Victims - Alex & Rick - NorthStar's Letter to Park County Feb 4, 2000

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This letter is in file at Building & Zoning in Park County. It is public record. This and other complaint letters can be found in the file on NorthStar. The file is available to anyone who wishes to see it.

Mr. James D. Belyeu
Chief Building Inspector; Park County, CO
Fairplay Office, Building & Zoning Department
P. O. Box 517
Fairplay, Colorado 80440

February 4, 2000
Dear Mr. Belyeu:
We are writing to you to formally file a complaint against Northstar Home Sales and Northstar Construction LLC, both out of Florissant, Colorado. We wrote a letter to you on November 16, 1999 informing you of the firing of Barbara Robbins of Northstar and general contractor on our project. From the day we signed our contracts with Northstar in February and March of 1999, it has been one unbelievable nightmare. While in transit to our property on June 2, 1999, one half of the manufactured house had its hitch/tongue break on C-470 in Denver, and it crashed onto the freeway. This caused damage, and at the time we asked that the house be returned to the manufacturer. The tongue was fixed overnight and this half was driven over Kenosha Pass the next day. The same half was driven into a ditch just after entering Michigan Hill subdivision, about 1 ½ miles from our property. We were there for the event, and again explained we did not want a damaged house. We were told that the manufacturer would not take it back, and that we had no choice but to put in on the lot and allow it to sit for three days to "settle." Mrs. Robbins, acting as general contractor, made little attempt to do otherwise. While in the ditch, we could see that the walls in places had pulled away from the ceiling by as much as 3 t4 4 inches. It was explained to us that these homes were engineered to withstand a tremendous amount of stress and that its structural integrity had not bee compromised. We continued to complain about these incidents, and question her judgement, well into the summer. The other half arrived without incident. Once the two halves were on our property, the real trouble began. My mid-July, our tone with Mrs. Robbins had changed dramatically. We are currently investigating whether a claim was filed and paid by the freight company's insurance. If so, the accounting work on our project does not show a credit to our account, as presented to us by Mrs. Robbins in mid-December, 1999.
The house sat, not for 3 days but for weeks. The house was set the third week of June, and it was a difficult one. It was not "racked" properly, and the two halves were poorly joined side to side and top to bottom. Little was done to fix the problem, but a backhoe was brought in to push the house around. Mrs. Robbins, admitting it was a bad set, did little to correct it. We do not blame the set crew or subcontractor, as they had no choice but to leave it as is, per Mrs. Robbins' instructions. She went so far as to tell us there was nothing wrong with the house, but not once did she personally inspect the project during this period. This was highly unprofessional, and our attempts and requests for her to come to the site went unheaded. Even her set subcontractor expressed his frustration in trying to get her to the site. In early July, a crew hired out of Oklahoma did the skirting work around the base of the house. They obviously rushed with the work (their bid was too low, which, after firing Mrs. Robbins, did not matter, as her accounting indicates they were paid on a time and labor basis, not on bid work) as it was done poorly. We thought at the time that it "looked okay," but later we found problems with it. They failed to put the plastic waterproofing barrier on around the skirting, but were forced to come back 1 ½ weeks later and do it. Unfortunately, they only used a standard staple gun and staples, and the plastic did not stay on. The monsoon rains began. On July 13, 1999, a man came with a bobcat and did some backfill work around the house. It was preliminary work, and he left a hole, approximately 10 by 10 feet at the front door and porch. The hole was on the downhill end of the property's slope. For two months, the rains flooded this hole and of course, flooded the crawl space. It was wet summer. The crawl space was filled with much and mud and a lot of water, especially in the area below the front door. The plastic around the entire house, on the skirting wall, broke free of the wall, and in places was covered with dirt. Since we were living in our RV on the property, we could see all of this, but our daily attempts to contact Mrs. Robbins again went unheard. We called and faxed her office with no response, and in a December, 1999 letter to Conseco (our finance company) Mrs. Robbins, says, "We are unwilling to backfill the project with the slop that was available to us on site, so we opted to wait for the rain to subside. I believe it was a good choice, and it only delayed the project days, not weeks." She did nothing about this problem until mid-September, and at most times we had anywhere from 4 to 8 inches of water underneath the house! It took not days, not weeks, but months to fill this hole, and then absolutely nothing was done to resolve the wetness problem in the crawlspace. Someone did finally come and put more plastic up, but the dirt and water were well behind the original plastic at this point. She convinced your offices and inspector to waive the waterproof/damp proof inspection because, as she told us, she had done everything right and to code, and could not see being forced to dig it all back up. We had Clay Copeland of Jefferson Realty and owner of Co-Mar Homes visit the property. He was astonished with the poor work and water problems. Darren Corl, a service representative with Summit Crest Homes (the manufacturer) saw the house on August 4, 1999. He could not believe the negligence on the part of Mrs. Robbins. He expressed great concern on damage to the foundation, underneath insulation, and overall dampness damage in the crawl space. Several of her subcontractors made note of the many problems they could see. One of them said to us, "Hope you have a really good lawyer!" and another, "When Barb brought me up here for the first time to see if I could do this work, she asked me is this place could be SALVAGED." If anything, Mrs. Robbins is excellent at manipulation, and we find no fault with your offices. Early into this project, we became nervous about Mrs. Robbins' and Northstar's integrity and ability to do this job. We asked for copies of warranties, an action plan on the project's completion, and a commitment to it. We received a copy of a seven-year warranty provided by Northstar (later found to be bogus) and sadly, a letter filled mostly with lies and deceits.
The ends of the home were never sealed or completed. During the course of the summer, we had starlings, moths, and even a woodpecker residing in the home. This factory service representative commented on the set of the house and asked why no one was attempting to correct the many problems. All we could explain to him was that we were told by Mrs. Robbins that it was all well done and without any problems. We also thought that a lot of handymen were being sent up to work on this house, as our project was the furthest one from her offices, and the closer homes got the regular crews. We may have been right on the distance issue, but apparently Northstar Construction was having trouble keeping their subcontractors on a steady basis. Northstar guaranteed a 45-120 day completion time. Yet when another subcontractor tell us "I was only told to come up here and make it look like something was getting done," you have to wonder. These people, hired by Northstar Construction, were cynical at best. One went so far as to tell us that it was all so bad we should demand a full refund and get this house out of here. Everyone we spoke with: subcontractors, service representatives, even Northstar employees, all expressed their disbelief that Mrs. Robbins would allow the many problems to go so far, to the point where we seriously questioned moving in at all. We put an offer in on a cabin in Grand Lake, CO, and the beginning of August, 1999 were able to move over there. We filed complaints with the Colorado Manufactured Homes Association, Conseco Finance, and hired a local attorney. By mid-August, we stated that we no longer trusted Northstar or Barb and Doug Robbins. We repeatedly asked Mrs. Robins for to-date accountings on the project, but our requests were ignored. In a mid-August call to Mrs. Robbins from Grand Lake, she convinced us that it was not necessary to involve an attorney. She was addressing all of our issues (or demands as she later calls them) and that the project was actually coming along very well. August 16, 1999, we informed our finance company that we no longer intended on moving into this house, and that upon obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy, the "for sale" sign would go up. Problems with Northstar continued throughout August. We went through four sets of interior crews, and were charged for having them repeat the work over and over again. Despite transmission verifications with okay status, four out of four faxes to Mrs. Robbins were "not received" from Grand Lake. Northstar for some reason was determined to lay (the wrong) carpet as soon as possible, and it was begun before much of the sheet rock work and interior painting was done. The carpet itself was to have been traded for a berber upgrade, but was ruined by the painters and by drywall mud. One of her interior crew workers explained to us that they were told to just use it as a drop cloth by Mrs. Robbins. Throughout September, while we were on an extensive business trip in Texas and Arkansas, nothing was done on the project. Through a complicated process, Blue Rose Homes out of Colorado Springs was being drawn into our project. Our first contact with them happened in mid-September, on the advise of Conseco Finance. Before leaving for this trip, we were told the project would be completed before our return October 19, 1999. Kendra O'Neil, legal counsel for Blue Rose Homes, was told the same. Not surprisingly, little had been done to the house during this period. Mrs. Robbins continued to place blame on everyone else, including her subcontractors and the Park County building Department. In fact, the whole county system: permits, government, inspections, and especially inspectors, were always at the top of her complaints. Never did she admit to any wrongdoing, let along to incompetence (when we had our final state plumbing/gas inspection, the inspector was delighted that finally someone got it all right – after Blue Rose Homes redid everything. The state electrical inspector told us that he was fed up with the constant re-inspections he had to make on Northstar projects, and that he had angrily spoken with Mrs. Robbins about it on the phone. Your county inspector told us that Northstar was the joke of the office. This comes as no surprise to us, knowing what we now know). It seems wrong that every other entity, whether directly involved with this project or tied to it any way, is wrongly blamed for the problems, when the entire problem lies with Mrs. Robins and her company, Northstar Construction. Our final meeting with Mrs. Robbins was on Friday, November 5, 1999. She had heard rumors that we were considering firing her. We are attached the documentation on this meeting for your records, as it is much too long to type. From the perspective of your office, we were to have had log siding, gutters, a metal roof, and 500 to 700 square feet of decks. Though being told in person that these projects would begin immediately, the truth of the matter is that through her cost overruns there was no money left for such projects. This deceitful method of hers is rampant. We met with five other homeowners (couples) this Tuesday (February 1, 2000) and all either have enormous cost overruns or have not received appropriate accountings on their projects. All have been told by Mrs. Robbins that their projects are in fine shape, which is incorrect at best. Two of these couples have been forced to move to their homes with Certificate of Occupancy – no fault of the particular county – but out of desperation. One couple has no running water, electric, or heat. They use no lights at night for fear of being caught. The other couple as since gotten a C. of O. We feel that a county inspector would have the compassion to realize their situation and in one case, we heard Park County offered sympathetic leniency. It was nice to hear this, as Northstar is bringing homeowners to the brink of despair.
On Tuesday, November 9, 1999, a meeting was held on our property. In attendance were Blue Rose Homes (Kendra O'Neil, legal counsel and also the company's chief home specialist and general contractor, Brian Trausch), Summit Crest Homes (Darren Corl, service representative), Northstar Construction (not Mrs. Robbins, general contractor, but a man names Wes, a handyman, who carried with him a "hidden" tape recorder), and us. The meeting lasted about six hours, and it was determined that the house was structurally unsound and not supported properly by Northstar. There were many, many other items, discussed – cosmetic, original order problems like cabinetry and interior trim, etc., and in this short time, blue Rose Homes was able to resolve many of these problems and concerns, and got the ball rolling on wrapping the house up. Much had to be redone or brought to code standards. Bank in July of 1999 for instance, the crew from Oklahoma that skirted the house also had to weld the jack stands to the frame of the house. Instead of welding the jack stand plate to the house frame, they welded the bolt that allows up and down motion of the stand. We brought this to Mrs. Robbins' attention almost immediately, but she opted not to do anything about it. To our delight, the day after this November meeting, Brian with Blue Rose Homes was up working under the house, correcting all support problems and making the house structurally sound. Mrs. Robbins found out that morning that they were there (we had to fax something to her and mentioned it) and was furious. She told us they were to "cease and desist" immediately, that we were to evict them and see that they vacated the property, and that both the Park County Sheriff and Park County building Department were on their way to the property. This was the final straw for us, as for the first time on the project's 9 ½ months, someone was there that knew what they were doing and cared – about us, about the house, and about doing it all correctly. On November 12, 1999, Mrs. Robbins and Northstar Construction were terminated. Blue Rose Homes took the project over and from thereafter, everything was handled professionally, with excellent communications and a job well done.
This letter is lengthy and contains much information that may not necessarily pertain to the functions of your office. However, we feel it is important to explain our case and project in full, and hope that it acts as a personal petition. We hope this will be one step further in seeing that Mrs. Barbara Robbins and Northstar Construction lose their ability to do business in Park County. From a building and construction perspective, we can attest to the mismanagement, poor practices, and lack of caring on the part of Mrs. Robins. In a countless number of times, were were advised to contact your office and get someone out here to see her practices, but repeatedly we were convinced by Mrs. Robbins that "nothing was wrong."
We thank your for your time and considerations on this matter, and should you have any questions, we will be more than happy to answer them. Thanks to the great integrity of Blue Rose Homes and their general contractor, Brian Trausch, we received a C. of O. two weeks ago, and are finally in the home. Had we retained Northstar Construction LLC and Barbara Robbins…well, we would rather not think about it!
Sincerely,
Daniel A. Naredo Ricky D. Thomas