Complaint Review: Augustine Homes - Fredericksburg Virginia

Augustine was recommended to me by numerous people for their build quality and craftmanship. This was a similar experience for many of the buyers on my block as well. Augustine may have had good build quality at one time but this is no longer the case based on what I have seen at my home and others since 2013. From what I have gathered, upper management has changed at Augustine and they have brought over many of the poor subcontractors from other national builders and is degrading Augustine's name. I would highly recommend NOT purchasing from Augustine. My experience in building stems from having built high-dollar track homes and custom homes in Arizona and Colorado.

The sales staff and superintendents will say one thing and do another. When the inconsistency is brought to their attention, they deny it and try to write you off as a liar. I understand that sub-contractors will be lazy and try to do the minimal amount of work as possible but it is ultimately up to the super to care and force the subs to the proper code and standard build quality. This also reiterates the lack of proper building experience. There is no way that someone as seasoned as Augustine claims can blatantly miss the things that they do and then claim ignorance. Furthermore, they tend to support their subs and insist that the owners are crazy.

Between all the corner cracks and nail/screw pops, almost every piece of drywall in my house has to be fixed. The hardwood flooring is horrible combined with the horrible installation. Augustine knew the quality was bad, switched it in their design center yet still installed that particular hardwood in each house that had it. At least two supers have stated that they could not afford to hire real painters so they had laborers do all the painting. The painting on the trim was so bad, it is faster for me to replace it opposed to sanding it all down and properly painting it. I have certain details in the trim that have been completely filled in with paint all but erasing the detail. Our hardwood stairs have dents and the stain is inconsistent to include our stair rail.

There is a ton more stuff I could bring up. They have had so many issues with their homes that they now outsource the management of warranty work and it takes a long to time to get things completed, if they are even complete it. Augsutine has gotten to the point of not doing some of the warranty work because they do not believe it to be an issue, even though the people looking at it are not Augustine supers.

I have gotten to the point where they are no longer allowed on my property because I can do it better anyway. I have to have my grout replaced and that is because Augustine's flooring guys, T.A.C.,  don't know how do to quality work. They caulked the corners yet it is still cracking through the caulk. I know it is because they grouted with grout that was too dry. I have to rip out my hardwood floors and install new. I will fix all the drywall work when I repaint. I have to caulk the base of the thresholds on all three of my exterior doors because air, dust, grass clippings and bugs are coming through. The brick on my porch is cracking out. We have only lived here since Aug 2013. I have called the county twice. Once bcause Augustine refused to grade my yard per the approved site plan, which I have a copy of and second, because water was leaking into my basement because I had multiple cracks in the foundation.

Oh yeah, their ARB and HOA is crooked. It says in the covenance you can have a 6 foot fence but it has to be approved by the ARB. The problem is that the ARB already had a standard in mind and that means no 6' privacy fences. The only 6' fence you can have is wrought iron. This is actually fraud because they already knew what standard they wanted and didn't write in explicitly into the covenance for everyone to see before purchasing. Also, the current HOA property manager states that Augustine will always own the common area elements. That too, is illegal. Every owner owns a piece of the common areas elements and with a 67% or greater vote, can change the convenance. If it is true that Augustine owns the common area elements after it is turned over to the homeowners, that means every lender has been defrauded because part of the collateral is the homeowner's portion of the common area elements.

I can go on and on so just contact me if you have any questions. I gave Ryan Homes such a hard time on the house they built for me two years ago but honestly, it was finished considerably better and they fixed whatever I told them to fix. At least with national builders, one should know what to expect. With Augustine, they preach quality, we are a smaller builder so better than the national builders, type of outfit. Don't be fooled. It is worth going to a custom builder. It is not like Augustine has followed any of their timelines anyway.