It's said that you can tell the true character of a person not by their actions when things go…read moresmoothly, but by how they carry themself when there are unexpected challenges. Such was our experience with Mark Tanner...
We contracted with MTC to build our house in Martis Camp in early 2014 and ground was broken in early spring 2014. Construction was scheduled to last 12-to-14 months with the house being completed summer 2015. Work progressed slightly behind schedule through spring 2015 when the wheels fell off of the cart.
Long story short, the wrong stone flooring was installed throughout a majority of the house. We notified MTC at the start of the tile installation that we believed the wrong product was being installed, but were assured that it was the correct product. We continued questioning the tile until Tanner finally conceded that it was, in fact, the wrong product. Tanner than spent fall and winter 2015 blaming everyone else for the error including, our designer, the tile supplier, the quarry, and us, and did nothing to remedy it. By this time we'd already paid him 95% of the contract value and were anxious to get in the house. In a last ditch effort, we even offered to keep the flooring as-is for a small price concession (less than 1.5% of the contract value and 30% of the cost to replace it), but Tanner refused.
Months went by with no action. We ended up retaining an attorney in Spring 2016 to get him to complete the house. Fortunately, we retained detailed records including emails and meeting notes to substantiate that MTC was informed of the mistake or we would have ended up in litigation.
He finally ordered the correct tile and we were on schedule to have it replaced in summer 2016. Shortly after the correct tile arrived, we were informed that there wasn't enough to complete the house - MTC had shorted the order to save a few bucks and needed to order additional tile. It would take another 3-4 months for the tile to arrive with no assurance it would match what was already on-site.
Sure enough, when the additional tile arrived it didn't match. The color and texture were different than the prior replacement order. We chose very monochrome basalt that was uniform both texture and color. Working with his site foreman, we hand picked through the tiles and chose the closest matches. These were installed in less conspicuous locations (closets, pantry, areas that would be covered by area rugs, etc.).
Finally, in late February 2017 the house was ready to occupy - 34 months after construction began and 20 months after the scheduled completion date.
Shortly after move-in, we supplied MTC with a new construction punch list of approximately 40 fairly minor items (paint scuffs, a damaged light fixture shade, alarm sensor not working, incorrect shower handle trim, gate was sagging and weather damaged, etc.). We also discovered some rain gutters called out in the architectural plans were never installed.
We ended up paying additional money to have the gate changed and rain gutters/ heat tape installed over and above the contract amount to get them done before winter 2017. Eight months later, and the other minor punch list items were still not completed. We had had enough of working with Tanner and decided to sell the house.
During the sale escrow process, a few additional items were discovered during the buyers' home inspection (missing door sweeps in showers, erosion under one corner of the patio, faulty circuit breaker in the master bathroom, etc.) - nothing major. Tanner refused to remedy these issues. It took the intervention of the sales broker to coerce Tanner to remedy these during escrow.
I'll be the first to admit that ours is a first-world problem. To the folks who have successfully used MTC - good for you. Building and maintaining a vacation home in Truckee requires a long-term relationship with someone you trust to maintain and repair your home. We hopefully represent the minority of homeowners where problems of this magnitude cropped up during construction.
If you're fortune enough to be building a home, ask yourself what type of person you want to entrust with the honor of helping fulfill your family's dream. We made the mistake of not asking for references from clients where construction problems arose and chose poorly.
To be clear, MTC has some very diligent and talented employees. The issue we encountered came from the top.
To this day, Tanner has never apologized for the mistake, didn't bother attending the occupancy walk-through, never checked-in with us after move-in, and missed numerous update calls that he scheduled via email. We've been told that he blames us for the mistake - basically forcing him to fulfill his obligations as the general contractor - and is, "mad," at us.
At the end of the day, all we have is our integrity, character, and reputation. Everyone makes mistakes - it's how we choose to deal with them when a person's true character shows through.
