Brunswick County homeowners concerned about maintenance issues, flooding in neighborhood built by major developer

BOLIVIA, N.C. (WECT) - Jonathen Coley was excited to move into his brand-new home in the Bella Point neighborhood in Brunswick County last year. The neighborhood is built by D.R. Horton, one of the largest developers in the country.

“I came in, the new fresh paint smelled great,” said Coley. “Everything, I loved everything about it. It was my first home.”

Shortly after settling in, however, Coley started to notice some issues around the house.

“About two weeks after I first moved in, my bathroom ceiling started leaking,” said Coley.

According to Coley, it took two calls to D.R. Horton before the leak was fully repaired, but he is still frustrated by the outline left around the vent on his bathroom ceiling.

D.R. Horton homeowners have made similar concerns across North and South Carolina, with some even filing lawsuits. In 2018, a WECT Investigation showed that 20 complaints had been filed with the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office between 2014 and 2018, with five of those filed by homeowners in the Cape Fear region.

As for Coley, he says issues keep popping up. For example, he noticed significant flooding across his house one-night last week.

“I got home a couple of nights ago, there’s water in my living room,” said Coley. “There’s water in my closet. There’s water in the hallway. The carpet was completely saturated and there’s no telling how long it was like that.”

Coley says while his home is under warranty and D.R. Horton did respond and have his carpet replaced, he is concerned about having to deal with future problems.

“I understand there are certain things that we have to deal with buying a new home,” Coley said. “But leaky water, your yard flooding, things of that nature, I’m not happy.”

Coley says his yard has seen significant flooding this week with the amount of rain that has fallen over the Brunswick County neighborhood.

Jim Seaman, who also lives in the Bella Point neighborhood, says D.R. Horton had to install a drain in his yard after he moved in to prevent it from flooding so much.

“I had a flooding issue back here that they did rip up and they took care of everything,” said Seaman. “They absolutely took care of it.”

Seaman said he had to put signs in his yard warning potential buyers of the issues he had with his home before someone from D.R. Horton eventually responded to his concerns. Seaman has since removed the signs.

“It makes me feel terrible because again, just like my neighbor John said, I mean, we put in a lot of money into this home,” Seaman said. “We put up a fence, we fixed up things, this is going to be our retirement here. You know, we don’t want these problems.”

D.R. Horton Wilmington Division President Libby Shelton says the company is not aware of any outstanding warranty items for any homes on Coley’s street.

“Our team will contact the homeowners in the neighborhood to assess any outstanding items,” Shelton said in a statement to WECT. “We encourage any Wilmington-area homeowner with a concern to contact us directly at wilmingtonwarranty@drhorton.com.”

D.R. Horton did not respond to a follow-up question asking if the company could address the concerns made by Coley and Seaman.

Coley remains concerned about what the future holds for his home and whether he will continue to have issues.

“My dream home turned into a complete nightmare,” said Coley.