Kensington at Del Sur San Diego - notes from the first 12 months (2007-8)
The builder's representatives during the sale were your typical "good cop/bad cop" and very grating and unpleasant. The whole sales experience will live with us for a long time due to how nasty it was as we were made to feel like second-class citizens and beneath contempt on several occasions. There are several times that differing comments and statements between the two bordered on unethical. After the sale, the builder is completely non-responsive to large issues I have such as the inadequate retaining wall that is causing our yard to subsidize downward into our neighbor's lot, and coupled with sinkholes won't allow me to complete our landscaping.
Many of the components of the home, although beautiful, are cosmetic and of poor quality. All the internals of the house, excluding the water heater, are of minimal standard (i.e. cheap PVC instead of copper piping). Davidson Communities touts their quality and experience: I found old lunches and soda containers in my attic crawl space, many of the woods (i.e. baseboards) are made from particle board. The landscaping, especially on sloped spaces is not finished properly (i.e. retaining walls are neither high enough nor do they go the length of the property line so are too short). Even the finishing on the driveways feature "cut-ins" so that the boulevards access is narrower than the driveway ensuring that you will run over the boulevard landscaping.
Individual Home aside, the reason we moved here is the location, the community, and the schools. The community is pleasant and friendly and the schools are top notch. There are trails and outdoor activities "just across the road" and the best parts of San Diego are easily accessible. The view on the drive in to the community is beautiful.
The HOA is another matter, and is what I believe to be typical of any HOA - you simply cannot create mini-governments with little checks and balances on power as with human nature this corrupts you. The HOA "encourages" spying and neighbor to "lord over" neighbor. Our HOA fees are already high and we don't as yet have access to half the planned parks or the Ranch House facilities. So far there has been little return for our money and only a precursor to what I fear will be increasing harassment for what we and all of our neighbors believe are petty items.
