Dad furious as daughter's house covered in 'pimples' — but construction company refuses to fix it

A father and his daughter are furious after their new South Carolina home was left riddled with what looked like "pimples", only for the builder to allegedly shrug it off as not their problem.

Tom Eriksen's daughter purchased the newly built home in 2022, nestled in the Cypress Preserve subdivision in the outskirts of Charleston. However, they soon uncovered that the house had some peculiar imperfections, particularly under the glare of direct sunlight.

Tom shared: "When I first looked at the house in the summer, the sun hits the side of the house, and the nails on the sheathing aren't nailed all the way in so the vinyl expands and contracts. And when the sun hits it, and it looks like pimples all over."

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Soon after discovering the flaw, Tom's daughter reached out to Lennar Corporation who constructed the house. But adding insult to injury, claims were made that the boss turned up only to dismiss their complaints as none of his business.

Expressing their frustration, Tom said: "Their super came out here, looked at the house. He says, 'Yeah but it's not a manufacturer's problem'. I said, 'It's not a manufacturer's problem? You installed it wrong. You've got to correct it. It looks terrible.' And they say, 'No, we're not going to do anything with it.'"

The dad and daughter duo have been relentlessly trying to get Lennar's attention, with Tom feeling at his wit's end. With 40 years in the construction biz under his belt, he's taking matters into his own hands, even though it's his daughter's house on the line.

He's adamant that the problem isn't structural; it's a matter of poor construction, and he insists Lennar should step up to fix it. Tom can't ignore the issue, saying: "I see it every time I drive up to the house. This is like the whole house - sides, back, front. Whenever the sun hits it."

Yet, Tom suspects that Lennar's focus is skewed towards completing their massive housing project rather than rectifying issues for current residents. He urges: "Start servicing at least the first people that moved in here."

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He points out the neglect his daughter faces as one of the community's pioneers: "She was one of the first buyers before anyone came in and you're not servicing them or taking care of your problems. It's not a good outlook for the other 800 families that are going to move in here."

Even home inspector Robert Knowles is chiming in, criticizing the company for not living up to their promises regarding home maintenance. He emphasizes that builders have obligations to conduct repairs well beyond the initial year.

"There's a very common misconception that homeowners have that the builder, after the first year, he has no responsibility to repair anything else in the house," he said. "Well, that's not true."

"The law is not optional: you have to comply with the code requirements. The builder is legally required to fix anything that goes wrong with your house that is related to a code. If you bring a code violation to a builder's attention, he needs to repair that.''".

Mr Knowles added that in his decades as an inspector, he's seen dozens of issues with homes he inspects and that it all comes down to the code and if there are violations against it. While he said this specific issue wasn't a code issue, it could lead to one. The state of South Carolina has adopted the Residential Construction Standards that homebuilders must abide by.