Stonebridge Homes Inc.

Where do I begin. Now don’t get me wrong we do love our home, but it took a lot of work and pushing to get it to an acceptable level. For background I have been in the building and construction industry for over 35 years and know my way around home building, civil construction and specifications. Stonebridge (SB) or Downwind Realty (DR) as they went by started out as a wonderful experience but turned quickly. The house layout was great but SBDR had a lot of issues with over promising and underperforming. Some of their subcontractors were great and produced a good product but others were horrible. The HVHC contractor had to come back multiple times. I had to actually get a different HVAC contractor to look at it and see what was wrong. It took 4 months to get them to have the original contractor to come in and fix it. Some of them were actually code violations. Even after SBDW said they were minor it took the HVAC company 4 days to make the repairs. They also had to get the insulation company to come back and add the proper amount. The windows are a major problem. SBDW went with a lower quality window. They met code but they were installed incorrectly. The builder used a nail gun to nail them in but by doing so the sills were all driven upward in the middle creating bowing causing leaking in almost every window. SBDW after going back and forth multiple times came back to us and said they would buy back our house for what we paid for it plus a few dollars. I’m glad this interaction occurred over email or my temper may have gotten the best of me. I could go on on the house but they also did not follow through on the yard and landscaping. I actually had to collect soil samples showing SBDW the “topsoil or loam” as they called it was junk, didn’t meet the town requirements, and would not even grow grass. They came back to us saying they would give a basic fertilizer plan. That was just one of a dozen other issues which some they addressed and some are still not complete. We have an entire file and documentation of the issues. All I can say is think twice before you sign a contract with SBDW. If you are working with them now of just finished building you may want to hire a professional inspector to make sure the work is or was done correctly.

For anyone considering buying a home in a Stonebridge community, I would strongly suggest driving through Tiffany Hill in Norwell. You will see first hand the many unfinished and poorly landscaped common areas. The complex has severe drainage issues due to negligent and/or incompetent engineering. Owner complaints have been ignored, and the complex has been a regular topic at the town of Norwell ZBA meeting due to non-compliance. Attached pictures: 1. Materials for unfinished utility shed left in between two houses for 8 months. 2. Stonebridge drainage solution was to dump a pile of dirt and rocks between two lots. It only made it worse and now the area has a serious mosquito problem. 3. Unfinished utility shed in owners back yard that Stonebridge refuses to finish. 4 and 5. Common areas poorly landscaped with gravel, sand and bits of glass. Grass (not even weeds) will grown in these areas. We suspect they used backfill from other projects (hopefully not from the Weymouth superfund site). They of course deny this and say it is high quality loam. 6. End result of Stonebridge poorly designed drainage systems. Tiffany Road at the bottom of the complex flooded at every rain storm, impacting homes outside of the complex. I will credit them on actual construction of the homes. They are well built and designed. When the house was finally completed 6 months after the original closing date, we had a long list of minor issues. Most of which they fixed after 2 years of constant pestering. The landscaping of the lots was done with minimal cost and effort. Most of us have had to spend thousands of dollars to hire our own landscapers to put in decent loam and reseeding. Nesrella’s Landscaping, who is contracted with Stonebridge, uses a sand and gravel mix for what barely qualifies as loam along with a hydroseed mix (most of which they will spray on your house) that yields what looks like the back of an abandoned gas station. Be warned once the houses are sold and constructed, they will move on to their next project and do everything they can to avoid completing infrastructure commitments.

Don't be Fooled! Stonebridge Homes will fill your head with false hopes, missed deadlines and if you complain too much they might just break the contract and intimidate you not to sue to get your well invested money back. Make sure you ask people in his previous developments who actually made it from start to move in what they thought of the process. 6 month from signature to move in will be minimal a year. And don't think Stonebridge Homes will take responsibility for any delays. They will surely blame it on anything other than their poor management and money management.Make sure you look up all the different company names the builder has used in recent years. Buyer Beware.