Homes By Avi Inc.

Home not completed 6 mos later. Were promised repeatedly it would be. Signed contracts say it would be. It was not. Nice home, but won't ever buy from them again.

Bought house from Homes by Avi in 2012. In 2019 I had to replace broken hood fan. When I started to disconnect the old fan I discovered this. The hood fan (had to be chosen from a limited number available from their centre) had a 7" duct. They put in a standard 6" exterior duct. Whoever put in the electrical box to supply the hood fan put in low and in the way so the exterior duct is too low and off to the right. There was no connecting duct. They built the sheet metal box in the picture encasing the two ducts and then boxed it in wood so until now I had no idea the ducts were mismatched and not connected with airtight seal the way it should be. The flap of the metal box was not cut by me. I discovered it taped in place when I removed encasing wooden box that hid everything from view. Since I only discovered this this year, all warrantees are expired. Shoddy work for a house that cost over $800 K CAD. I shudder to think what other disasters are hidden behind the walls.

Homes by Avi came and inspected the cracks in the house and refused to fix anything. very unsupportive. Cracks continue to appear everywhere in the house within the one year. My neighbours homes are having same issues which is also builtby homes by AVI.

Sell you premium home but act like they are going broke with warranty. Told me right in the face that "we are not going to tear all that up to fix this" while the conduit I paid for is not even connected. Then went on to tell the technician do what he could making the hole in the wall as small as possible disregarding concerns from the technician himself. Then made my wife to bring out the ladder so they can paint over the mistake they didn't fix. "Well mine is dirty do you want mud all over your floor?" the guy said.

I will not recommend this builder to anyone. We got our home possession in Feb 2018 and after 3 months follow up we notified builder issues we noted after move. Some of them resolved but for others they are willing to do the fix. i.e. walls on both sides of fridge not vertically align, tiles is master washroom not adjusted properly, garage door panels was sticking out and they hasn't fix it. They promised to do the grading work by end of June but completed at end of August. Deck stairs hasn't been put.

It's nightmare to deal with their office. They don't keep their promise. Very poor customer service.

We have had numerous problems with poor workmanship in our home and have had to keep hounding AVI to make repairs, after numerous phone calls and emails some of our concerns have been fixed, however many remain unsolved. I am only listing the issues that to date have not been resolved.
1. Defective window not repaired. We purchased a brand new Home built by AVI. Possession date was 25 July 2017. On possession day we reported a defective window and were told that it would be repaired under warranty. When it was being replaced it was dropped and caused damage on the outside of the house. The damage on the house was repaired, however when winter weather came we discovered that the window was frozen shut. When we were able to open it we found ice buildup inside the window frame. We reported it and they came back several times to try to repair it. Every time it turned cold the window continued to freeze up. The last time they were here for an attempted repair was March 2018. On March 31 2018 the temperature outside dropped and we took a picture of the frost build up inside the window frame and sent it to AVI to request another repair. The response we got was that the window had already been repaired and we would have to wait until the winter of 2018/2019 when the temperature was cold again. We corrected AVI and explained that the photo we sent was dated 31March2018 and was factually taken after the attempted repair. We told AVI that when the window was repaired the person who did the repair told us to be sure to contact them if we had any further problems. AVI responded by saying that the manager Peter would contact us after he returned from holidays. We were never contacted by Peter and when we contacted AVI again with our concern we never received a response. All of this correspondence took place VIA email and can easily be verified. It is now September and the window still has not been repaired.
2. A small crack on the sidewalk has turned into an uneven chunk about 1 inch deep and about 6 inches long. When Al was here on July 23 he assured me that it would be fixed. When he returned on Sept 7th for other repairs he denied telling me that it would be fixed.
3. Parging was missed on a section at the back of our home about 8 feet long and 6 inches at the highest point. Our request to have this repaired has been denied.
4. AVI provided the landscaping and water ponds in our back yard and on the ground between our two homes. Photos were taken and repairs were made in the back yard, however no repairs were made on the ground between our two homes. Our concerns were going unanswered by our contacts with AVI so we went to our AVI sales person with our concerns. We received a phone call from Peter a few days later and he was upset because he said that he had pictures of our yard and the landscaping company had repaired both the back yard and the area between the two homes. I correct him and said that the neighbours had replaced the sod between the two homes, but that the landscaping company had not done anything to address our concerns about the drainage. He insisted they had fixed it and said that he would contact the landscaping company and get back to us. That was several weeks ago and we still have no response from him.
5. Splattered paint on deck railing. This was reported and we were told that it had been removed but we found that it was still there. We have been told verbally that it will be replaced; however we did not get anything about it in writing and due to the pattern of dishonesty that we have experienced from the AVI employees we have concerns that it also will not be addressed.
6. Garage door leaked water and does not operate smoothly. The weather stripping was replaced and at that time we noticed that two door panels are defective and that could possibly be the reason the door does not operate smoothly. We were told that the panels would not be replaced because they would not be covered under warranty because they were installed 1.5 years ago. AVI told us that they should be replaced because the warranty period should be from date of possession. Again due to the lack of honesty and response we have had with AVI we are not confident that this will be fixed.

They earn billions but very cheap in treating customers and their issues. We bought brand new house, but everyday there is new issues. You send in an email and sometimes even videos, but they still do not believe in you. They will send their trades, god knows what they do but the problem arrises again, you send an email again and the circle continues. Worst thing never pick up a phone call or replies to your call. They do not believe the customers but believes in the non truth words of the third party contractors or people.

From the initial decision to build with AVI to final possession and even after the team at AVI has been exceptional. Ashley Schneider, Area Sales Manager and our first contact and consultant throughout, Becky Lowe, Interior Designer and Nonie Warin, Customer Relations Manager, were very supportive and helped us through every stage of development design and final closing process. We could not have been better served.

We entered this process very apprehensive having heard of so many bad experiences with builders. However, as we researched builders AVI came up as one of the best. Lawyers we knew had little to say about AVI as they didn't see or hear of the problems raised with some of the other builders. Once we made the decision, all the stops were pulled out and the AVI team kicked in and help, supported, answered questions, raised issues, handled all our concerns and questions and gave us great insight into how to help them work for us.

By the time we moved to construction we were exhausted! Yet, we felt so included in every aspect of out new homes design we would have had it no other way. The team we worked with didn't miss anything through the entire process and we were involved in every decision and detail.

As we've now taken possession of our new home we are dealing with all the little things that can happen that could leave a bad taste in your mouth, the items that got missed or damaged or back ordered. As before AVI has been exemplary. These things do come up, they in so many ways are unavoidable, however, AVI has been ready willing and able to walk through them with us and resolve them to our satisfaction. We even damaged a few things during our move in and they repaired them at no cost to us!

We highly recommend AVI to build your new home and if we were to ever build again we would most definitely use AVI.

Randy Crosson