Do NOT Recommend Stay Clear!
Jan/2021, we entered into a contract to have a home built by Vitale Homes at Rose Haven phase two in New Port Richey. I will say we were lucky and got in before the housing market went stupid. We had our design meeting everything was going well. They got their money that was required by contract, all good on our contractual obligation. It took them over two months to get the permits submitted, delay number one.
We watched other homes go under contract after us move forward while our home was in permitting. Pasco County did not foresee the influx of permits, we understand. Each time we inquired about the progress of our home, while in permitting, the sale associate (Chris Amato) for Rose Haven couldn't give us a timeline but kept telling us how much equity we were going to have in our home. So, permits finally issued July 2021. It took Vitale an additional three months (Oct 2021) to break ground. If you call scraping the ground breaking. Meanwhile we are watching the phase two Vitale model getting built and progressing at a much faster rate than ours. That didn't sit well with us, but we dealt with it and kept an eye on it. Our updates were sporadic and very inaccurate. Ex., "your foundation is in" and after a 62 mile- trip to see this progress, no it wasn't in, but just framed or "your block is up" which, no, it was not, but was delivered to the site. Update after update was inaccurate and never true. The only accurate info Chris Amato ever gave us was how much our home had gone up in price.
Chris Amato is what I would call a lazy man who sits on his ass riding around in his little golf cart acting like the big man on campus. He doesn't work for his money and isn't held accountable for his actions in any way. If he had to be a true real estate agent, he definitely would fail due to this laziness. We were not the only clients that felt this way about him. He offered us a refrigerator, just like the one in the previous model, and when we got to design and talked about appliances, he tried giving us a cheaper refrigerator saying that we were mistaken, until our realtor mentioned to him that she remembered him saying "the exact refrigerator that is in the model". That was resolved but our trust in him was broken. He also tried to change our floor plan on us stating that we signed off on it. If there had been a dispute, that was the only one we ever had and Jonnie Mildner resolved that in 4 hours.
We had a bit of light when Jonnie Mildner came into the picture, as mentioned above, but that quickly got snuffed out. We went from "Here is my personal cell, call me anytime, I'm here to help, you're never bugging me", to "Who is this calling, I don't have your contact in my cell phone" and the same BS incompetence we were previously getting. When after waiting a year for our home, we pressed Vitale (Jonnie Mildner) for a 90-day close because our drywall was up electrical/plumbing etc... was complete. He said he couldn't give us that and he went into a story about moving, and how all the different phases of moving goes, then you end up with all the little stuff you forgot. Not sure what exactly that had to do with our home.
Back to that new Vitale model in phase two, you would think that any ethical builder would put the customer first however, that wasn't happening in our case. The model was complete by this time except for tile and landscaping. We eventually called them out on this unethical behavior as well, when we pressed for a good timeline for completion of our home. After that we received an email, our contract was unceremoniously cancelled. They claimed a section in our contract about having a dispute and if said dispute could not be resolved through arbitration, then our contract would be void. We did not have a dispute, nor did we get the 10 days to go to arbitration or even discuss the dispute. It was, "The decision has been made and is final"
We rejected this cancellation and immediately got a lawyer. Lawyer sent a 30-day demand letter and put a lien on the property. Vitale Homes ignored all this and after more than thirty days we had another meeting with our lawyer to determine the way forward. We finally decided to move on with our lives because the realization of not even getting a court date for 2 - 3 years is just too long for us to be in limbo on this. I want to mention that this is what builders KNOW, and WILL do once they cancel you. They will draw out the process or give low ball offers. It is to wear you out and Vitale Homes is no different than any other builder.
Bottom line, we do not recommend Vitale Homes and our cancellation was 100% PURE GREED. This is why they wouldn't commit to 90 days. They were already planning to cancel the contract! (Side note, we also knew this because they had started changing little things in our home that we didn't choose or sign off on.) read more
