Beware of buying new home from Onni Development
 

So my friend bought a new home from Onni, she moved in 3 months ago and one of the window developed a stress crack on it's own.

The window has three layers of glass and crack developed in the center layer. There isn't any crack on the surface of the window, which means the crack can't caused buy an outside impact or the outside window will break first.

After contacting Onni about it they just point finger at her that she must've broke the window and they can't cover it under the warranty. This seems quite unethical and is causing her quite a bit of headaches after going back and forth. Any tips on what she can do?

Consult HPO's Manual and see their guidelines in terms on warrantable window issues.

Also typically when buying a new home you have a year grace period to address deficiencies such as drywall cracks, nail pops, etc so usually if your friend has a list of items around 8-9 months of ownership/warantee onni or whoever the management company is should be coming back and addressing the defincinies (as long as your friend is actually going through the proper channels and filing the items accordingly)

However, if Somone had come and checked on the window and there was a considerable amount of interior condensation from cooking, showering without fan/windows open, etc and this was documented then she could very well be SOL because these types of conditions are laid out in the home owners manual provided upon moving in.

I wouldn't paint ONNI with such a broad brush as they literally build thousands of homes a year and I've rarely heard of issues with them.

ask your friend open a case with Home owner protection office. new condo require to have a 2-5-10 warranty and HPO can step in for dispute.

Also is it the slider or the stationary part of the window? If it's the slider and the inner pane is broken I'd probably say it was on the home owner as well.

However typically in good faith they should replace it either way.

It's a stationary window, not a slider. She will contact HPO and see what they say.

omni does shit work

home owner warranty claim....it'll get fixed then

depends on the building and subtrades.

all these years I thought it was omni

I also heard from family and friends to stay away from Onni Development . Horrible built quality.

I can attest that Onni customer service sucks balls. I am an owner of a unit in one of their buildings, they will do whatever they can to get out of NOT fixing deficiencies.

If it's an external window, that should be on strata to fix so get them to fight Onni to have that replaced.

You are not allowed to fix it anyways, it is considered exterior. You need to contact your Strata manager and get pics and send it to him. Then he has to pass it by the strata members and they will contact a repair company (Either Omni,or third party)

Happened to me actually, was heat related. Windows crack due to the heat, had a window company take a look at it and first thing he said was " Sun caused it" .

Also, your strata has a window comprehensive coverage which you pay for. So worst case scenario you would just pay the deductible.

this and nag and nag and nag the starta, building managers. Basically if you stay quiet so will they. Make it so they have to fix it. Come up with any excuse.

The window is from bedroom to balcony. Does that count as external?

Any window as part of the exterior envelope is exterior. Only windows that wouldn't count as this would be like a pass through from bedroom to enquite or somthing

it's a stress cracked cause by the settlement of the building. The window might have been manufacturer a hair tall or installed just off, the window system is designed to allow the concrete slabs to sag

As far as I know all windows from outside are exterior. Owners are not allowed to touch it. It must be repaired through the strata. They have insurance coverage for this so you do not need to worry about it.

Either way, strata should handle it for you and should not cost you a dime.

I can attest that ONNI is a HUGE problem. Not just in build quality, but on a larger scale...

In terms of build quality, my mom bought an ONNI built apartment on the water in Steveston about 8 years ago, from someone who bought it brand new, never lived in it, and flipped it. There was a big crack in the granite counter that couldn't have been from anyone as no one lived there. ONNI has an appearance of luxury ie granite, stainless appliances, modern colours etc, but they do the minimum necessary.

The worst part of the apartment was the sound insulation. My mom had area rugs everywhere and always had her shoes off, and would step from rug to rug to avoid any kind of noise, and would CONSTANTLY get noise complaints from downstairs. And the neighbours above had a new child who would run around and would play fetch with their dog, and it sounded like they were in our apartment.

Also, a veteran Lower Mainland real estate agent I know once told me that years ago ONNI just straight up didn't pay their contractors. The buildings would be built and they would find a loophole and delay or just not pay the contractors.

And aside from all of the above bullshit, I would say they have had a strong hand in forcing up housing prices. They build these lavish LOOKING apartments in key new areas, and make them overpriced from the beginning. But their properties are tiny compared to older Vancouver apartments. And their definition of a "single family home" has no lot whatsoever and is butted up right next to another home, where you could literally reach out the window and touch your neighbour's house.

ONNI is all about producing the the minimum livable spaces, making them appear lavish and high-end, squeezing as many of those spaces as possible on their plot, and overcharging to make them more desirable.

ONNI is creating havoc in Vancouver.

/rant

Its pretty much the modus operandi for all large developers. After working in the Bay Area for a few years, you would be amazed at the garbage quality of stuff that goes into these so called "luxury" apartment homes and condos.

Equity Residential, Essex Property Trust, Irvine Group, Barry Swenson Builder.. the list goes on out here. It's all the same crap different window dressing. I've seen so many of the same appliance packages with 'stainless steel finish' and bargain basement functionality.

The only difference is some developers are better at hiding it than others, or find more creative(and sketchy) ways to pad their bottom line, giving them a bit more room to seem super helpful.

Some will try to impress with their countertops/tile, others with their appliance packages installing seemingly legit wolf/viking/sub zero units. Others with the amenity spaces, and 'high end' LVT, and skimp on the HVAC. Its same principle with all things, quality, money and reliability, you can only pick two. Just in the construction/development industry its a lot easier and beneficial for all developers to cut corners wherever they can with minimal impact to their bottom line.

Its just a simple fact of life, they're out there to make money not give everyone a great deal.

Also look at the Owners of the Onni corp ;) I worked for them for some time and I know first hand that one of the higher ups had his house in the Properties completely reno'd for free using the tradesmen and materials from the Buildings on lower Lonsdale. He would bring up materials and workers from the building, have them install it and have free labor as they were being paid from the other job site. A simple search of their last name should provide insight as to who is actually profiting from these ventures.

Berz out.

+1

My sisters year and a half old apartment is leaking in various places. Noise insulation is BRUTAL. The neighbour above has a small Pomeranian and when it runs around it sounds like a gorilla trying to find its mating partner. The windows have really bad condensation.

no offense but if she bought in a woof frame low-rise, thats the reality of all these buildings.

not true. I have seen good and bad wood frame lowrises but the window issue is an isolated incident. Happens to the best happens to the worst, you might just be unlucky.

But whether to cover that window, on the other hand, speaks volume to the amount of fucks the developer has to give.

For those in the industry, what do you have to say about Penta? They seem to have a few properties in Richmond.

Is there a site that does reviews of various developers?