We purchased a new manufactured home in April 2000, from Oakwood homes , we have had nothing but trouble from the monet it arrived. The home was not set properly and came unfinished on the inside and we are having trouble getting the company to do their waranty work. I just want everyone to know that if they go to buy an oakwood manufactured home they should check out the better buisness bureau to see their rateing I wish I had This company has mutiple manufacturing plants in the US. mostly in the east and south east. they even have a web site www.oakwoodhomes.com. but not an e-mail address. thanks for letting me address this.

-- Diane Brown (oleoranch2@hotmail.com), October 16, 2000

Answers

Diane,

So sorry to hear you are experiencing problems. In Virginia about 3 yrs ago there was a series in the local Richomd paper and on tv about folks who purchased Oakwood Homes and had similiar problems. It was taken all the way to the state level and the st agency, forgot which one, took action to solve the problems.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), October 16, 2000.

Diane! Talk to the Attorney General of your state. It's illegal to kill anybody over these things although one feels like it sometimes. LOL. We bought our Amish built modular in 95 from Mt. Vernon Dream Homes and they never finished it either. Just small stuff that didn't amount to too much but still they renegged on their part. I've seen this kinda thing happen before. It seems that ALL dealers are crooks but of course, that's not true. Only a few gives a bad name to the honest ones. Hang in there-you'll win in the end. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@pcinetwork.com), October 16, 2000.

Mt Vernon Dream Homes??? You in Illinois?

-- Les (lvaughn@suntransformer.com), October 18, 2000.

Another scam that we have run into with our customers, besides the ones mentioned above of never really fixing anything, is the insurance. We have counties here in Texas where you of course have to have full coverage including flood insurance if you have a mortgage. They set up your payments for so much a month on their brand new mobile homes set up on your property. Problem comes when your 2nd year of paying rolls around, the payments stay the same but the insurance is dropped. So you go to your local insurance agency to get insurance on your now 2 year old mobile home only to find that it has to be on a full slab with tie downs, not the blocks and anchor straps that they did this wonderful job in the first place (it was called free set up) And oh what a set up it is!!! 30 to 50 thousand dollars for a trailer that you can't sell for 5 thousand 10 years later, not unless you have done mega improvements on the land. Put it on a slab, roof it over and its still a trailer! Vicki McGaugh

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 18, 2000.

Hey Les! Yeppie! Good thing I'm kinda handy. Nothing major that I had to fix but then again this modular is Amish built. That says it all. Glad I had Mt. Vernon Dream Homes and not some other "flybynight" dealer. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@pcinetwork.com), October 18, 2000.

Thank all of you for responding to my question I have contacted the attorney generals office and the company again I will keep you posted as to what happens thank you again for taking time out of your day.

-- Diane Brown (oleoranch2@hotmail.com), October 23, 2000.

If you have a mortgage on your home, contact your bank or other mortgage holder as well. Trust me - they will be interested to hear about this; and they will pass the word to other lenders and pretty soon the home company will feel some financial backlash, as folks will have to go to other companies to purchase homes because the banks won't want to loan money on this brand. Banks don't loan money on things that they don't think they can sell if needs be.

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), October 23, 2000.

I WISH I WOULD OF DONE MORE RESEARCH BEFORE MY HUSBAND AND I BOUGHT A HOME FROM OAKWOOD. THE HOME WAS DELIVER IN OCTOBER OF 2000 AND THEY STILL HAVE NOT DONE ANY KIND OF WALK THROUGH. WE FINALLY MOVED IN AND ARE DOING THE WORK OURSELF. WE ARE TIRED OF ALL THE BALONEY AND FALSE PROMISES. WE ARE IN THE NORTHWEST AREA. I HEARD THAT THERE WAS A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST OAKWOOD. IF ANYONE HAS ANY INFO ABOUT THIS I WOULD APPRECIATE HEARING FROM THEM. I GUESS WE SHOULD OF FIGURED THEY HAD SOMETHING TO HIDE WHEN WE HAD TO SIGN THE ARBITRATION AGREEMENT! THAT SHOULD OF BEEN OUR FIRST CLUE!!

-- LISA MCLAUGHLIN (REDPONY286@HOTMAIL.COM), January 03, 2001.

Some advice for anyone buying a manufactured home. As well as checking out the manufacturer with the BBB, check the dealer and the set-up company. Keep a detailed journal of who you talk to and when and the type of problems you are having. Be sure you understand what is the dealer responsibility, manufacture responsibility, and what is the responsibility of the set-up company(if it is an independent company hired by you). Depending on the severity or type of problem you are having they have a limited time to repair it to stay in compliance with state law. Wish all of you luck in getting your problems taken care of.

-- kissty lane (kiki@eoni.com), June 08, 2001.

Manufatured homes, mobile homes, house trailers, travel trailers, BLAH! I have a 2001 Fleetwood 16x80 that the bottom line cost was/is $47,000. Add Fleetwood to the list of crooks, I told the regional manager that they are in the same class as used car salesman (he winced and well he should have). We have had numerous problems beginning with the manufacturer installing the wrong kind of furnace and it took them well into cold weather to complete the installation. The wall where the furnace is will never look right either and that is just my tough luck. The cabnets are made of particle board with a thin paper laminate for the finish that scratches easily and will never hold up. There are many other things, but it makes me sick to my stomach to even think about them so I won't enumerate them. Suffice to say I would never recommend Fleetwood to anyone. Buyer beware. Of course I learned all this stuff after the fact and my mortgage is for 30 years and I could not sell it for anywhere near what I owe on it. All that being said, there are also some nice things about it, it seems to be well insualated (we paid for upgraded insualtion) because our utility bills are really reasonable and I am glad not to be in a rental, so what can you do but really do your homework before buying anything.

Namaste,

-- Judy Murray (nomifyle@yahoo.com), June 08, 2001.

we to purchased the same home you have .when we opened the door you were in there .what do you want in my home? may i ask.

-- sofia (nannyweb@webtv.net), June 22, 2001.

I am trying to get my mothers house and it's many problems repaired by Oakwood with no luck.I think we have exhausted every avenue outside of court settlement. In the course of researching her case it has become obvious to me that there are many unhappy Oakwood clients echoing virtually the same story.I am not an attorney but I think we can pull people togethor and litigate a class action lawsuit more effectively than individually. I am looking for people who seriously want to pursue this. Please send any questions,concerns,suggestions,etc. to my e-mail: dftalkington@hotmail.com I will know more next week.If I know the people are there I will try to organize the cases and begin searching out the legal help we would need. Keep the faith. Stay the course, dean

-- Dean Talkington (dftalkington@hotmail.com), November 17, 2001.

we also purchased a oakwood home,in 1997 and have had so many problems with this company,first when they moved it to our property we bought ,they brought the wrong one so had that battle to get them to get the right one moved ,so we where delayed and already moved out of our previous home ,then they finally brought the other and wrecked it some what,they let it go down a inbankment and twisted it,there where broken joist in parts of they home and floor damamge,so after another battle we got them to do repairs,well thats not even the worst,we lived in for about a month and began noticing all things still left undone and wrong ,we called the co. and called,and never came to fix these things,it took me writting the attorney general to get the co. out and in some time they showed up and did shoty repairs to home,the major was they damageged all underneath the home when moving and water pipes leaked for months with out us knowing and flooring got wet and being that old press board it swelled up they only replaced in sections of home and told us alot of what was wrong was not under warrenty in the contract, we ended up with a home that still has lts of things wrong and a now my biggest worry is we have so much water damage and moisture ,around ceiling vents leaks,closets,and windows stay black with mold, i'am so worried about the black mold issue now we all seem to stay ill with sinus infections and just feel bad,i wonder am i the only one with this problem and could it be the black mold that is so dangerous and what is left that i can do?any advice????????? roberta

-- roberta hetterick (hetterick@yahoo.com), February 28, 2002.