18 AZ Homeowners File Complaints with Attorney General

The Attorney General for the State of Arizona has received complaints from eighteen homeowners focused on Pulte Homes, KB Homes and Lennar Homes. The homeowners charge the builders and their affiliated mortgage companies with trade practices that were deceptive by nature, misleading and false statements, and concealing information that were important in regards to the terms of the loans provided; all are violations of the state’s consumer protection laws.

The Consentino’s are one of the couples involved in the complaints against the companies. Bill and Connie’s believed the deal they were receiving from Pulte Homes  in the Solera Community which is age restricted in the city of Anthem was the best thing since sliced bread. 

The Consentino’s upon every visit to the builder’s office were faced with incentives that always seemed to improve the cost of loan and the features of the home. The Consentino’s were told that if they financed though the builders mortgage lender they would received upgrades for free, which included such things as new appliances, payment of local improvement districts, fund to pay for the community infrastructure, and landscaping. The Consentino’s spoke up about the issues at a press conference sponsored by Alliance for Homebuyer Justice.  Alliance for Homebuyer Justice is a project of the Laborers’ International Union of North American.

The Consentino’s are both in their seventies and currently are upside down with their mortgage. The principal of the mortgage is approximately two hundred and thirty thousand dollars but the home itself is only worth approximately one hundred and forty thousand dollars. The type of mortgage they have is an interest only loan in which the interest rate will adjust up to eleven percent shortly. The couple is literally stuck in the home as they moved to Arizona from Florida to be with family. They put the bulk of their savings into the down payment of fifty thousand dollars; twenty percent of the loan. The couple was told the only way to received the incentives was if Pulte Homes handled all the details. The details included handling the deed, the title company, the mortgage company and they followed suit as they clearly wanted the incentives being offered.

Denise Martin, a spokesperson for Alliance for Homebuyer Justice stated that the recent complaints show and bring to the forefront the sales and lending practices of these large homebuilders. The homebuilders in question being here are Pulte Homes, KB Homes and Lennar Homes. She further stated that it seems to be common practice for builders to intimidate homebuyers with the forfeit of their deposit if they should walk away from using the affiliated mortgage company.

Pulte Homes spokes person, Jacque Petroulakis stated that she has not personally seen the complaints however the company believes this is yet another effort of the Laborers International Union of North America to coordinate a campaign to unionize the home building industry. She stated that is was clearly designed to target workers employed by their contractors. The company believes this is a negative harassment campaign designed to target Pulte Homes for the pure publicity and tarnish its outstanding reputation.

J.D Power and Associates in a customer satisfaction and new home quality survey for the Las Vegas market ranked all the builders above the rest according to the study.

KB Home in customer satisfaction scored eight hundred forty one with Lennar and Pulte Homes scoring eight hundred thirty two and the overall market score being eight hundred twenty five.

KB Home also was ranked at the top for new home quality; scoring eight hundred seventy one with Pulte Homes scoring eight hundred fifty three and Lennar scoring eight hundred and the overall market score being eight hundred thirty seven.

The ranking for new home sales in Las Vegas according to SalesTraq has Pulte-Del Webb ranked number two in the second quarter; KB Homes as number three and Lennar at number four.

The median sales for Pulte-Dell Webb was two hundred seventy five thousand dollars with over 282 sales; KB Homes median price was two hundred three thousand dollars with just over 249 sales and Lennar’s median sales price was two hundred twenty one thousand dollars with 183 sales.


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