Novum Homes review: Misrepresentation & Negligence/Failure to Perform

Novum Homes, Previously Pantheon Homes, promotes their "Affordability, Flexibility and Transparency." However, our family's experience was quite the opposite.

Affordability: Actual building costs were much higher than Novum/Pantheon's guaranteed bid (not considering any upgrades), due to the company being a combined ~ $50K off on their excavation and stone/stucco budget. We were also told in writing that there would be no change order fees or late fees, but were charged both due to mistakes and delays by the builder's subcontractors, respectively.

Flexibility: We were allowed to use our own subcontractors (thank goodness), because we discovered that Novum's commitment to providing things "at cost" simply means that they do not mark them up from the subcontractor's prices. However, we found in many cases that we could do much better than their subcontractors. Unfortunately, some of Novum's subcontractors took so long to complete their work (e.g. 2 month delays in a couple of cases), that the home was almost 3 months over the 120 day build time frame that we were given and we had to scramble to cover payment out of pocket to our subcontractors (who had completed their work), and avoid liens on the home due to the delayed closing.

Transparency: We were charged a non-disclosed sales commission on top of the "flat" builder's fee for working with one of their representatives who were were handed off to by one of the owners because we were told he was too busy with a political campaign. The gentleman who helped us (and he was nice) was apparently a relative of one of the owner and not a licensed real estate agent. I believe that Novum's new contract may now disclose the commission.

There are too many other complaints to mention in this limited space (e.g. several occasions when subcontractors told us that they hadn't seen a Novum representative on site all week; Novum forgetting to arrange the power hook-up to our home; the expense report in their "state-of-the-art" software being so behind and otherwise inaccurate that it took significant time to sort out the numbers prior to closing...) We asked for a partial refund of the builder's fee due to real, financial damages caused to our family due to what we perceive to be misrepresentation, negligence, unnecessary delays and other contractual breaches; however, Novum Homes refused to even sit down with us to hear our dispute and try and reach a mutually agreeable settlement. We have initiated the arbitration process as outlined in our contract, but are seeking counsel on how to further proceed because Novum Homes failed to successfully confirm the name of their arbitrator within the 30 days stipulated for in the contract.

Do you homework on the company and owners first. It's always best to make decisions based on first-hand experience of someone you trust, because even when you have something in writing, it doesn't mean that the other party will honor the ink on the page, let alone verbal assurances that are given as part of the sales pitch.