American Lifestyle Homes

February 2007

In the summer of 2005, after what I thought was careful consideration, we decided to purchase a more high end manufactured home from American Lifestyle Homes in Lebanon Illinois.

Their initial customer service was impeccable. Everything went smoothly at first, they were at our beck and call with any questions or concerns that we had. We gave them our down payment and they ordered our home. The home was being shipped from Indiana and they told us it would take up to 6 weeks to deliver. It was all downhill after this!

Needless to say, 6 weeks went by and we did not hear from them. I called about this and then the run-a-around from them began. After many months of continually postponing the shipment date, the house doesn't get there until the beginning of December 2005. They promise, with weather permitting, that they would get the house out to our property and on our foundation before the holidays. They did not get the house up and hooked up to electric and water until the end of February 2006. Since we had been paying the mortgage for this house since Sept. 2006 and were NOT living there, we kept on them about getting things done.

We start moving in our furniture in on March 1. Much to our dismay, they did not have our driveway, sidewalk, or porch finished. We also had a 2 car garage built on, which they failed to mention was an "unfinished" garage and also did not have any electricity! So the garage door opener that they gave us was worthless.

Things just get worse when we get in the house:

1. Crown molding was not finished in the living room or kitchen--it took them 2 months to send someone out to put this up and he did a really shotty job!

2. Front door was not aligned with door frame. Door would not shut at all--this also took 2 months to fix and the door is still not fully aligned with frame.

3. First week we are there, the heater goes out. In freezing weather they tell us they can't send anyone out for a few days. We had to spend over $100 on space heaters (which they refused to reimburse us for).

4. A couple weeks later they send an electrician out to put electric and lighting in our garage. They tell us it will be an extra $500. The electrician did not make the connections correctly and our security lights would not work. We continually call about this to no avail. My father in law had to come out and fix it, so we refused to pay them the $500.

After living here for almost a year, now we are having major problems!

1. A few months ago, water began flooding our laundry room. After repeated phone calls it took them a week to send someone out. He stated that the air conditioning unit was not installed properly and water was backing up and coming through the bottom of our floors. After a week of water damage, mold started to spread on the dry wall. They stated this wasn't their problem and we would have to go through the sub contractor that installed the air conditioner (who also blew us off after repeated phone calls).

2. This winter we noticed that our Master Bathroom was freezing. When we open the drawers on the double vanity, cold air blows up from the bottom of the house. Cold air also blows through the vent when the heat is not running.

3. Our house is beginning to sink or sway--this has caused major creaking in our kitchen floor, the bedrooms shake(tremor), the side door no longer is aligned with frame, house is weighing on garage which is now having vinyl siding buckling.

These are just more things that I have to call them about, which I am sure they either won't fix, or it will take them forever and a day to come out here and do some shotty work!

I'm at a lost as to what to do. We thought we would live in this house forever, now I am not so sure. I should have listened to my husband in the first place and had a regular house built through a reputable contractor.

Jenna

Irving IL.