This is simplistic BS. Sotherby and Shaddock are behaving like crooks to the detriment of lots of homeowners and pending homeowners. The banks are foreclosing on their current lots and partially builts home. All new homeowners are getting liens against their properties because this bunch of self protecting selfish xxxx's havent paid their bills. Their are multiple sub-contractors who are unpaid. worst of all is that pending sales will result in people losing thousands in earnest money and deposits. all this while Shaddock 'cherry-picks' the most lucrative lots for himself. Maybe if someone took some notice of the people costs of some of this bad business practices that Sotherby have been involved in. Ask any Sotherby homeowner or pending homeowner and you will get the truth.

I don't know what will shake-out from all of this, and I can't speak to their current actions. However, as a professional real estate agent I can tell you that Sotherby was not (at least, before this point) infamous for "bad business practices". I asked a couple owners of Sotherby homes and they didn't have much to complain about and liked their homes/home building experience. Then I checked the Dallas Better Business Bureau and found an A+ rating with no outstanding complaints. They didn't have tons of complaints filed and they attempted to resolve those that were (not what you find if a company doesn't care about their business practices). That being said, if people are losing earnest money, and lots are being foreclosed on/liens are being filed, this is obviously not good for the company's (or other Shaddock companies') future and doesn't speak well of them either. However, if they do not file for bankruptcy, I would think they would lack protection from suits over breach of contract (or something similar) and, at least, liable for the earnest money (but I'm not a lawyer, and the builder contracts always protect the builder). This will be an interesting one to watch...

As recently as December ('08), my Sotherby Homes warranty contact sent someone out to finish up the patching of some nail pops under warranty. A week later I called the rep and he said he was laid off. I am at the end of my first year of ownership warranty period, with a page of warranty items left undone (including painting where the nail pops were fixed). It appears I will need to paint these myself and personally fund my own unaddressed warranty repairs. Perhaps I should be thankful they finished patching the 30 nail pops. I assume Shaddock is shutting down their subsidiary Shotherby (new builds), but wondered if Shaddock does not go out of business, if they as parent company would be responsible for my warranty?

I doubt seriously that Shaddock would be held responsible for the waranties issued under Sotherby. Every big corporation I know that has subsidiaries holds them as limited liability corps. or something similar. This is done to insulate the parent corp, specifically so that the parent company cannot be liable if the subsidiaries go under/get sued/etc. Not arguing that this isn't the moral or "right" thing to do, just that I don't think they'll be legally held to it.

We as customers are always happy when we are geeting somthing for a steel of a deal. We always think cheap is better. Their is nothing in life that is free and a lot of home builders are going out of business because of the huge discounts that they extended to the customer. My mom owns a sotherby Home and we have not had any problems. Customer must research before purchasing a home you should check the county website and check for M/l that is a great way to see if a business is starting to have trouble beacuse they are not paying any of their bills.

Yvonne

Sotherby Homes is in the process of re-establishing a procedure for warranty performance as per the HOME of Texas Limited Warranty issued to homeowners at such time that a home was closed from Sotherby to a homeowner. At this time, Sotherby is accepting calls, e-mails and faxes for warranty issues. It is currently acting on emergency items, such as plumbing leaks, roof leaks, and heating and cooling issues. In the near future, Sotherby hopes to establish and phase in procedures for warranty performance for all other HOME of Texas Limited Warranty repair requests. For emergency warranty performance or other questions about warranty issues, please call 972-985-7955, fax 972-526-5645 or email customerservice@sotherby.com. The company will place calls to contact individual customers to update them on the status of their homes. Sothereby will make every attempt to complete the construction of all sold homes. If a current homeowner receives any notices or threats concerning liens they should contact our office at (972) 612-6470 or fax to (972) 526-5645. It is our intent to compile and remedy this issue very soon. Sotherby regrets any inconvenience that this situation is causing its valued customers and is doing everything it can to resolve the situation in a timely manner. Sotherby regrets any inconvenience that this situation is causing its valued customers and is doing everything it can to resolve the situation in a timely manner.

Thanks David, I was litterally in the middle of posting this information in an update when I got your comment. The update can be found here:

http://www.realtown.com/ryancave/blog/developments/sotherbywarranty

Ryan Cave, The "Caveman"

We were building a Sotherby home when they foreclosed on it last month. We tried for weeks to speak with Peter Shaddock Jr in regards to our earnest money being refunded. He will not answer calls or emails. We had to resort to hiring an attorney because it was a lot of money and we are not investors in Shaddock Development! Anyone else out there having trouble or any luck with Sotherby-Shaddock Development retruning their money??

I believe Sotherby's has been in trouble for quite a while. I'm an HOA president in a subdivision where Sotherby was selling, and they have not paid assessments on their lots in more than a year. We saw the handwriting on the wall. They are not only hurting their own homeowners, they are hurting entire neighborhoods. Also, all the Sotherby lots left in our subdivision are in foreclosure to banks.

Anyone knows the latest update on Southerby"s and how the NY office is fairing during major recession. Got a friend of mine going for an interview @ Southerby's and wondering if they ( NY ) are in similar fix  as Texas...

Sorry... This article is about Sotherby Homes (a now defunct builder who was based in North Texas). They don't have a NY office.

I belive you're looking for information on Sotheby's (note the spelling difference... no "r") who is an international auction house based out of NY.

Best Wishes,
Ryan Cave, The "Caveman"