The home was great at first, and Arista was very intent on getting everything right....until the 30 day form. Part of our purchase agreement was that the water damaged sub flooring in the family room would be replaced. They did replace some of the sub flooring, but did not ensure it was level! We have an area in our house that slopes... Tripping hazard! Also, on the 2nd floor, the entire hallway was warped, and creeks, and in one of the bed rooms, the floor creeks like crazy. This happened right away after we moved in.
Arista at first said they would redo the sub flooring in the 1st and 2nd floor, but then Milan (a worker with Arista) said that it would be best to wait a year before doing this work. He said he confirmed with the site manager Sergio that this would be okay. We agreed, and they had us sign the Tarion form stating everything was okay, and we would wait untill the 1st year form for the work to be done. BIG MISTAKE. Also, for other home owners to know, once you sign in good faith, Tarion does not care if a builder acts in bad faith. Once you sign, that is it.
We filled out the 1st year form in December 2010, and called Arista, and emailed them to let them know we needed the work to be done. My wife was on mat leave and they could have come at any time to repair the flooring. Arista employee Glen came out with the hardwood flooring company twice to "review" the flooring (once in January, the second time in February), then didn't show up again. We contacted Glen again in April to see what was going on. When he came out a third time with the flooring contractor, he talked to my wife and refused to fix the subflooring saying there was no dip in the floor, and even tried to deny there was any issue on the 2nd floor. The representative from the flooring company is the one who told Glen that there was an issue with the floor, and that no amout of humidity would have caused the problems we had. Guess what? Glen didn't call us back for several more months... We emailed and called his supervisor Nat.
Within a couple hours Glen was at our door. When he came out, I was there and he told me exactly what he told my wife, that our floors were fine. I took 12 cups of water and poured on the floor and it all pooled in the area where there was a dip in the floor. Only at that time did he admit there was a dip in the floor and made an excuse that he always saw it. Pathetic! We have had four people almost fall walking over this area. I told him Milan (who still works at Arista) told us that Arista would fix the floors. Glen would later call back and state that Milan had no memory of this...
The only thing Arista did was replace the hardwood (which did nothing to solve the problem which is with the subflooring). In fact on the 2nd floor, after re-installing the hardwood we now we have a second tipping hazard at the top of our stairs!
We were very happy with the house (aside from the floors), now we are so angry we just want to move out and never have anything to do with Arista again. I told Glen flat out, it is too bad they are unwilling to fix the floors because otherwise it could have been a good house. Fixing the floors was even in our agreement to buying the house. 2 years later, were are going to have to pay out of pocket to fix these floors. Unbelievable.
If people think all builders are like this, an example of a builder that knows how to do it right is Cachet Reid homes in London, Ontario. Our friends had a similar issue. Cachet Reid ripped up most of the first floor, to solve the problem.
Regarding the people who give Arista 10 on home stars, look at these people's other reviews, they give everyone 10 and are very generic. Probably employees of Arista trying to boost up their rating.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $0.00