ComplaintsforWilderness Custom Homes BC Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  04/04/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  We entered into a cost-plus contract with Wilderness Custom Homes (WCH) to build a cabin on our property (South Cariboo) in January 2023. Work did not commence on our property until May 16, 2023, and no additional works were continued after September 1, 2023. Work was not continuous throughout this time period. By September 1, 2023, works conducted on the property were: foundation and footings for deck; drilling for well; and soil testing for future septic field. We also paid for cabin blueprints at this time. The foundation footprint is 31'x34' (with 4' prow) plus a 10-14' foot deck (to account for prow). At the time of signing the contract with WCH, we understood foundation costs to be approximately $50-70,000. This aligned with estimates from other contractors we interviewed at the time. To date, we have paid WCH $224,866.88. Of this amount, approximately $25,000 was for works not directly related to the foundation (i.e., well-drilling, soil testing, blueprints). Hence, approximately $200,000 has been spent on foundation to date, which far exceeds the estimate of $50-70,000. In September, we decided to pause further work on the cabin until we could justify the costs spent to date. Due to insufficient responses from WCH and unwillingness to share receipts, we decided to terminate our contract. We have since approached another contractor to provide us with a fixed price estimate for our cabin build (including foundation) and were quoted $457,479. To date, with WCH we have spent almost half this amount to build only a foundation. We continue to request from WCH copies of all receipts and rates of pay for all that we have paid for, to ensure transparency and justification for all costs. An itemized list of receipts and labor information we are requesting is found in the attached table. Further, we request an assessment of all charges to-date to ensure accuracy of charges and to refund any discrepancy.
  

  Business response

  12/04/2024

  As always, there's a couple sides to every story. Some facts, absolutely, can be taken from this complaint. However, in the beginning, they were given a rough idea of houses with similar finishings as theirs per square foot. At that point they knew it was past their hopes of budget but decided to more forward. The plan was to build it over 2-3 years possibly. They were not in a hurry. We met on-site and discussed placement and elevation of the house, which ended up where a huge amount of materials needing to be moved which included timber, earth, rock etc. We proceeded in the most cost effective way possible. Hauling to closest dump as well as to neighbours wanting fill etc. When they say "just foundation", they are forgetting a lot. They wanted to preplan for a possible net zero home therefore full exterior insulation etc. is required. Under-slab plumbing for added basement bathroom. There are many things they are leaving out from the fence getting moved and re-establishing property lines, as were originally given but were off by approximately 15'. 

  At the end of the day, they were treated fairly and charged no different than any other customer. Invoices were given which had very clear breakdowns of individual aspects of work and was very clear how invoicing would be done in the contract and hourly rates were given as well. 

  I believe the customers were probably in over their head from the beginning and possibly ended up not getting financing, therefore, could not proceed and now are looking for ways out. 

  I'm sorry that they could not end up with their "dream home" being finished by us but I wish them the best in the future. 

  Customer response

  14/04/2024

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because: WCH did not agree to provide the information we requested. 

  We truly appreciate the time Wilderness Custom Homes (WCH) took to respond to our request.
  
  Unfortunately, what is stated in the response is confusing, incorrect at times and not to our understanding.  This lays in the problem we had working with WCH.  They ensured trust with the client (us) to get the contract signed and then provided very vague information and responses to the questions we had along the way.  All of this could have simply been alleviated (and likely still can be) by providing the receipts as we have been requesting. 
  
  Due to the confusion and inaccuracies in WCH's response, we feel it is important to provide some additional clarity.  Please see below:

  -When we signed the contract with WCH, we were well aware and comfortable with the budget ($400-450K with a high end of $500K) for the home we were looking to build.  Note that this estimate aligns with estimates we had with other contractors, including the most recent one we solicited to provide some reassurance that we were not being unreasonable.  We are not sure why WCH is under the impression that we were "uncomfortable" with this budget. 

  -We have always been committed to the price range of $400-450K and continue to be so (we have the financing for this and that was never an issue for us, i.e. financing did not fall through).  We are not sure why WCH is under the impression that financing fell through for us.   What did change however was the realization that if we continue with WCH, total costs of this build will exceed $800K.  This we are not prepared to spend, and we are very comfortable in clearly stating this.  

  -Throughout this process we received invoices that were much higher than expected.  When questioned, responses from WCH were unclear, vague and almost gave the sense that by asking questions we were not trusting WCH.  It was not until we realized that we had been invoiced at least half our budget and all we had to show for it was a foundation that we became uncomfortable with where the budget was headed that we decided to terminate our contract with WCH.   

  -In their response, WCH indicated that the placement of house and the elevation resulted in exorbitant costs associated with clearing and movement of materials.  This is the first we have heard of these activities contributing to the high costs to-date.  It should also be noted that the direct site for cabin construction was mostly cleared of trees and debris by us previously, including a level gravel pad for placement of the cabin as well as a driveway leading up to the cabin (we had paid for a contractor to come in previously and do this work).  WCH had seen the site, including elevation of the site and where we generally were looking to place the cabin,  before we sat down and talked about estimates and signing of the contract.  In addition, other contractors we spoke with at the time had also seen the site and considered clearing and excavation work as part of the estimate for construction (including the estimate of $50-70K to get the foundation in place).  Further these contractors considered this as part of foundation construction costs and would not think of this "in addition to".    We did have surrounding trees thinned out by WCH as well, however we are not clear how this justifies costs to-date.

  -We never gave permission to have the fill from our property or (over 20) 4 ft diameter rocks to be given to our neighbors.  A more cost-effective manner would have been to leave this on site for use at the end of the project for landscaping (as is the protocol of other contractors).  Based on our understanding of the invoices, we paid for almost $40,000 to have all this hauled to the dump site or to the neighbors.  We do not agree that this was conducted in a "cost effective" manner.

  -In regard to the net zero home, we were unsure whether we wanted to proceed with this or not early in the process.  At the time WCH indicated that it would be a nominal cost to set up the foundation as net zero (cost of additional Styrofoam only plus some additional labor), and that their recommendation was to proceed with the foundation as net zero after which we could determine how to proceed with the remainder of the house.  Once again, this does not help us understand the exorbitant invoice costs to-date.

  -WCH indicates that adding a basement and resulting bathroom resulted in extra costs due to underslab plumbing.  This remains confusing as if we did not add the basement,  the foundation would require underslab for not only a bathroom but also the kitchen and laundry facilities (as per the plans for the main floor).  i.e. the original foundation estimate would account for underslab plumbing for all three as opposed to just the one.     

  -WCH also refers to costs associated with us asking for the fence to be moved to the property line.  For clarity, WCH destroyed our newly built one year old fence and gate during the time their crew was on site doing work.  When WCH was replacing the fence, we asked them to put it back on the property line as opposed to where it originally was.  However, after we paid, we noted that the fence was not put back on the property line as we asked and the gate to this day has a large whole in which our dogs can escape.  As we did not want to deal with WCH anymore (we did not want them to go back on site and do more work on our property as we were in the process of terminating our contract), we asked for reimbursement of costs associated with the fence and WCH did return to us a small sum of money.   What left us uncomfortable with this whole issue was that if WCH destroyed our newly built fence in the first place, why were we paying the cost to have it rebuilt (we felt it should be WCH paying for this cost, not us).

  -We would also like to clarify that this cabin was never meant to be our "dream home" as WCH refers to in their response to us.  We made this clear throughout the process as we noted WCH referring to it as such.  We questioned WCH homes on many occasions on their normal clientele as we started getting the impression that they were used to working with higher end clients that were looking to build their dream home and had the money to do so (and perhaps are less concerned about reviewing invoices).  We emphasized on many occasions that we are not high-end clients, we have a budget to work within and we cannot stray from that.  

  -For clarification, in our opinion, WCH has not clearly indicated what the hourly rate was for employees they had working on site.  At one point when we were in a discussion with WCH to go over the invoices and costs spent to-date, they did use the example of $75/hour for rate of pay, but it was not clear if this was in actuality or being used as an example as they indicated that it was against their policy to disclose what their employees get paid.  Further, if $75/hour is the rate WCH paid its' employees that were on site, it is unclear if this was the direct pay to WCH employees or if this accounts for WCH administration costs as well, making the direct payment to employees less.
  

  When we spoke to WCH on March 15th, they indicated that they were unwilling to share the receipts or rates of pay as, in their opinion, the invoices we received should suffice and there was no reason for us to receive anything further.  Concerns from WCH in sharing the receipts ranged from us potentially misusing the receipts (using them for our own personal taxes  or to get businesses to match the price, recognizing WCH generally gets significant deals for materials) to the receipts being private and for their records only, and they are not able to disclose rates of pay for their staff (although at a later point he used an example of "say I paid my employees $75/hour..."). We followed up with an offer to sit in Wilderness Custom Homes' office and simply review the receipts against the invoices, but they did not respond to this request. 
  
  It continues to make us uncomfortable with the unwillingness by WCH to share the receipts and the lack of transparency associated with this cost-plus contract.  Other contractors we met with when we were exploring our options indicated that when they entered into a cost-plus contract, it was their general practice to share copies of the receipts associated with every invoice to ensure transparency and trust with the client.   It is unclear why WCH is unwilling and so resistant to do the same.  Providing the receipts will ensure transparency by WCH and provide reassurance to us for costs incurred by the project to-date.  

  As such, we continue to request that WCH share the receipts associated with the invoices we paid for in full.  Further, we continue to request confirmation of the hourly rate for WCH employees that were associated with the labor costs for works done on-site as per the invoices (i.e. is it $75/hour and is this a direct pay to the employee or does this account for administration costs for WCH as well).

  Sincerely,
  
  **** ****

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