Ranch in McKinney, TX with Meritage Homes. It is almost a year, and our home as of today, has been ripped apart in all areas. The building plan has never been followed. The house is missing a window, no stone on the outside fireplace as per plan, no metal roof on turret as per plan. The fence company put their fence post in concrete over the swimming pool lines that they went through, the landscaping is set out and it is not per the Craig Ranch plan. Last Friday they had to rip out the fireplace as it was not build correctly. The light hanging in the kitchen is off center.

Everything that a subcontractor touches has become a new problem as no one who works on the home is capable of fixing or building anything. THEY CAN'T FOLLOW THE PLANS! I don't expect to close for months due to all of the problems. I have furniture in storage, and was told that we should be in no later than January. This is a one story home, a simple design that can't be built or touched without problems....

At this time, the project remains ongoing, but I am extremely concerned as to the building standards that are being followed in this Craig Ranch subdivision.

Dennis Winn of Clermont FL (10/07/07)
Purchased home In Jan 07. Noted some problems on delivery, deficiencies in tile work, now Oct and haven't been completed. Noticed a cracked retaining wall behind pooland a deco drain undermining rear foundation in April, have gotten more excuses on what is going to be done to correct it. But no correction completed.

Decreasein aesthetic value, decrease in property and resale value.

Anthony of Buckeye AZ (04/09/07)
In response to Mr. Telya's complaint that he lost $7,000.in belongings, no one but the Telya's left the garage unlocked. It's also funny that their actual insurance claim only accounted for approximately $1,600 in losses, which was a $5,400 exageration!

It's a shame when people can dirty a reputable companies name, without any accountability for their reckless remarks!

David of Mesa AZ (12/01/06)
I believe that an employee of Meritage Homes stole $7,000 of valuables from my house, of which most is irreplaceable. I believe this is due to the negligence of Meritage Homes Management. On Tuesday October 31st we closed with Meritage Homes on the home Mesa. I was issued house keys, garage openers, keys to the mail box, and keys to the single garage door, and other items. After closing I dropped off a few of my belongings into the garage. Since the garage openers were not working, I went in through the front door and opened both garage doors from the inside.

The house comes with a three car garage. The garage door is split into a two car garage door, and a single garage door. The single garage door is not attached to a garage opener, and it needs to be opened manually, which I did from the inside. I unloaded my belongings which included the missing items, as well as other sports gear (baseball bats, golf clubs, basketball, football, etc…). Before leaving, we had an employee of Meritage Homes come in to touch up the kitchen cabinets.

Afterwards I locked up, closing the garage door from the inside, and leaving through the front door, and made sure it was locked. I did not return until that following Saturday. My brother and I, along with our families moved some of our belongings from his garage. We made two trips and in the evening decided to head back and stay at his house in Glendale AZ, an hour north. My wife and mother-in-law decided to stay back and start unpacking. Since we were unloading everything in the garage, we had opened both garage doors from the inside (garage openers were not working, they had not yet been programmed) Before leaving for the night, and being concerned that my wife and mother-in-law were staying back, I decided to check all the keys and doors, everything seemed fine. Afterwards I closed the two car garage door from inside and walking out through the single garage door and pulling it down, I check the handle and it was not locked. I grabbed the keys from the inside and tried to lock it, but the keys were not working. I checked the number on the key and the garage door handle, and they did not match.

I did not think anything of it, but did tell my wife to lock the inside door and to contact Christy, the sale person for Meritage Homes, and have the keys changed. The garage door handle and keys were changed the second week of November. All this time the garage door remained unlocked, and it had remained unlocked  unknown to us  for the first few days after we closed. Even if it was locked, who had the real keys to the garage door?

After we had moved in, we were trying to locate the home phones and they could not be found anywhere. We thought they might have been thrown away mistakenly. On Sunday, November 19th, I was searching for my paintball guns and could not find them. I asked my wife and she said she hadn't seen them. Then it dawned on me. I started searching for my silver coins, my foreign currency and my baseball cards. I couldn't find any of it. Then I realized that all these items I had dropped off that Tuesday after we had closed.

I hadn't known about the unlocked garage door, and wasn't aware of the wrong key. I put one and one together, and realized that someone must have stolen these items. I informed Meritage Homes, and they said they can't do anything about it. I reminded them that they were the ones that gave me wrong keys to the garage and it was unlocked all this time. If I had known it wasn't locked I would not have dropped off my stuff there, and that even if I had known I wouldn't have been able to lock it because they had issued me wrong keys, and where were the real keys?

I told them that I believe this was done intentionally, giving whoever robbed us, the opportunity to walk in without a problem. They told me to take it up with my insurance company.

The items I lost cost mean more then their value. I spent 10 years collecting the silver coin, and a number of years collecting the baseball cards. I had given my father-in-law a personalized zippo lighter in 1998, which he kept and did not use. He passed away in 1999. My brother served in Iraq and helped me purchase Iraqi Dinar. I'm not waiting for him to go back to Iraq.

Aaron of Gilbert AZ (05/07/06)
We visited a Meritage Homes, a new home builder in January of 06. They had 4 levels of home for purchase. Provance, Heritage, Monarch, and Estates. When you requested a pricing sheet, they listed the base price for the models in a series, for example - Model #1. $369,000. They would then inform you that you cannot buy the house for that amount because All our houses are INVENTORY Homes, everything is pre-selected and pre-planned. They chose all the options ie. glass block, french doors, etc.. Meritage said the advantage of this practice ensured that all the homes are purchased and optioned out at the same level, thereby home values are ensured. Also the wait time was reduced to six months because they had already picked lots and begun construction on all their homes.

I felt that this policy was an unfair trade practice because it was False Advertising to advertise a 'base' price in writing (that would imply the home could purchased for that price) As a result, the actual cost/price is 35k to 40k higher than the listed base price. 'We realize that home builders can change their advertised price on a home whenever they want. That is not our complaint.  Although we thought it unfair, we entered into a purchase contract on Feb 21. They continued their plans and broke ground on their pre-planned lots (including ours).

We are now two monthes into construction. We have been in contact with the builder weekly. And we regularly inquire into the next level up homes the Monarch series (these homes were priced 30k to 100k higher before so-called options) We found out last week that this Monarch series has been very slow to sell and as a result Meritage lowered the price 30K, included a pool and stopped falsely advertising a base price. A buyer can now purchase a home for the actual printed base price. We have requested that they allow us to transfer to the reduced properties. They stated that we would forfiet our $10,000 earnest deposit.

This change in policy has the effect of: Lowering the value of our unfinished property and all 100 homes in the Heritage line. The entire subdivision is only 200 homes. The model series above us The Monarch at 300sq ft. larger is now priced the same as us or lower and includes a $18,000 pool. Our series The Heritage is available to new buyers at the true base price formerly unavailable to us.

Katie of Hutto TX (03/11/06)
House built in January 2006 and am unable to close due to landowner, builder and surveyor company get solve a problem. Basically the house was built 18 inches too far to one side. Meritage Homes Texas had to buy the lot next to the house. The builder tried to get a lot line adjustment, and we waited and it didn't work. Then they told us they would get a variance from the city/county. That didn't work. They finally figured out that $5,000 in taxes were owed on the property, which they previously thought was a $100,000K tax discrepany. Meritage has not put in a good faith effort to offer us a resolution on closing. It has been 2 months of waiting and that is all that has been offered as a resolution.

We are renting, and Meritage has offered 2 months of rent for waiting for closing. They have not offered anything more than that. They have $20,000 of our earnest money for the deposit. They have offered a refund, but since housing prices have gone up, we are losing equity.

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