San P.
1/5
Mayabella Homes, and namely the owner Johnny Anjoul, is a very difficult builder to work with. While we are mostly satisfied with the quality of our home and the end product, the process of building with Johnny was unpleasant and stressful. Every change that we requested was met with hostility and resistance, even though we purchased the property when it was still only a concrete foundation. When we requested changes to the layout of the main living area (kitchen, dining room and living room), Johnny's ego was bruised, as he repeated that he is a professional designer and knows how things should look. The irony is that our design and finishing choices were so appealing that Johnny used our house as a show home to attract other buyers of Mayabella Homes and he ended up replicating our design (right down the paint and tile colours) in other houses. The Mayabella website says: "Partner with Mayabella Homes and let us work with you in customizing a home that best compliments your life and refined style. We are committed to exceeding your expectations..." This is so untrue, it's laughable.
There are too many issues to list all here but a few of the difficulties with the builder are as follows. He ignored my warnings that the vent hood for the stove was not properly vented for the unit that we had picked out, resulting in an additional hole having to be cut into the exterior wall. Now, there is a lot of cold air rushing in from the vent hood area, and Johnny refuses to make any attempt to repair it upon our one year warranty review. We requested a couple simple modifications to placement of electric plugs (such as having a plug at counter height in the laundry room so that could plug in a clothes iron - any logical design plan would have this already), and putting a 240-volt plug in the garage a couple feet from the fuse box for charging an electric car. Johnny told me that the plug in the garage would be an extra $550, which was blatant dishonesty. I got a quote from another electrician for $220 for the same job, and Johnny's electrician told me that he didn't receive a penny of the extra $550 charged. I also requested that the laundry room be insulated for noise as it is right next to the master bedroom. He ignored our request, so while the insulation was being installed in the house, we bought the insulation and asked the installers to put it in for us. Johnny then charged us for the extra insulation even though he knew full well that we had paid for it ourselves. I also requested that the drywallers cut out a niche of a certain dimension in the master bathroom shower for a built-in shelf, which Johnny interfered with and ended up installing a shelf that is too small for shampoo bottles (defeating the whole purpose of the shelf).
We are also unsatisfied with the home warranty process as the flaws that we have reported to the builder have simply been argued away. We have some discoloured siding, for example, that Johnny claims is salt even though we are several kilometres away from the ocean. And he refuses to take responsibility for the draftiness of our fume hood.
Overall, our experience with Johnny Anjoul and Mayabella Homes was highly negative. We are pleased with the quality of the home overall, but what should have been an exciting and enjoyable experience was full of conflict and stress. I have never interacted with someone so unethical, greedy and egotistical. Do NOT build with Mayabella homes unless you want everything EXACTLY as originally designed. Customization and customer service are both sorely lacking.
