By Anna Ballweber and Jordan Gartner
Published: Aug. 9, 2024 at 7:40 PM CDT|Updated: 22 hours ago
OXBOW, N.D. (KVLY/Gray News) - New homeowners in North Dakota say it has been nothing but trouble since they closed on their house last year.
From a quick glance, Tom and Katie Webster’s newly built home looks pristine, but upon closer look, a different picture is seen.
“From the day we signed, it’s been one thing after another ... after another ... after another,” Katie Webster said.
The Websters say they closed on their house in March 2023, but the home that sits on a corner lot still has 37 projects that either need to be finished or completely redone.
The couple says the home has dented and ripped siding, crooked walls, unfinished trim, and poorly installed windows.
According to the Websters, the home’s floor tracking was originally put on backward, as well as several walls wrongly put up, having to be redone three times.
Heavy rain caused their home to flood, creating a domino effect of issues they had to focus on, something they both called a “dream come true turned into a nightmare.”
Footprints can also be seen in the driveway, from workers walking around on concrete that wasn’t dry yet. Cracks, chips, and tape are also visible from the front two pillars.
Tom Webster, a retired veteran, previously started his own home inspection business, which allowed him to stop the building process whenever he saw a problem arise.
“It’s just crazy because I was paying them to watch and supervise their work, but really, I ended up having to watch many times. Had we not had that knowledge, we would’ve been in an even worse situation,” he said.
Katie Webster added, “They found 87 different regulations that had to be finished before they could move on to the next part.”
The next part, however, never seemed to get better.
“The framers who worked on the house were arrested on our property for having a party and smoking illegal drugs, and another was arrested and extradited back to Texas,” Tom Webster said.
The couple explained the lot size also decreased from the time they signed the purchase agreement, to the time they began putting sprinklers in.
In the purchase agreement, the lot size is listed as 41,000 square feet. Tom Webster said when he tried installing sprinklers, somehow, it changed to 32,000.
They said there are other things in the purchase agreement they were promised, but don’t have, such as a dual zone heating and cooling system.
With so many issues that arose, bigger projects were delayed, creating stress on the family’s future plans.
As a veteran, Tom Webster received a VA home loan for the house but says he is now at risk of losing some of his federal backing, because of his mortgage company learning these projects are not getting completed.
Over a year and a half later, they’re left fixing a lot of these issues themselves, and putting extra money into repairs that shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
“The quality of work is what really saddens me because we’ve put our entire life savings into this home, expecting this to be our forever home, and right now, we just don’t believe that’s the case anymore. We can’t keep putting more money into this,” Katie Webster said.
The $1.1 million house was built through Spire Custom Homes, which the couple says has little to no communication when it comes to their complaints.
After not being able to get any assistance from the housing company, the couple contacted the North Dakota Attorney General and hired an attorney who’s been helping them send demand letters to the contractors.
The Websters are now advocating for anyone who might be going through this or anyone who’s on the lookout to build a new house to learn from their story.
Trying to stay positive, they said this situation is the reason they’re now close with their neighbors.
“We have our neighbors calling us all the time, asking about some situation that’s going on with the building, which is kind of embarrassing. It’s embarrassing being the corner house with all the problems, but it allowed us to meet some really great people,” Katie Webster said.
On Thursday, a Spire Custom Homes general manager shared the following statement regarding the situation:
“Spire Custom Homes does not and will not litigate customer complaints in the news media or social media. Spire Custom Homes considers customer complaints and warranty work to be matters between itself and its customers. To be clear, Spire and the customer who was featured in the media recently have been in ongoing communications about their home for more than a year and Spire will continue to communicate, perform warranty work, and meet its duties as outlined in the parties’ contract and pursuant to the warranties to which its customer is entitled.”
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