Woodfield at Mount Olive, Kaplan Builders, Awful
We bought a Brand New House here in this nice neighborhood, by Kaplan Builders, only 4 years ago. We paid $440,000.
Since day 1, we've had nothing but problems with the house. Within the first 3 months, we had water leaking through our celing onto our family room carpet. The ceiling nearly caved in. Kaplan was slow to repsond & when the finally came to fix it, they had to come back twice.
The following year our A.C. unit broke (BRAND NEW HOUSE).. and we had it fixed. The next year, it broke again, we had numerous ppl come to determine the problem, no one was certain of the exact cause, but since then our A.C. has broken twice. We paid over $3,000 to fix it.
NOW, our entire Front yard and culdesac has been dug up, due to an incorrect installed pipe. !! a $4,000 project, not to mention a massive headache and time consumming process. We have contacted Kaplan numerous times to resolve the issue, and they have denied any responsibility. Well, it turns out, that they are in violoation of their contract, because the pipes they installed are not to standard. This caused the pipes to leak and bust. All our neighbors in my culdesac are inconvenienced. We will be contacted an attorney.
Lastly, we are not the only ones on Winding Hill Drive that has had house problems. Kaplan never came to do the 1 year walk through, they are slow to respond, and a 4 year old house has too many problems !!
They recently put up a sign for Homes, now costing uppers $200's!! are you kidding me??? we are totally stuck in this house, unless we decided to take a major loss.
Frustrated :\ Please don't buy a home here.
Angry Home Owner Not to mention the ugly scar they've etched on the ridge by putting all those brightly-colored vinyl sided boxes there....complete with death-defying retaining wall drops for all the kiddies.
That place is, and has been, a disgrace from day one IMO.
jjmonth4 I would contact a lawyer asap, I am sure the lawyer wont be happy you put this out there . And I would also contact BBB and see if they can help.
I think you can go to the state too, Contractors need to be licensed.
Just Asking Angry, I am sorry about all the trouble you are having.
We moved here from a development built under 10 years ago in Maryland - what a joke it was. I would NEVER buy in a newer development again - it seems anyone I talk to who has lived in a newly constructed home by a developer has had similar problems that you have mentioned (we sure did). So many corners were cut that ended up causing us problems down the road. Being a first time home buyer, we thought we were doing well for ourselves, but it just isn't the case. We purchased a home here built in 1970 - there are the usual maintenance issues, but overall, homes are just not built the same as they used to (I guess that is true for many things now days). If I were going to give a new home buyer advice, I would certainly advise them to stay away from a developer and if new construction is what you are after, then find a contractor and work directly with them. Or just buy an older home.
NatalieWhen I was looking for a house last year my realtor absolutely refused to take me into this development. Some time ago one of the houses in this development collapsed internally and the occupants barely escaped with their lives. I would think Mount Olive bears some responsibility as these homes had to have passed various inspections. Good luck.
pj Isn't there a 10 year warranty on new homes? We got that when we purchased our new townhome.
iJay Wow, I'm also sorry to hear about your trouble. We bought our home (in the townhouse section) in 2007 and have been very happy. A few minor things, but I expected a few things along the way.
We did buy high as you did, but thankfully don't plan on moving for a long time.
NotaNJNative WW is right. New houses are required to provide a 10 yr warranty on the houses. I would get all neighbors together and see about filing a class action lawsuit
nutty I am just waiting for a big mud slide. then all those homes will be in the target parking lot.
it is only a matter of time. There are home with gages in their basments mesuring the cracks. Last time I saw those were in PA when some of the mines started to collaps and cave in.
CJ. We’ve had a great experience with the Woodfield development. We moved from Michigan to NJ in 2004 and were shocked by the housing prices in New Jersey. We decided that if we had to pay this much for a house we’d prefer to have a newer house and finally for once not have to deal with the issues of old houses. (roof replacements, furnace issues, asbestos etc).
I agree that Kaplan’s customer service wasn’t the best. But don’t forget that their approach did yield the only new construction that was affordable short of living in Pennslyvania. By approach I mean (poor customer service, repeating same 5 designs over and over, efficiently building out pod by pod etc.)
I’ve found our floorplan (Ashwood) to be very livable; the house hasn’t had any issues – and it’s a great community to live in.
Sorry to hear the problems you’re having but I don’t think it’s representative of the community. We have many nice neighbors and enjoy living here.
Happy Homeowner Since those retaining walls went up I've been fearing the time when we have weeks of rain and the whole development slides to the bottom of the mountain. Also, the horrible view we get of the whole thing at the top of the mountain, such a disgrace.
placenotway My husband and I bought a house on Winding hill 1 month ago and noticed some major construction on the cul-de-sac next door. We were wondering what went wrong... UGH! Sorry to hear that you are going through this!! Hopefully Kaplan starts getting their act together! Good luck!
Sacha 
NJ native Thanks everyone for your support and advise.
We don't have a 10yr warranty.. I ll have to ask my husband about that.
And too HAPPY HOMEOWNER.. I absolutely love it here, we have the best neighbors & my kids feels safe..we've just had Massive HOUSE PROBLEMS!! Not the neighborhood itself.
And fortunetly I come from a family of lawyers, so I may look into the class action lawsuit.
Right now, the headache of it all is the worst...especially since my son is starting kindergarten next year ..& private school is costly. It might even out to the cost of all this work !!
My driveway looks HOrrific !! About 5 holes in the driveway, & 1 in the yard.
Sorry to hear that, we are one of your nbrs at Winding Hill dr. The issue is zero participation in the board meetings, the only people attending, are the elected board members. And Its been no different for me, but I attended a few meetings. There is no forum when we can all get together and raise our concerns, the starting point are these meetings. I agree that this a great community to stay, great neighbours but most of them have complaints against our HOA, and none of them have ever attended a single meeting. I plan to start a email group or website for our community, so that we can raise our concerns to our elected members and get details on the expenses, it's a lot we pay in comparison to the value we get from our HOA,
winding hill dr Angry, builder open developments under a new LLC. Unless you can prove intentional acts, there is little money to go after...
Angry,
Very sorry for your problems! I am also a resident of Woodfield and I love it here, too. Yes, the houses are "cookie cutter" but they were affordable at the time we bought. The neighbors are fantastic and it's a great place for kids. I also totally understand why some would be upset about the development being on top of the mountain, but we also often frequent the local shops and restaurants (love the Hackettstown Trading Post!) and hopefully we have made some level of a positive contribution. I sincerely wish you the best!
Winding Hill 2 Who would want to leave "that" close to their neighbors. If someone parks out front, you cant get your car out, unless they move. You can open your window and hold the hand of your neighbor as they are sitting in their own house. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!
And to pay that much?? $400K plus. WOW, WOW, WOW!!! Dont jump on me, JMO!
botheredbyu 
I came in 2006 and selected a lot which was not even open. I insisted if I would buy a house it would be the respective one. Its a cul-de-sac ashwood with walkout basement, The views are astonishing, my family room view looks like a view from a Cesna cockpit. I can watch the snow / rain weather roll in 10 minutes ahead of time. My yard, I believe is the second largest in the community. I love it here, and I said to myself, my first home turned out to be a vacation home. I even used to work at downtown, NY and I don't regret the commute when I think of coming back to my dwelling. I even got additional $25,000 upgrades and didn't have to pay any premiums for similar selective lots with view which now range from $6,000 to $25,000. The only concern with my stay here is they won't clean snow or put enough salt that easy allows access during snow, and the community association price hikes with additional fees are just shooting up with no reason at all. Which I think is ok considering the benefits.
gshibug If I was going to spend 400k on a house it certainly wouldn't be in that development with houses squeezed in at all sorts of askew angles on postage stamp sized lots, with up to seven houses basically sharing a single driveway.
Mark Mc. 
Scratch that... 9 houses on one driveway...
It's one thing to like having close neighbors, but you shouldn't be able to shake hands by both reaching out of your bedroom windows.
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