Premier Homes of North Florida

It was a terrible experience and we wish we could start over. We went with Premier Homes because we were referred by a friend and they were one of the few contractors who seemed eager for our business at the start. Once the contract was signed things started going from bad to worse. My wife and I took our parents to one meeting with Ken while we were deciding who to use. We all had a good feeling about the builder and ended up going hiring him to build our home. Ken bragged how quick he could build and said that it takes less than 75 days from start to finish, but he wanted to have 90 days. It us multiple months just to get our mortgage because he had troubles submitting the paperwork to the bank the way they wanted. On his third attempt Ken told us that this was the last time he was going to submit anything and he was just going to give them exactly what they wanted. This should have been our first clue to change builders. Why would you not give the bank what they wanted the first two times. This process started in February. He did state that it could take up to 12 weeks to get permits and paperwork done so we were not concerned when we were not seeing any progress for the first few months. By April we were hearing that the trusses were complete and he could start as soon as we had permits. Looking back we wonder how trusses were completed if permits and engineering was not complete. He did not start clearing the lot until September. When he did clear he ended up clearing the wrong area. It was about 500 feet away from where we had agreed to put the house. It was in an areas that the community restrictions would not even allow us to build. Once we got him clearing the correct location he told us we would be in for Halloween., then Thanksgiving then Christmas. We later found out that permits were not even pulled until December 9th. From the time that the Certificate of Commencement was submitted until we finally took possession of the house was 392 days. That is 302 days longer than promised using his most conservative estimates. The construction process was not pleasant. We pointed out some items along the way that were incorrect because we understand he can't be on site everyday and he asked us to let him know if we saw something. Any time we pointed something out he claimed that it was correct. We ended up with damaged flooring because the floors were installed before the drywall was even complete. He ended up waxing the no-way vinyl flooring to hide the scratches. We found out from a local flooring company that this can ruin the floors by making them sticky and trapping dirt. Our doors leak. Light can be seen around the edges. Rain comes in inter the threshold because they are not sitting on the concrete. We have had multiple contractors look and confirm the incorrect installation, but Ken still claims that they are correct and will not fix them. He even threatened a friend of ours who is a builder because Ken believes that our friend is the one who said that they were installed correctly. I have contacted Ken to fix warranty items. We have a faulty light fixture, but he does not respond to messages. I don't even want him to fix most of the problems, because when he gets mad he does bad work and it is more expensive to do repairs. We were told that he would not do a final closing because he did that with our private building inspector. He eventually did do a walk through, but refused to do most of the items on the list. Three weeks after the final walk through he had not finished the few items that he had agreed to. We ended up having to contact the bank, county , lawyers and the sheriff and were told to change the locks on the builder. That is the only way we were able to take possession of the house. It is still not done right. I believe that this company can build a quality spec house, but if you want a custom build home then run away as fast as you can. If you use Premier homes, be sure to talk to other customers. We did not, and wish we had. We have found about 6 different people who had similar experiences as we have. You can expect medium to poor work, poor customer service, constant delays, incorrect paper work and much more.