Symbolic Builders

This business is atrocious and does not care for customers at all! I entered contract to purchase a home that this builder is claiming to have built in 2020. The final step was to get the inspections and the builder said they were waiting on the gas company to install the meter and that because of Covid-19 they were out two weeks. That was in January. It is now April and we have uncovered lie after lie from the company. The owner met with us and told us that he never claimed that the home was completed (although it is listed on several websites as built in 2020 and ready to move in). When we pushed him on this he said, "It is ready to move in! Except for the final sign off from the city". We waited and are being charged over $6,000 to hold our mortgage rate to which the builder said that it wasn't his problem. We have done nothing but work with the builder only to find that they have advertised falsely the completion of the home, continue to not complete work, and continue to make excuses for why it is not done two months after the initially agreed on closing date. I have gone to the city to see the permits and found that after we entered contract to purchase the builder had completed no further work on the home. The builder told us that if we pulled out of the deal he could sell it on market for an extra $40,000. This does little to remedy the fact that they have been unfaithful in the process, lack the ability to inform customers, and do not care about anything but the bottom line. If we had none in January that this home would not be closed by April we would have never put money down. Now we have spent a long time in a hot market held prisoner by a builder that cares nothing about the customers buying the homes he builds. Continual promises of 'next week' have gone on so long that we are stuck in a holding pattern that is solely in the builder's power to remedy. We, as the purchaser, cannot get the building permit signed off and the market continues to rise. We agreed upon a price that the seller is not willing to abide to. Nor is he willing to accept responsibility for any of the actions. To give a timeline of when the builder started work - the permit was originally obtained in mid-2019, claimed to be finished in Dec 2020 and the fire marshal sign-off was only done after we told them we would be seeking legal counsel in mid-March. It is now April and we continue to have no closing date or a fully 'built' home. I can only imagine the hardship people working directly with the contractor for renovations will have to deal with. The builder is also selling two homes nearby that are also listed as complete. One still doesn't even have walls!!