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My mother bought a modular home in May from Frontenac Modular part-owned by Gerald Howes.
Once the house finally arrived at my mothers lot, Gerald left his two large truck beds on her front yard for months and told my mother he had no where else to put them.
It took four months before they had poorly thrown together her home, she moved in her stuff in Sept.
She was told to rent a port-o-john for the months that her plumbing was not installed. All of which she would have to pay for herself.
She made multiple attempts to have Gerald move the two truck beds off her yard, but he ignored her attempts to contact him and later denied hearing from her at all.
She sold his two flat beds after trying for 3 months to have them removed.
Promptly Gerald showed up with a local policeman (who I can assert was an acquaintance of his) and his very large son.
She was then (under the fear of arrest) told by the officer, while the two heavy men stood menacingly in the background, that she was to give the two brutish men all the money she got for the trucks (that very instant) or be arrested for theft and fraud.
She (obviously out of fear) went with the male officer to a bank and forked over $5000 to the large men minus a piddly $300 for "rent" of her land for the last 3 months.
She had stated that she wanted $500 per truck per month but the large son barked that he refused and that he wanted her to be arrested for fraud and theft. Not surprisingly, the officer allowed this strong arm tactic to occur with no issue.
My (60yr old) mother then conceded to a $300 deal out of fear.
-- (NOTE: I later questioned this ### officer, whom I forget the name of or I would have posted it, over the phone about him showing up (with the two unnecessary and menacing large men) to a small single woman's house without another female officer or anyone from her family present. Which is TOTALLY ### and I regret not making more of an issue about at the time.He told me he had "stepped outside his role to help these men". Without doing ANY pre-investigation or having any authority to do so, showed up and threatened my mother both verbally and indirectly.) --
Within a month of moving in, she discovered that the house had began to crack in multiple places around the walls.In trying to get Gerald to fix his flawed modular home, she was given the run around and is currently unable to get anyone to fix her house... Unless she pays for the repairs and has been told that Gerald no longer works there and that his partner in CRIME is now the person to deal with, but with her Rubi not having any prior dealings with this home has side stepped all my mothers requests.Her furnace, which was less that 2 months old, stopped working and the company who installed it for Gerald, (Dave's Heating, A division of Dave Beek Heating Ltd.) told my mother that although it was under warranty, she would have to pay for the labor to fix it. THIS IS NEVER... EVER TRUE!
This cost her hundreds of dollars and yet is still not working to this day. She has had to rely on plug in heaters to get her through this horribly cold winter and her electric bill has been unnecessarily obscene.
Frontenac Modular has refused to take responsibility for their poor quality work. My mother has tried since September to get the house she was promised, but to this day is living without a completed basement, without heat, cracks all over her walls, and expediently increasing bills, due to the poor business practices of Gerald Howes and Frontenac Modular.
DO NOT BUY FROM FRONTENAC MODULAR!
My mother bought a modular home in May from Frontenac Modular part-owned by Gerald Howes.
Once the house finally arrived at my mothers lot, Gerald left his two large truck beds on her front yard for months and told my mother he had no where else to put them.
It took four months before they had poorly thrown together her home, she moved in her stuff in Sept.
She was told to rent a port-o-john for the months that her plumbing was not installed.
All of which she would have to pay for herself. She made multiple attempts to have Gerald move the two truck beds off her yard,
but he ignored her attempts to contact him and later denied hearing from her at all. She sold his two flat beds after trying for 3
months to have them removed. Promptly Gerald showed up with a local policeman (who I can assert was an acquaintance of his) and his very large son. She was then (under the fear of arrest) told by the officer, while the two heavy men stood menacingly in the background, that she was to give the two brutish men all the money she got for the trucks (that very instant)
or be arrested for theft and fraud. She (obviously out of fear) went with the male officer to a bank and forked over $5000 to the large men minus a piddly
$300 for "rent" of her land for the last 3 months. She had stated that
she wanted $500 per truck per month but the large son barked that he
refused and that he wanted her to be arrested for fraud and theft. Not
surprisingly, the officer allowed this strong arm tactic to occur with
no issue. My (60yr old) mother then conceded to a $300 deal again out of
fear. (NOTE: I later questioned this ### officer, whom I
forget the name of or I would have posted it, over the phone about him
showing up (with the two unnecessary and menacing large men) to a small
single woman's house without another female officer or anyone from her
family present. Which is TOTALLY ### and I regret not making more
of an issue about at the time. He told me he had "stepped
outside his role to help these men". Without doing ANY pre-investigation
or having any authority to do so, showed up and threatened my mother
both verbally and indirectly. Within a month of moving in, she
discovered that the house had began to crack in multiple places around
the walls.In trying to get Gerald to fix his flawed modular home, she
was given the run around and is currently unable to get anyone to fix
her house... Unless she pays for the repairs and has been told that
Gerald no longer works there and that his partner in CRIME is now the
person to deal with, but with her Rubi not having any prior dealings
with this home has side stepped all my mothers requests.Her
furnace, which was less that 2 months old, stopped working and the
company who installed it for Gerald, (Dave's Heating, A division of Dave
Beek Heating Ltd.) told
my mother that although it was under warranty, she would have to pay
for the labor to fix it.This cost her hundreds of dollars and yet is
still not working to this day. She has had to rely on plug in
heaters to get her through this horribly cold winter and her electric
bill has been unnecessarily obscene.Frontenac Modular has
refused to take responsibility for their poor quality work. My mother
has tried since September to get the house she was promised, but to this
day is living without a completed basement, without heat, cracks all
over her walls, and expediently increasing bills, due to the poor
business practices of Gerald Howes and Frontenac Modular.DO NOT BUY FROM FRONTENAC MODULAR!
My wife and I purchased a home from Frontenac Modular (Gerald Howes) fall of 2012.. During the purchasing process Gerald clearly stated what was included in the home price... And such things as the plumbing, electrical, foundation, septic, heating and ventilation was our responsibility... Gerald was more than willing to assist with names of contractors that could assist us. As with any new house build we had a couple of issues but Gerald and team rectified the issues promptly... Where also informed to allow the house to settle for a season and then Gerald would have his team into repair nail pops and cracks. I would have no concerns recommending Frontenac Modular and Gerald Howes team.
Shawn and Tanya Lamont
We purchased a home from Frontenac Modular/Gerald Howes in the Fall of 2012. We did not have any problems with the whole process. We were made well aware of our responsibilities and those of Frontenac Modular.
1) We chose to do the plumbing, electrical, and basement/foundation ourselves.
2) Our furnace came with the modular home, and there have been no problems with it to date. My suggestion: if there was a problem with the furnace in such a short period of time, it should have been under WARRANTY with the 'private' (Dave's Heating) company, and they should have been the ones to contact and to rectify the problem.
3) The trailers remained on our lot for 3 weeks, and we did not think that this time frame was unreasonable. They were then picked up and removed by Gerald.
4) The basement was not in our contract.
5) We were made well aware of the fact that the house would experience wall cracks and nail pops while it was settling. It was recommended to us that we wait at least a season before any repairs were made, and at that point Gerald sent his 'men' out to repair the cracks. We were also told not to paint for one full year, because there would be cracks and nail pops that would appear.
I would purchase another home from Frontenac Modular in a heart beat, and I continue to refer them to friends and other people.
My only suggestion would have been to review your own personal contract. And, if there were any questions at the time, that would have been the time to ask or to clarify. Communication is the essence of any good relationship.
Sorry to hear about your 'bad' experience, there is good and bad to everything, however our overall experience was good.
We ordered a beautiful Kent Home from Gerald Howes ( Frontenac Modular Homes, delivered on Nov/13/2013) and found the process to be painless. Frontenac
Modular made it very clear to us that the basement, plumbing, and
electrical was not included in our purchase price, it was our
responsibility to get these things done ourselves. Dave's heating
installed our heating system and done excellent work ! We were very
satisfied. Our drywall has cracked as well but we were informed that it
is best for the home to settle before making repairs. This is actually
the second home we have bought through Gerald Howes
and we find this complaint hard to believe as Gerald has went out of
his way to make things right for us. We also had 2 flatbed trailers on
our lot from our first home being delivered but we did not feel the need
to sell them as they did not belong to us.
Stephen & Patricia McCullough
Google Complaints Board.com Review and you will see they are essentially a scam enticing people to post bad reviews and then blackmailing companies into making the review disappear. We will not fall victim to this. I will comment on some of what is in the complaint:
Plumbing hook up was NOT IN THE CONTRACT
Basement was NOT IN THE CONTRACT
Drywall repairs are scheduled for spring - IT IS STILL WINTER
Heating - Dave's Heating did not install the furnace - he will make his own comments
Customer or her daughter HAVE NEVER CONTACTED ME by phone, email or letter
Trailers - NOT HERS TO SELL
Police - CALLED BY PERSON SHE SOLD THE TRAILES TO NOT US
Enough said
Rubi Sulyma