Branthaven Homes

We love our new home at the UWSC in Oakville. We are very impressed with the quality and excellent design of Branthaven Homes. Thank you for the exceptional services provided by the customer care team.

I purchased a 2 year old townhome, builder is Branthaven. The house has and has had 3 significant water leaks.

1. First year of ownership: A drain pipe was leaking into the basement, caused by bathroom corner shelf fastening screw, which was screwed through the wall and into the main stack. The bathroom is on the ground floor. The screw rusted and eventually left a hole in the stack. The adjacent wall had to be cut out, stack repaired, wall repaired.

2. First year of ownership: Discovered that the garage wall showed signs of water damage. Initially, could not determine where it was coming from. This year, with extensive amount of rain, the leak was found to be coming from the balcony above the garage. The privacy fencing, centre post, was loose. The installer had over tightened the lag bolts which were supposed to catch the joists below, but in doing so, bored out the wood such that the lag bolts were not able to be tightened. Water was leaking through the holes of the lag bolts, into the ceiling of the garage below, then down the garage wall. Had to find another method to fasten the fence post.

3. First Year of Ownership to Present: At first, thought it was just a one off leak, but here's the thing. There was water staining on the second floor ceiling, where there are no water pipes or drainage. There is also a third floor. Painted over the stains

Later and subsequently a couple of days after heavy rain, water staining would appear again. This year, with the extreme rainfall, the staining is significant. Further investigation observed that the walls on the third floor directly above the second floor ceiling stains, is also showing water stains.

Access the attic, can finally see the underside of the roof sheets are wet in a specific location, right above the water staining and wall damage. Observed that the attic insulation is also compressed or lower in the exact area above the water leaks below.

Look outside of the house, see there is a roof vent near the hip, very much in the location above the signs of water damage in the attic. Looks like I will have to get the roof inspected, given past interaction with Branhaven, they will just hide behind the fact that the new home warranty doesn't cover such occurrences.

Is this is a quality issue, design issue? Here's another one, roof shingle tabs blowing off the roof after only 2 years after being built.

I have taken some photos, and will try to post them here when I can transfer them off my phone.

I have bought 2 homes from Brantahaven; one if Grimsby and Stoney Creek. I have also sold condos and townhouses to my clients. Branthaven is an exceptional building. I have had no problems with them as far as delivery and their customer service is exceptional. I congratulate them on receiving the Benchmark Service Award as they deserve it.

Joan Hing King
Stoney Creek

I don't normally write reviews but I felt I had to because my experience was so great with this company.
I currently own a Branthaven townhouse and I love everything about it. The thought that went into the design, and workmanship speaks volumes and I couldn't imagine buying from anyone else. With this being said,
I had been waiting for months of the new Branthaven Grimsby development sales office to open, however wasn't able to get an appointment due to technical issues with the emails that were sent out for appointments.
Branthaven's team was able to get me in the second there was a cancellation. They stayed in touch with me and the communication for such huge company was amazing. The team at the site was so helpful, patient and I honestly felt so comfortable. Buying a new home can be stressful and I know this first hand, the importance is the way you make your clients feel during this process, and I was so impressed!
Thank you so much!

Recently purchased a 2 year old Branthaven built townhouse in Oakville. It was discovered after the purchase, that there was an existing plumbing leak in the main stack of the house dripping down the outside of the stack to the basement. Leak not yet found but will be ASAP.

It's unimaginable that a main stack leak could exist, that is because, one has to consider, did the builder and their install plumbers actually pressure test the system before the finish walls were completed? I highly doubt the system was pressure tested, because this should have been detected.

In any case, just my luck, the warranty ran out just prior to my purchase, so the cost to repair is on me, as the home owner.

In addition to that, correspondence with Branthaven has been poor, as they have shown no interest in assisting with information, or direction to where to gain information to resolve this issue.

I should have bought from a home from one of the builders such as Mattamy. Lesson learned.

UPDATE:
Branthaven customer service followed up with my concerns, with much correspondence. Though the urgency of getting the leak repaired was immediate and was paid for out of pocket, Branthaven mentioned that they would have performed the repair. The timing of the situation did not allow for that, however, they were kind enough to offer a form of reimbursement to which I accepted.

Moral of the story, having the right people in the right places make bad situations work out for the better. Thank you Branthaven (specifically Lisa).

Got our keys to our home in Oakville in December 2019. We are happy with the quality workmanship. There were several delays in our closing (almost 1.5 years), due to reasons beyond Branthaven's responsibility. However, Branthaven helped us navigate through the delays with proactive communication. The Customer Service representative at Branthaven who we dealt with on an array of matters, was very courteous and patient, as she helped us solve each and every issue we had. She made our experience with Branthaven a positive one.

We are very satisfied with the new home purchase with Branthaven Homes. The floor plan, materials and construction quality meets high standard. The customer service they provided is truly exceptional. They make sure they take care of the customers inquiries and feedback in a timely manner. I would strongly recommend them to my friends.

We are VERY happy with our new home... although it was delayed due to permits, it was worth the wait ?
The quality of the standard items and especially the upgrades are first-class as are all the finishes that were clearly done professionally with care. We are so impressed with Branthaven from our initial purchase, the design process (props to Marla), and how Lisa from Customer Care kept us informed up to closing. Lastly; Jordan, Chris and the men on-site have been friendly and knowledgable about all our questions and speedy in correcting all minor issues.

The builder makes good quality houses, and we were attracted towards them because of their reputation in the market however Its customer services leaves something to be desired

The closing dates for 2 houses we bought from this builder turned out to be fluid and have been postponed and delayed by nearly 2 years in one case and more than a few months for the other.  Although we are told that the delays were not in the builder’s control and were because of the city authorities 

The properties we booked were meant to be rented out.

One of the properties was handed over to us as occupancy closing and during the Occupancy Period they did not allow us to rent it out. After a lot of persuasion and persistence they did give permission to rent out but asked us for a fee (unnecessary in our opinion )  and asked us to put in a hefty extra deposit and imposed conditions such as not renting out to more than 2 people (effectively not allowing a family to live in the house ) and did not allowing us to advertise on MLS etc to get tenants (effectively ruling out finding any worthwhile tenants) ; however after further persuasion they did relent, and removed the conditions of not allowing renting to more than 2 people and to not advertise on MLS etc, and thus we were then able to rent out the house

We must however state that this house was completed on time and we were very pleased with its good quality work, which I would rate as exceptional   

For the house, which is delayed by nearly 2 years, after it had overrun all contractual dates they offered to take back the property and compensate us by a token amount (as per Tarion Contract).  We knew the market price for it was much higher than the compensation we were being offered hence we wanted to sell it in the market by using the assignment clause in the agreement, but they refused to give us permission to sell, saying they had unsold inventory hence cannot allow us to sell , but then reluctantly gave permission when we persisted, however did not allow us to advertise,  again effectively ruling out finding buyers.  We engaged 3 very well-known realtors over a period of 3.5 months to try and sell, with the intent of using their network and gave clear instructions not to advertise and comply with the builder's conditions. The first 2 realtors did not succeed, the third realtor did not succeed either however its staff lapsed and advertised on their website without our knowledge; the builder found out about it and wrote a rude and curt email reprimanding us and withdrawing the permission to sell on assignment, as if we were guilty. The realtor did immediately comply and removed the advertisement from their website   

As a result of one of the houses being delayed by nearly 2 years its closing is happening very close to the closing of the other house, possibly overlapping it and thus creating problems for us getting our mortgages sorted out and approved; there was real a danger of us not getting mortgage sorted out in time for the second closing and thus running into all types of issues.

We reached out to the top management of the builder and complained on the way we were treated and also highlighted the issue of the two closings viz a viz our mortgages; pleasantly the management was understanding of our situation and has agreed to stagger the 2 closings to give time to our mortgage broker to get approvals for mortgages for both the properties. Athough an apology of the treatment meted out is still awaited

Great builder with quality work. The customer service was by far the best I have experienced in any new build home I have owned over the last 15 years. Above and beyond expectations.