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What I have been a victim of is the section in the GHBA Residential Construction Contract that in essence allows the builder to promise anything to get the 'commencement fee' check with no interest or concern of ever fulfilling any provision of the contract. The contract clearly states that the 'fee' is non-refundable under any circumstances. In short if you pay me a small amount ($5000 in my case.) I may build you a house or I may just take your money and do nothing. The incentive of the builder must be to fulfill the contract not collect the deposit and burn his client.
Mr. Jokinen presented himself as a member in good standing with the GHBA and the fact that he used their contract in fact was a comforting factor. He took the money and in two weeks or so said he could not fulfill the contract and I was not due any refund. zip - nada.
The public looks at the GHBA as a badge of professionalism and quality.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Kurk Homes has not fulfilled on iota of their contract obligation. They continually pestered me for more money. They stopped the build several times because I wanted to cut back on items in order to stay within a contract price of $320K plus for my 1800 square foot home. They misjudged the dirt work amount by $6700.00. They never gave me the opportunity to review any work order changes until after they had done the work. They began this project in August 2012 and in July 2013 they decided to cancel the contract because I refused to give out any more monies to them.
This is direct quotes from emails between myself and Mike McGinley and Chris McGinley.
Mike McGinley (mike@kurkhomes.com)
7/20/13
To: XXXXXXXXXXX
Cc: Steve Belknap, chuck@kurkhomes.com, Chris
My thoughts are still to terminate the contract. Have you changed your mind concerning paying in advance for the upgrades that you know will exceed the amount allotted in the original documentation? We are not interested in discussing any emails written prior to your signing our contract, and by signing, agreeing to the terms of the contract.
(The emails he was referencing is where Chris had guaranteed that the allotments he gave me at the time of contract would cover the upgrades I had already submitted prior to signing the contract)
Here is what Chris is stating about the upgrade at the beginning the original contract Chris sent out was for Kurk Home's standards. I asked Chris if this included any of the upgrade I had given him in a pre-arranged packet. He sent back
Revised Proposal
From: Christopher McGinley (chris@kurkhomes.com) you moved this message to its current location
Sent: Thu 9/13/12 10:12 PM
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
1 attachment
Revised Preliminary Proposal-XXXXXX_09_13_12.pdf(202.4 KB)
Hello Mark,
I modified the proposal to include the upgrades. I added a $28, 500 allowance for the shop, fence, compacted pad, appliances and any future upgrades. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and hopefully visiting sometime tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Christopher M. McGinley
President
Kurk Homes
33300 Egypt Lane Suite 400-D; Magnolia, TX 77354
426 FM 306; New Braunfels, TX 78130
After signing the above contract it was nothing but lies and deceit from the group at Kurk Home. Always over budget, always changing the deadlines, using pressure tactics like stopping the build, stating I was in breach of the contract, threatening verbally so much so I started taping every phone conversation between anyone from Kurk and hired a Lawyer which cost a lot of money. Only to have them tell me they did not want to build this house and t hey were way over budget without even having floors placed in the house.
They did give me money back from deposits and land acquisition even though the stated "that I was lucky they were doing this" maybe so since the GHBA contract is written all in their favor and they will remind you of this every chance they get.
Please think twice before using Kurk Homes