PulteGroup
Reviews and Complaints

I'm a recent new home owner of a Pulte single family home in Centex's Magnolia Park, Riverview in Florida. I would like to share with everyone about my experiences with my new home and i think it is important that everyone knows about my story before considering buying a new construction from Pulte (or Centex - same company). I hope this will give you more insights as to what to expect if you are thinking of buying a home built by Pulte.

Ever since the closing of my new home, I have encountered many problems with my new house. This is a new construction and number of issues that I'm dealing with is overwhelming.

Huge design problem - AC compressor next to the master bedroom and windows noise problems

First off, in my master bedroom, there is a lot of noise coming from the AC compressor and the traffic outside, to the extent that I'm not able to sleep. The AC compressor is located right outside of my master bedroom and close to my windows. The fact that the AC compressor has to keep running to keep the house ventilated and that is noisy I totally understand it. But the fact that it is located so close to the master bedroom that the noise keeps coming through the windows (even though they are kept closed) but the windows are not sound proof or sound reducing is causing me many sleepless nights and I find this totally unacceptable. I keep getting waken up by the AC compressor at night, and when I am in my master bedroom, the noise is just nonstop and it bothers me so much to the point that I have to sleep in the other bedroom. I can hear the compressor running very clearly. The windows don't block any noise, especially when the compressor turns on and it is running at its high speed, I could hear everything. I have flagged the noise issues to the builder. First I contacted my field manager, Daniel Troxell, he said he would send someone to check my windows. Nothing ever happened. I called him again and he never picked up the phone and never answered my emails from that point onwards. So a promise to send someone to check my windows was broken. Then I contacted the warranty services, they declined to send someone to check my windows. They kept sending me emails saying the windows are not sound proof. I understand that the windows aren't 100% soundproof but there got to be some kind of sound barrier there. I asked them to send someone to check if the windows are properly installed and sealed. But they refused over and over again. I sent multiple emails to them, to Pamela Ten Eyck, and also to head of warranty services, Elvin Fisher. But all I got was just push back. As I have requested many times, they won't even send someone to check my windows and they just reiterated the windows were installed the same way as any other homes and they will not send someone. End of story. My house is under warranty but they pushed back on my request for checks on the windows for over 6 weeks and I have sent many emails to them about this and yet all they do is to push back and decided to do nothing about it. I called the AC company, they sent someone to check the AC compressor and the technician said that they have previously told the builder not to put the AC compressor next to the master bedroom but they did it anyway. That means this is something the builder is well aware of. So they are building new houses knowing that there is a design flaw and putting an AC compressor next to your bedroom and give you windows that do not insulate any noise and they disregard the fact that new homeowners moving into these homes will have difficult time sleeping and will be bothered by the noise, the masters bedroom pretty much becomes useless, I found what the builder has done is pretty unethical honestly. How can this even be built? I have been having sleepless nights for weeks and that has been affecting my work. I paid so much for this new construction for a better life but all I get is sleepless nights. I found this very terrible and i have nothing but regrets in purchasing this home from Pulte / Centex.

Defective appliances and items
The appliances that come with the house have problems too. The new house comes with Whirlpool appliances including the fridge and the dishwasher. With the fridge, 1 week after I moved in, it started making very loud noise. It just hums every time the compressor is running. The technicians came to check it. They told me there is a design flaw with this fridge and there is no insulation between the compressor and the frame. And they said if they replace the fridge with the same model, it will be noisy as well. So I asked why they are selling a defective fridge to the builder to put in the new homes and they said I need to speak to the builder. I called the whirlpool hotline to verify what the technicians said were indeed true or not. The Whirlpool hotline person confirmed that this fridge has a design flaw and they said noise is not considered an issue and kept telling me that I'm not qualified to say whether a fridge is noisy or not. Then she told me that they have received many complaints about this model and they will not replace it. And I asked her why whirlpool is still selling this model to builder where knowingly there is a defect with this model and she couldn't provide an answer and just said she would not argue with me. I raised this issue to the Pamela Ten Eyck from the Pulte warranty team and told them that whirlpool is well aware of the defects and I told them they really need to consider suing Whirlpool because these fridges are defective and shouldn't be put in new homes. A couple of day after that, Whirlpool called me to tell me they agree to exchange the fridge. This proves my point that they are well aware about the defects of this model but they are still selling it to the builders to put into new homes. And I don't know what the builder will decide to do next. If they know about this issue and they are not going to replace the fridges for all the new home owners who have been given this defective fridge, I believe there is something going on between the builder and Whirlpool. Apparently, Whirlpool has discontinued this model and Pulte kept putting this model into new homes in my sub division. If Pulte is well aware of this but keep using this model, they might have a deal with Whirlpool to get these defective fridges at a very low price to put into all the new homes hoping no one will complain and Whirlpool can get rid of all the defective fridges from the market. I believe this is what's happening and if that is what's going on, Pulte is doing something extremely unethical. I had numerous phone calls and emails about the fridge and I got really fed up dealing with this over and over again and it took like 6-7 weeks to get a fridge replaced. It's really quite a pain. And I also raised to Pamela from Pulte Warranty Services about my dishwasher that doesn't dry the dishes. After every dishwashing cycle, I have to take half of the dishes out and put them on a rack to dry. I have raised this issue to Pamela Ten Eyck from the Pulte Warranty team and she told me I have to contact Whirlpool. I spoke to Larry Hazel from Whirlpool and he told me that's the way the dishwashers are these days due to new regulations I'm not sure if I can believe in that after having such a bad experience with Whirlpool. In my mind, a dishwasher is supposed to dry dishes after a washing cycle. I don't really know where to go to get help with this. I requested Pulte Warranty Services to replace the dishwasher and they have refused it.

Discolored granite
I granite countertops for the whole of my kitchen and my bathrooms. One week after I moved in, there is a dark rectangular shape appearing on my granite. It came out of nowhere. That is a piece of granite that sits on the kitchen island and I had not been using the kitchen island at all, not even to put anything on it before that. This granite is brand new and I really do not expect any issues like this to appear. I raised this to the Warranty Services team to ask for it to be replaced and nothing has happened. They simply aren't doing anything about it, nor have they sent anyone to check on it. Again this is under warranty but I'm not getting any warranty service from the warranty services team and yet this is a brand new granite. This is not acceptable.

There are many other problems with the house. I have tried many times to contact the builder, the warranty services and a number of the issues are still unresolved. I have moved into this home since Sep 16 and their responses to a lot of my requests are just push back, and delay and do nothing. I need some help.

Since my complaint, direct to the Homeowners / Developer board was disapproved (i didn't give 5 stars), I will direct this to Pulte Homes. First, I visit Sun City several times a year to golf and relax with my brother and sister-in-law. The whole experience has been enjoyable for the past eight years; top notch facility and staff. BUT - the past several trips have been less so due to the actions of "Grumpy Old Men." No, really. While golfing, a regular occurrence has been foursomes hitting into the group ahead of them (us) before we even hit our second shot and just basic courtesy. My nephew was hit in the head last year and this year his 13 year old son was ridiculed for taking a mulligan on a par three. This was the first time he played with his dad and uncle. This man's "acting out" embarrassed him and ruined the whole outing. Several other incidents over the past couple of years, though minor, just add to the appearance of Sun City not really being GUEST friendly, at least as far as golfing with the retired elite. It's a shame.

Can I have who my windows were purchased from to see if they are still under warrant. I have four windows that the seals are broken and need to know how to repair. 2 windows bedroom, 2 windows kitchen area.
Mold is forming outside on these windows do not know if this is from the condensation that is always present. Just learned they may still be under warrantee. They are located on the third floor which makes it very difficult to clean and keep safe.

Diane Naples
Del Webb Sun City Huntley Il
Only condo third floor
12950 Meadowview Ct #307
Huntley, Il 60142

Thank you

This is regarding our Lennox air conditioning unit. After 3 1/2 months in our new built home our air failed. In our area the temperatures were in the 110 degree range so it was critical to have air. The emergency phone number got us a serviceman in 24 hours, but he was unable to correct the problem. The motor had blown (it sounds to me like an installation problem since it came off its mounts and was damaged) and he had no new motor. Since this was a Friday (it blew Thursday night) no new motor was available until Tuesday. Evidently the warehouse is closed on the weekend. A temporary unit was put into our bedroom but it was insufficient to cool the room. After two days we moved into a hotel, since the temp in the house hit 96 degrees. This has been resolved and the expenses for the hotel and meals have been reimbursed. While everyone involved was professional and helpful we are very disappointed with the failure of the equipment so soon after our move in and the inability of the service area to get parts on a weekend. I do not recommend anyone to have an emergency on a weekend. This was a major problem for us and a hit to Pultes reputation.
The time period covered was June 22 through June 26, 2017.

We just closed on our first new home at Highland Vistas in Snoqualmie, WA. This new home purchase has been one hell of ride since we made our offer 1 year back in June 2016. They been keep telling us that home will be build next month but it took them almost year and we finally closed on June 2017; But that's not the end of it! We asked for just 2 weeks extra for closing due to family death [My Father] but they could not even agree to that; we were not able to do walk before closing due to this rushed closing; Our realtor did; not his fault; but there are so many issues in this build. Three big issues, master bathroom tiles are not the same which we ordered, carpet and first step near living room has issues, no screens were installed for any windows... Not sure they will be installed. There were other small issues around the home, dart in cabinets, carpet not properly vacuumed... colors were off near windows and front door...

Our Home is three years old and we are having to replace part of our Lennox air conditioner system. After calling Pulte they told us that it is not there problem. How can you put a product into a home that you know will break?! This is really poor customer service and home quality. The part fortunately was covered by warranty, but the labor and install will cost around $1500-$2000 they say. Pulte, how about stepping up and doing the right thing by your customers and paying for this! I am a deployed military service member that has to deal with your dishonesty and bad customer service from around the world! My family at home would like to have their air back on!

Lennox Evaporator Coil Class Action Settlement - https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/closed-settlements/145764-lennox-evaporator-coil-class-action-settlement/

Pulte Homes - Beware of the LENNOX air conditioning that they provide with your home. - https://pulte-homes.pissedconsumer.com/beware-of-the-lennox-airconditioning-that-they-provide-with-your-home-20140721512815.html

Signed a contract to build a house with Pulte Homes in Charleston SC with a contingency to sell our current home. We were told we would get our deposit back if we did not sell our house. The contract expired on May 19th and they send us a contract to renew extending until June 18th. We asked for our deposit back and they are refusing to return the $5000 even though no work has been completed and we don't even have permits to built after 3 months. We just want our deposit back of $5000 since no work has been completed.

I ordered a condo from pulte’s onyx at san jose last year in june/2016. The move-in date on the contract is feb/2017, but until today (May, 2017), that lot is not even breaking the ground — i’m not saying that it’s not finished. I’m saying that they did not even break the ground after almost a year that I signed the contract!

They claimed that they didn’t get the permit from verizon to move the cell tower on that lot so they can’t break the ground — shouldn’t you get the permit before you can pre-sale the house? Also, we didn’t get any single notification from them about the schedule delay in past year. It’s always us who find it out. What’s even worse is that the interest rate keeps rocketing high but we cannot lock the rate until the a month before the move-in date which is an unknown now (We don’t even know the ground breaking date).

The contract said they should finish the house in 2 years after signing the contract, but it didn’t say anything if it can’t be finished on time. They said I can cancel the contract and they will refund my deposit. But an year has passed and the house market is even higher now and I don’t have more choices…. They seem to prefer to have me cancelled since they can sell my house for even a higher price. On the other hand, in such kind of house market, I got almost no compensation either..

Question: it’s my first house and it’s never been so frustrated. I’m wondering whether there’s any way to protect myself legally, instead of sitting still hopelessly?

Since receiving the house a year ago, those responsible for the warranty are stalling any necessary repairs.
For months I've been requesting repairs to the floor that is loose, a failure in the finish of the garage wall and cracks in the outer walls, but they usually ignore the various emails sent. They got to schedule the repairs twice, but no one came to do the work.

We have endured a nightmare with our new home, on our walk through prior to closing our field manager Tony was extremely rude and threatened to cancel our closing if we didn't sign off on a multitude of problems, we had Mivers coming and drove from Indiana to our new home in Hilton Head. We had 4 colors of paint all over garage floor and front porch, electric not working in portion of house, back door wouldn't lock, paint all over our expensive hardwood floors, gap in molding, wrong grout color in bath, scratches and knocks ( hundreds) on our cabinets, 3 inch gap in wood siding above our garage, did looks dead, many missed paint areas, patched up ceiling in kitchen they didn't sand or paint, gutters leaking, and the house was filled with muddy boot prints and drywall dust! I regret building a pulte home they've taken our dream and turned it into a nightmare! Theresa Wright

We purchased a lot and had a house constructed at Alamo Ranch in San Antonio a little over a year ago... in fact, we moved one year ago on Feb. 12, 2016... Many of the interior finishing details are cheap and not as described during the point of sale... we ended up accepting the house given we had sold our previous residence and worked out closing based on promises from Pulte... we have spent lots of time and effort to try to correct the quality... and when we selected our lot, our sales agent told us that when the area behind us was developed, it would not infringe on our privacy ... Totally false... new homes are now being constructed that do not even have 'back yards'; thus the house nearly abut our property line. We were also told that the small green strip with large trees, wildflowers, etc. would be a 'common area'.. Totally false... the new homes behind us appear to 'own' that green strip. We were also told there were no options for garage door design and yet houses down the street have variations... Because we accepted and moved in, at this time we cannot file for any compensation or adjustment... but we are very, very disappointed that Pulte does not consider real quality as a number one commitment and that sales people are either not fully informed or are being deceptive. Lastly, we were told by our construction manager that we would have a small landing with steps to our back yard and when we moved in, not the case. The steps down from our back porch are dangerous and barely meet code.. in fact, they only meet code at one edge of the bottom step into the yard which has a slope... I have done my research...

We closed the house despite there are a lot of things needed to be fixed and finished. They promised to do it as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, after six months since we moved in, they haven't finished what they promised. I tried many times to reach out to them. There is no responses. The things that they tried to fix, they just made them even worse. Very bad customer service and poor construction job.

Hello pulte team,

i am assuming this complaint will be reviewed by pulte main office and not dcservice office (Melody Mayes, customer care coordinator,
Pulte group, 9302 lee highway, suite 1000, fairfax va 22031,
[protected]@pulte.Com).

***If you are going to forward this complaint to above customer care location, please do not bother to read further below and
instead delete my complaint. *********

I live in Ashburn, va and last November it was one year warranty period. Upon the scheduled date a Pulte representative came and took the list of things to be fixed. To make it short, my experience is that Pulte did not finish all work. The representative commented on two items as one being wear and tear ( so I guess the customer should not use the items) and second for couple faucets, the defect was considered as customer fault for using some kind of cleaning product. I was asked to call Moen to get the products replaced. I called Moen, they sent the replacement products and upon informing the office that I have received the faucets and please arrange for installing new sent products. I was told that Pulte will not take care and i will have to get them replaced on my expense. And in all these communication with Moen and receiving parts i had wait for two months. Last, i requested to finish touch up work that was not completed during the earlier visit. I was shown my signed copy of the work order saying that i have signed as a proof. I pointed that please read that I have signed with the note " will check if all the work is completed". Now the last reason i was given was I should let them know earlier not wait for two months and warranties do not linger.
It is obvious that the Pulte customer care center did not want to do any work that may take more time as i was told only one visit is made for the one year warranty. Also Pulte is very quick in showing contract and signed copies rather than understanding customer's problem.

There is no manager or any other contact to report feedback or complaints, very unprofessional and like a secret so customers can not reach anybody. No one followed feedback provided by me after the survey for one year warranty work.

This is very unprofessional by the company who claims to be good reputed company.

Hope someone who is responsible and cares for the customers reads this complaint and helps me to complete unfinished work.

Thank you.

Kamalesh
[protected]

I live at 4226 pico norte ln. Rio rancho, nm 87124. I have a kitchen island that needed to be realigned and during this alignment they took the entire island down and then had to readjust the island, while doing so it made both ends of my island offcenter causing a discrepancy in the design of the island. meaning the left side does not have as much over hang as the other side, throwing it off and not looking correct. So instead of rebuilding the wall and doing the job right. They are trying to half fast the job because they put everything back together and are too cheap to take it back apart and fix the job correctly. I am very upset with how our work is being performed on my home. I was told that Pulte is the best as far as customer service and warranty work. I am having a very bad taste in my mouth right now over them trying to cut corners and not performing work on my home properly and correct, even if it takes a little extra work, work needs to be done correctly and not oh well we have a fix, it may not be the best fix, but it will look right. Not acceptable. How can you tell that to a home owner who just dropped a half a million dollars on a home? Please contact me in regards to this repair and many others that are still not done. [protected]

Homes in Carolina bay lack attention to detail in every aspect of the building process.
I understand now why mungo homes was builder of the year in 2012. My first home I built was a mungo home paid half the price in same area and have no complaints with that house. Everything with pulse was a argument to get things completed with some what of quality. The entire build process was not pleasant at all. Leaking pipes that was pointed out next day drywall went up. Pipes not repaired. Asked if they got repairs was told yes. Needless to say they were not. Field managers and sales lack knowledge of the homes and are miss leading. Over all Carolina bay is a great neighborhood just unfortunate that pulte homes does such bad work on building homes

PulteGroup of Pulte Corp was notified of a cracked home slab that started at the front porch in November of 2014. Pulte people looked at the cracks and stated we should watch and see if the cracks increased. Pulte customer service looked at the porch slab and home slab again in June 2016 and agreed to fix both the front porch slab and home slab. They sent an engineer to identify the problem and what needed to be fixed. The engineer stated both the home slab and porch slab should be fixed. On the day in June they came to fix the home slab we were notified they would not fix the porch slab, only the home slab. We were told by Pulte customer service that the reason was that the "marketing climate" had changed and they no longer were fixing outside concrete slabs. We were told that Pulte built their last house in Sun City Carolina Lakes and this was the "Marketing climate change". They did fix the home slab and did a great job. We wrote a letter to the CEO of PulteGroup detailing this problem but did not get a direct answer back. We feel the letter was intercepted by Pulte customer service because our answer came back that the "Atlanta Pulte Management" was again refusing to fix the porch slab and was backing up the customer service people servicing Sun City Carolina Lakes. We have seen many porch slabs, even some on our street, fixed where the concrete slab was not as severely cracked as ours. The home slab crack started at exactly the place where the porch crack went into the home slab. We will have to repair the porch slab before we can put tile down on the front porch. The porch crack is increasing in width. We request Pulte fix the front porch as they originally agreed. Photos are attached of where the porch slab goes into the house.

I have called and email Pulty Warranty at least seven times. I purchased my home in 2011 and Pulte refuses to correct the cracked barrel tiles. I was told at signing that barrel tiles 5 years are warranted for five years.

I lived in South FL in a barrel tile roof which was warranted for ten years – the life time should be approximately 35 years. The inspected verified on his report that the life time should have been 35 years.

I had my roof inspected and sent Pulte a copy of the inspection. They even inspected a neighbor's roof and has refused to inspect mine. The neighbor and I closed on the same date.

My air vent, per the inspection was a fire-hazard, per the inspection. This was poorly fixed.

I sent Pulte a copy of the inspection. The response has been outstanding poor.

Hortense Janet Ward
31 Garden Grove Court
Ponte Vedra

I bought a new house with Pulte homes in July 2016, during home inspection, I found issues on hard wood floor, and the contrusction manager said that this would be fixed 2 months later (september 2015), but several inspections has been made, nothing, no fix performed and the quality manager keep buying time and firm date to fix.
I've also found issues on carpert, which they installed several pieces of the carpet and the result of this, several carpet seem everywhere, the sales manager promissed to replace the carpet if the fix was not enought to remove the carpet seem, but it's still very evident and the quality manager, does not give any evidence to fix.
I am very disappointed with Pulte homes, the quality service is very bad and inneficient.

We purchased a Pulte home in August. We upgraded most of the flooring in the house to engineered hardwood costing over $20, 000 in a house costing over $500, 000. During our walk thru, we were give a bright orange handout indicating they were not responsible for damage such as scratches, dents, etc. We do have dogs so I expected some scratches but nothing like what we have. I contacted Pulte and also talked to the flooring contractor. Pulte said there was nothing they would do. Talking to the flooring contractor, I was told that Pulte specks out the flooring and that it was of such low quality that they do not sell to the public. I feel when spending this kind of money that the quality of the upgrades should be reflected. Other than this issue we are happy with our home but I continue to be anxious as to what quality issues will present themselves.