| 04/28/2017 |
Yes |
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Web |
Servicemember |
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Property Address : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX , Maryland XXXX Settlement Date : XXXX XXXX XXXX VA Loan Number : XXXX Lenders Loan Number : XXXX Lender 's VA Identification Number : XXXX Summary : Deceptive business practices ; predatory business practices ; bad faith ; failure to remedy building issues ; violation of contractual terms. K.Hovnanian acted in bad faith and demonstrated deceptive business practices when selling us our new home. The seller made patently false statements in relation to the loan process, mortgage interest rate, overall value of the home, expected utilities and willingness to remedy poor construction. Throughout the negotiation process we were assured th at K. Hovnanian would provide a fair and comparable interest rate as compared to other pre-approved rates and market rates. Hovnanian failed to provide a comparable, competitive rate.
K. Hovnanian made representations throughout the contract negotiation that later turned out to be patently false. Some of these include : the home being energy efficient, the home being of excellent construction, the lot being graded and designed for irrigation. All of these turned out to be patently false.
K. Hovnanian has failed to fix issues with the home. These issues were identified at closing. Builder agreed to fix all outstanding issues. Nine months after closing issues remain outstanding. Background : From XXXX XXXX XXXX , I was stationed overseas in XXXX , XXXX . In the spring of XXXX I received follow- on military orders to the XXXX XXXX area. While in the United States for house hunting leave I identified a made to order home which was up for quick sale as the original purchaser had backed out of their contract. This quick sale home was located in a new neighborhood of made-to-order homes being constructed by K. Hovnanian. I decided, based on various representations made by the builders sales representatives that this home would be a good fit for me and my family : some of these representations included : 1 ) construction being complete in XXXX XXXX , 2 ) the loan interest rate being offered by K. Hovnanian being competitive with market rates, 3 ) the construction of the home being high quality, 4 ) the home being high efficiency. Of note, because this was a quick sale home, we were not eligible to make any changes to the design or layout of the home. We were to buy the house as is. We were originally supposed to settle on XXXX XXXX , however, that was delayed until XXXX XXXX for reasons never disclosed to me. This delay came at considerable inconvenience and expense to me and my family. I entered the contract with this home while maintaining mortgage pre-approval from XXXX and XXXX XXXX with rates of 3.5 %, 3.25 %, and 3.375 %. Ultimately, I was able to obtain an interest rate for a VA Fixed Rate loan from XXXX XXXX for 3.25 %. While negotiating with the seller I was consistently told tha t K. Hovnanian would offer a competitive interest rate. This was an important element of negotiations a s K. Hovnanian would offer the advertised sales price only if their loan company were utilized to secure the mortgage. Entering into negotiations with the seller, I agreed to purchase the home for a purchase price of {$690000.00 } ( the s ales price advertised to the publicbut only applied if those customers utilized K. Hovnanian for as their mortgage lender ). I made the builder and lender aware of the market rates for a VA Fixed Rate Loan and was assured that K. Hovnanian 's rates would be competitive. Once we moved into the loan application process, the seller maintained constant contact with the lender, as they are both owned by they same parent company. K.Hovnanian Lending se rvices offered a rate of 4.125 % which was nowhere near competitive with VA fixed rate loan interest rates. I informe d K. Hovnanian that I would be using XXXX XXXX , so the lender informed the builder and the builder raised the purchase price of the home to {$720000.00}. At this point, the lender and builder continuously collaborated to try to force me to use K.Hovnanian as the lender. The sales team for the builder was in constant contact with the loan officer in Florida and all parties were, from my perspective, trying to present numbers in various forms so as to give the appearance of a much better deal, when in fact it was not. They even went as far as to contact my wife without my knowledge and try to convince her to make the deal wit h K. Hovnanian u nilaterally. In the end, the purchase price of the home was {$700000.00} ( not XXXX which was what was originally agreed upon if I use K.Hovnanian 's lending services. ). Additionally, I obtained a 3.25 % interest rate, but I had to pay {$10000.00} in points to buy down the rate and I still have an APR of 3.481 %. Because of the lender 's overly familiar relationship with the builder, I was in no position to bargain or protect myself from what I thought were predatory practices. The builder and lender were aware of the urgency of my move and the nature of my overseas PCS move. I believe the builder was dishonest in all aspects of the negotiation process. The discounted purchase price of XXXX was offered along with XXXX incentives. These incentives consisted of certain upgrades the purchaser could elect to incorporate into the home. However, I was not in the same position as other purchasers in this neighborhood as I was purchasing a quick sale home and not a made-to-order home. Since this was not a made-to-order home the price to purchase should have been the price advertised to the public. In addition to making false representations regarding the competitiveness of their loan interest rate, K. Hovnanian also entered into other deceptive practices.
They consistently told us that the construction of K. Hovnanian homes was superior to other builders. Yet at closing we identified several glaring defects including mis-installed cabinets ( literally installed sideways instead of right side up ), poorly installed tile work in the master bath ( with holes throughout the grout which would allow water to seep in and destroy the underlying walls and flooring ), and other glaring construction issues . K. Hovnanian admitted to their culpability and agreed to fix the issues. We submitted a list to the company at closing. The majority of the items on the list remain outstanding.
Throughout the sales process we were told that K. Hovnanian utilized the best technology to make the homes energy efficient and that this would cut down on energy costs and save us money in the long run. We were quoted costs as low as XXXX dollars a month. After 9 months occupying this house we have determined that the energy costs associated with this home is simply comparable with other similar sized homes. We complained to K. Hovnanian and indicated that we believed making these types of representations to the public constituted deceptive practices.
K. Hovnanian represented that our lot would be graded to remove water from the property. They indicated that special care and attention would be paid to every home in the neighborhood to ensure that water flowed away from the homes and into common drainage ditches that serviced the neighborhood. Our yard is improperly graded. The yard frequently floods and a large pond forms at the corner of our home. This results in about 6-7 in ches of standing water after every storm. Our neighbors all have had similar issues with their homes. This is indicative of larger issues with this builder. They systematically deceive purchasers into buying a new home through overpromising and under delivering. We relied on the representations made by K. Hovnanian i n entering into this purchase and it has acted to our detriment. Also, I am currently learning that I could have purchased a home to order in the same community, as this is a new development. It was presented to me that if I wanted to move into a home in XXXX , I had to purchase the XXXX home. Immediately after closing, I learned that four other homes were being completed and transferred to the owner in XXXX and XXXX of XXXX . The point of this last issue is that these homes were built to order, but I had no choice in any of the options for which I paid. Therefore, the purchase price which I paid featured many items that I did not elect to enhance the property. It was very vague and misleading as to how these " incentives '' were applied because none of the things that I wanted were " feasible '' to add as it was portrayed to me. With this in mind , one of the " incentives '' that were added to this house was a covered deck, which I understood to be in the plans for the house when I submitted the non-refundable {$35000.00} deposit, however, this feature was removed from the plans. The original {$690000.00} price was something that was presented as special deal for military service members. Now that more homes are in the neighborhood, I 've learned that more than several of the few houses in the neighborhood paid far less, specifically a model that featured the same " fixed '' list price. In the end, the bottomline is that I submitted a {$35000.00} deposit for a home that I thought I was paying {$690000.00} when I was forced to raise the purchase price to obtain a mortgage that would have cost me much less had I not been forced to use K. Hovnanian ' s in house lender.
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| 03/06/2017 |
Yes |
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- Credit decision / Underwriting
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Web |
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My complaint is we changed lenders 30 days prior to closing. The 1st Lender that we had requested a deposit that was unreasonable and was not performing in a manner that my husband and I thought that would get us closed in the timeline that was discussed and agreed upon. Therefore we found another lender that could and did meet our needs. XXXX refused to work with our new XXXX therefore they decided we could n't get the home if we were going to use someone else. Therefore they would not give us our earnest money back.
We gave XXXX approx XXXX and we only requested our earnest money to be returned.
I have all emails from the builder. Its not allowing me to attach the emails.
Good morning XXXX, I just want to re-cap yesterday 's decision.
Thank you for following up from the phone call we were supposed to receive on XXXX/2016 per XXXX. We are aware with holidays approaching there were other priorities.
Per the email that I sent on XXXX/2016 regarding our experience and the return of our earnest money since XXXX do not want to work with our new lender since the denial of our original outside lender. XXXX contacted XXXX back up lender spoke with XXXX and she stated she could n't make any promises. XXXX stated she would have to pull the credit and my score was already below requirements due to the recent collections. Therefore I would n't let them pull it again to drop it even lower and XXXX already informed me there were no guarantees that we can my score up to requirements by closing XXXX/2016. Does n't make good business sense to have them to pull it again when the challenges were made known.
Per the Seller to the Buyer verbal conversation here are our options.
1. Drop current loan officer and work with XXXX professional XXXX to help us. But if he ca n't help us he wo n't string us along.
2. Wait 3 more months and they would credit us back with the purchase of another home.
3. Keep our current lender and she would require us to put down even more than we have already put down. {$2000.00} earnest XXXX in upgrades. But you do n't recommend that because he is an outside lender and it 's possible be wo n't close us and we would lose more money.
Buyer to response to Seller : 1. Refuse to drop current loan officer to do bad business as XXXX has done to my family. Makes no sense and I have an approval already. I work every day I would have to completely start the process all over again. I told XXXX how inconvenient that would be for a 3rd time. She simply thinks it would be just sending over a file. It 's never that easy. There are always questions and forms to fill out and task to do. I have a stressful job it 's no way I can start this process all over again!
If I would have never ever sent an email addressing my concerns XXXX intention was to take my money and move on to the next customer because I never received a phone call per my request for options until yesterday.
2. After XXXX we will not have shelter waiting 2 or 3 months is not an option. I paid the collection on last week waiting on collection to be removed and I will be rapid re-scored.
3. I refuse to give XXXX another dime of our hard earned money. Put more money down so there can be a reason to take that too. For it to be stated " I do n't recommend '' that by the seller lets you know that would n't be a good business decision. I totally disagree the way XXXX is n't acting as though this is one of the biggest decisions of a lifetime. XXXX ca n't make the decision what is best for me and my family.
End Result from Seller : We 'll that 's all that I can do for you and I wo n't give your earnest back.
End Result from Buyer : Will contact CFPB to file a complaint due to a couple of violations that my eye can see. Seller was informed on yesterday that I will contact CFPB :
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| 03/12/2017 |
No |
- Mortgage
- Conventional fixed mortgage
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- Application, originator, mortgage broker
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Web |
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In XX/XX/XXXX I signed a purchase contract with K Hovnanian Homes in XXXX XXXX, FL for a new construction single-family home to be built by XX/XX/XXXX. The contract had a financial contingency clause that was supposed to protect my family from losing the deposit ( earnest money ) in the event I could not find financing. Unfortunately, the lender that had initially approved my loan, withdrew the offer months later and I was not able to find alternative financing. As a consequence the builder retained the deposit in the amount of {$44000.00}, in flagrant violation of the contingency clause. Any attempts at settling the issue amicably failed. I entertained suing, but after that financial blow I was left unable to afford proper legal representation. The following is the timeline of events for your perusal : XX/XX/XXXX : Visited model home. Discussed with Sales Rep about next step to put property under contract.
XX/XX/XXXX : Applied for credit to K. Hovnanian Financing company XX/XX/XXXX : Applied for credit to XXXX preferred mortgage program XX/XX/XXXX : Denied credit by K. Hovnanian Financing company XX/XX/XXXX : Applied for credit to XXXX XX/XX/XXXX : Contract signed. Earnest money deposit made by check in the amount of {$44000.00} XX/XX/XXXX : Approved credit by XXXX. Letter of approval forwarded to Sales Rep XX/XX/XXXX : Invited by Sales Rep to attend pre-construction meeting with construction supervisor. I was told construction would probably start in the following couple of weeks. XX/XX/XXXX I visited the property. Foundation trenches have been dug, no significant construction started yet.
XX/XX/XXXX : Received a follow up call from XXXX Re : Approximate closing date. Advised to pay off credit cards and at least decreased car loan balance or else I may risk lender revoking approval.
XX/XX/XXXX : Called K Hovnanian Sales Rep to let him know about the call I received form the lender and how it made me uncomfortable as I felt uncertainty of approval during the conversation. I suggested they do n't start construction until I worked out the issues raised by the lender. I was reassured that delaying construction was not necessary.
XX/XX/XXXX : Credit denial letter received from XXXX.
XX/XX/XXXX : Letter forwarded to K Hovnanian Sales Rep. Instructed to apply for credit to one of the builder-affiliated " back up '' lenders.
XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX representative contacted. Requested application form. After this conversation he told me there were no guarantees he could finance me but the minimum interest rate would be 7.5 % above prime.
XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX : Tried to negotiate directly with sales department a financially acceptable solution for the parties.
XX/XX/XXXX : Default letter received from the builder. I replied requesting full refund of earnest money.
XX/XX/XXXX : Received application form from XXXX. Filled out application, submitted documents requested.
XX/XX/XXXX : Informed by XXXX that " the loan is definitely doable with the terms we discussed '' ( high interest rate ) XX/XX/XXXX : Informed by K Hovnanian Sales Director that my refund request was denied. In that e-mail I was given the following ultimatum : " You now have through end of business Friday XX/XX/XXXX to complete the application process and hopefully secure a loan or we will have no choice but to terminate the agreement, retain 100 % of your deposit and begin marketing the home for sale once again ''. I did not reply and have not had any communication with them since, as I felt I needed first your legal advise and potentially your legal representation.
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| 03/13/2017 |
Yes |
- Mortgage
- Conventional fixed mortgage
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- Application, originator, mortgage broker
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Web |
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While purchasing a new home from K. Hovnanian XXXX , L.L.C., I opted to use the builder 's mortgage company - K. Hovnanian American Mortgage ( KHAM ). I had four notable issues with KHAM : 1 ) Despite receiving a written confirmation of a scheduled closing date from the construction supervisor, I was repeatedly denied the opportunity to lock in my mortgage rate. KHAM would not allow me to lock in my rate, despite being within 60 days of the scheduled closing ( the earliest point that they would allow my rate to be locked ) until they received an update from the builder as to their progress. As a result, the interest rates increased and I was not able to lock my mortgage rate in at the rate I initially wanted to and locked in a substantially higher interest rate.
2 ) After the closing date got pushed back due to the builder not being complete, the rate-lock that I had obtained expired. The builder, extended the rate-lock for an undefined period of time, at their own expense, while the construction issues were being resolved. After the construction issues were resolved and the builder declared they were not going to be paying for the rate extension any longer. KHAM then attempted to charge me a rate lock extension. I explicitly told them that I neither requested the initial rate lock nor wanted to pay for a new rate lock since the prevailing mortgage rate was identical to the rate I would be locked in at. After being told that the rate lock fee was their lender 's policy - I demanded to see a copy of that in the disclosure documents that had been provided to me. After they were unable to produce any documentation to substantiate or indicate that they disclosed this fee to me, they agreed to absorb/waive this fee. ( I believe this may be a UDAAP violation. ) 3 ) KHAM was in regular communication with the builder with regards to my personal finances, mortgage status, and other sensitive financial details without my consent.
4 ) KHAM at one point demanded that I produce account statements for a trust account that I am neither a trustee on or a signatory on. While reviewing my financial statements, I disclosed that I received a substantial gift from my grandfather 's trust, that was currently in my mother 's name as the sole trustee. Despite that the fact that the money was wired from a XXXX XXXX Trust account to my XXXX XXXX Checking account - KHAM repeatedly refused to accept letters of attestation, copies of my bank statements, letters from the trustee, and communications from the banker who oversee the trust for XXXX XXXX as sufficient to " source '' the deposit. Despite repeatedly explaining that I did not have access to the account statements for the trust - since it was not my account - KHAM repeatedly demanded that I produce them for their review.
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| 12/02/2016 |
Yes |
- Mortgage
- Conventional fixed mortgage
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- Application, originator, mortgage broker
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Web |
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I recently contracted to purchase a property from XXXX in New Jersey as they also have there own in house mortgage company, K.Hovnanian American Mortgage, XXXX. As an inducement to use their own in house mortgage company I was offered $ XXXX off the purchase price. XXXX, I did n't have any an issue with this process until today. My original mortgage rate offered was XXXX floating. I had many communications with the loan XXXX who at no time explained to me that I was floating and that I would run the risk of not being able to receive the original rate offered if did n't lock in. To my dismay I was notified today that my loan is not locked in and they can not deliver the rate promised and tried to convince me into taking a XXXX year or XXXX year ARM. I did not have the bonfire option of shopping for competitive financing due to the fact I discovered well after the fact I was out of attorney review and behind the point where I could cancel my contract to purchase my home without grave financial damages including but not limited to forfeiting my deposit that the unit I am purchasing is considered a non warrant-able condo. By vert-rue of this I am not a candidate for XXXX or other agency financing. I feel like I have been deceived by a bait and switch. If I did n't know better I would say they have an monopoly. Please help me.
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| 05/20/2017 |
Yes |
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- Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage
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Web |
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Denial of F HA Jumbo Loan and non-return of home deposit. We have been proactive in pursuit of a refund since XXXX / XXXX / 17 . FHA Jumbo Loan Denied w ith Hovnanian Homes due to loss of employmen t on XXXX / XXXX / 2017 . Provided letter of separation from XXXX XXXX to Hovnanian Home M ortgage Department. A letter of denial of mortgage was issued XXXX / XXXX / 17 . Called and spoke to XXXX XXXX XXXX estate agent/Broke r for Hovnanian Homes o n XXXX / XXXX / 17 regarding job loss and refund.There was no follow- up via email or call to when the home deposit ( time- line ) will be mailed to us by XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX further escalated our complaint to XXXX XXXX XXXX several times via email. The response and result from XXXX XXXX XXXX was no response to time-line when the refund will be issued. The deposit was {$6000.00} toward a new construction town-home in XXXX , New Jersey provided the approval of FHA Jumbo loan. XXXX XXXX applicant and XXXX XXXX co-applicant. Please investigate why there is a lack transparency with the refund and why there is a delay with the status of our refund.
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| 10/24/2017 |
Yes |
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- Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage
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Web |
Servicemember |
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I Applied for a VA mortgage through XXXX Mortgage. A credit report was pulled on XXXX XXXX, again on XXXX XXXX and again later that month. I emailed and had a phone conversation with the person in charge of my file and told him to not run my credit report again- he told me by email he would not. However, it 's now XXXX and again my credit report was pulled without my prior knowledge. I fired off a email to him and his superiors and received a call that these reports should not have been pulled. I was told that 500.00 would be taken off my closing costs. I was also told that another report would have to be pulled prior to closing which is XXXX XXXX 2017- This is a VA loan and 5 credit runs in a 6 month build new home process is wrong and damages my credit. I was also emailed that these credit pulls hard not soft does not effect my score which is totally false. I am not satisfied with the explanation and told them that I plan to dispute with the FCRA.
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| 03/05/2023 |
Yes |
- Mortgage
- Conventional home mortgage
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- Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage
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Web |
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Trying to build a home with KHovanian. They offer incentives for their mortgage however their incentives all taken with excess fees and points I am in the XXXX, and my closing costs in fees was over {$22000.00} for a standard transaction. When I saved XXXX points and XXXX % with another lender, they then increased the price of my home by {$4500.00}. This is not only Deceitful, but in violation of equal credit opportunity act.
This has been a terrible experience and khov home mortgage are a bunch of thieves.
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| 11/15/2022 |
No |
- Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
- Credit reporting
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- Improper use of your report
- Reporting company used your report improperly
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Web |
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| 07/15/2022 |
No |
- Mortgage
- Conventional home mortgage
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Web |
Older American, Servicemember |
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| 01/19/2022 |
No |
- Mortgage
- Other type of mortgage
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Web |
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| 05/12/2020 |
Yes |
- Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
- Credit reporting
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- Improper use of your report
- Credit inquiries on your report that you don't recognize
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Web |
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| 11/17/2016 |
Yes |
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- Settlement process and costs
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Postal mail |
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| 01/26/2015 |
Yes |
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- Loan servicing, payments, escrow account
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Postal mail |
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| 05/07/2014 |
Yes |
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- Credit decision / Underwriting
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Web |
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| 05/01/2014 |
Yes |
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- Application, originator, mortgage broker
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Web |
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| 04/24/2014 |
Yes |
- Consumer Loan
- Installment loan
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- Managing the loan or lease
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Web |
Servicemember |
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| 03/26/2014 |
Yes |
- Mortgage
- Conventional fixed mortgage
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- Application, originator, mortgage broker
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Web |
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| 01/20/2014 |
Yes |
- Mortgage
- Conventional fixed mortgage
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- Application, originator, mortgage broker
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Web |
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| 10/30/2013 |
Yes |
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- Loan servicing, payments, escrow account
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Referral |
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| 09/10/2013 |
Yes |
- Mortgage
- Conventional adjustable mortgage (ARM)
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- Application, originator, mortgage broker
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Web |
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| 04/03/2013 |
Yes |
- Mortgage
- Conventional fixed mortgage
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- Application, originator, mortgage broker
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Web |
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| 08/04/2012 |
Yes |
- Mortgage
- Conventional adjustable mortgage (ARM)
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- Settlement process and costs
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Web |
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