10 Month Review and the Missing Money

Hello fellow bloggers.  It's been a while.  A lot has happened to us in the past year since we moved into our new home.  For the most part we have been fairly happy with our home.  While there are several issues that still persist, most of the bigger problems have been addressed.

As you all know Ryan Homes schedules a 10 month final review to address any lingering concerns or issues with the home.  We had several.  Numerous floor squeaks, a garage door that didn't seal due to a hump in the floor slab, loose shingles, waves in the roof, nail pops, sticking doors, sagging cabinet shelves, a hump in the kitchen floor, several bad seams in the kitchen floor, discolored siding, etc.

A few days after our review the flooring contractor was scheduled to come out and fix seams and eliminate the multitude of squeaks that existed due to a shoddy underlayment application.  At the same time, a tile contractor was there to fix some issues in the master bath.  The flooring sub brought a helper with him.  A younger individual who apparently was his nephew.  While the "repairs" were being attempted I was bouncing back and forth between the kitchen and the master bath.  After coming downstairs into the kitchen, where they were working, I realized I had left my wallet on the island.  I decided it would be best to move it into my office at that point.  At the time I didn't think anything of it.  The subs finished the work and left.

Fast forward to later that evening.  My wife and I had gone out to dinner at a local restaurant.  Everything was great until the check came.  I opened my wallet to pay the bill and saw that ALL of my cash--$150--was GONE!!  I was shocked and appalled!  I immediately realized what had happened.  While I was upstairs tending to the tile guy, one of the flooring contractors went into my wallet and cleaned it out.  We paid the check with a credit card and left.  I was fuming.  I felt so angry and violated.  We talked to a few family and friends.  The consensus was to report the incident to Ryan Homes.  Since this happened in my home, and not a 7-11, I did not have the benefit of reviewing surveillance camera footage.  Therefore, I had no proof.  So I neglected to do anything.

The next day I saw a couple of my neighbors outside and brought them up to speed with what had happened.  I knew they had flooring issues as well and wanted to make sure they were on the defensive when this sub came to their homes to fix their floors.  One of my neighbors, was so upset by this that he drafted and sent a letter to Ryan Homes alerting them to the problem.  Shortly after, I received a call from someone in their warranty department in Virginia.  Her response was to say she was sorry and that I should file a police report.  Well seeing as how it took the police 2 hours to arrive after my wife was involved in a hit and run accident a couple of weeks ago, I knew their response to a situation like this would not be rapid.  I cannot afford to lose half a day to play RH games.  Furthermore, without any proof or evidence, their course of action would be to ask the perp if he stole the money, which he would most certainly say he did not and that would be the end of it.  So basically RH is just passing the buck.

I just wanted to let all of the RH blogging community to be very careful when RH subs are in your home.  They will send anybody (lowest bidder) in and nothing is you have (especially cash) is safe.  Keys, credit cards, jewelry, personal info, etc should all be hidden and the contractors should be continuously monitored while in your home.  Do not let them schedule 2 different subs simultaneously or if they do make sure you have the manpower available to keep an eye on them.

Just a word of warning.  Please be careful!!  Hopefully this will help prevent any similar incidents from occurring.