Kevin Olson stood before his Gilbert home this week, surveying his all-dirt front yard and the streaks that had been left on his driveway by recent monsoon storms. He hasn't put any kind of vegetation in because, he says, the builder still has not properly graded the yard.

At the height of the real estate boom three years ago, his agent waited in line to get him this lot at Power Ranch. Now the market has crashed, and he's struggling to fix problems outside and within his home.

$500K house takes its toll

"If the quality were there, you could kind of swallow the fact that it's lost half its value," Olson said.

He moved into the house two years ago with his wife, Alissa, and their young children after it was completed by luxury builder Toll Brothers. Since then, the Olsons say their front door has acted as a revolving door for subcontractors sent to fix the plumbing, the walls, the floors, the yard, and other problems with their home.

They've left most of their furniture behind in Morgan Hill, Calif., rather than run the risk of it being damaged by the foot traffic and constant work being done. "The neighbors know that when they're done with their stuff, bring it over to us," Alissa Olson said.

COMPLAINT FILED

As reported in the Tribune in June 2007, some residents of Power Ranch who paid anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million or more for Toll Brothers homes have been voicing their disappointment with the quality of those homes and the builder's responsiveness.

"If it were a $100,000 house, that would be one thing, but these were $700,000, $800,000 before the upgrades," said Dawn Grinevich, who lives with her family in a nearby house.

The Olsons have filed a complaint with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, which could get a hearing in front of a judge next month. Toll Brothers representatives said they could not comment on the pending case, but are committed to their homes before and after buyers take occupancy.

"We are 110 percent committed to taking responsibility for warranty issues," said Richard Carroll, director of warranty for Toll Brothers Arizona. "If there is a Toll Brothers or Toll Brothers trade partner problem, we fix it."

He said the "vast majority" of the 160 homeowners of the Enclave at Power Ranch are satisfied with their houses, adding, "The homeowners voicing complaints are a small percentage of the community's population, and Toll Brothers continues to work with each of them to resolve their issues."

Stuart Steinke lives in the same Power Ranch neighborhood near Power and Queen Creek roads, and, like the Olsons, paid more than $1 million for his home. He was able to talk his wife into moving to Arizona after they saw a model of the same Toll Brothers home in Gilbert's Seville development.

Two years later, Steinke said he's not asking for much: "I'd just like to be able to get out of bed in the middle of the night without waking my wife up with the noise."

When Steinke or anyone else walks past the chest of drawers that stands at the foot of their bed, it and the objects on top of it rattle loudly. The grout of the custom tile in the adjoining master bathroom has cracked several times, which Steinke said is tied to the same problem.

Steinke said he first noticed the problem while the home was still under construction, in the area where his four children were going to sleep and play. He had it fixed before they moved in, and today he can jump with his full weight onto the floor of his kids' den without anything wobbling.

He was dismayed when the engineer Toll Brothers sent out to his home deemed the construction of the floor to be "within tolerance," and later found out it was one who engineered the home in the first place.

"Of course he's not going to fail himself," Steinke said.

Carroll said this is standard procedure. "In the case of a second-floor issue that may have a structural problem, we call upon the structural engineer to inspect it. This structural engineer determines if the deflection is within the normal range," he said.

These engineers are bound by their licensing and the standards of the profession, he added.

NO VOICE IN THE MATTER

Kevin Olson said the same thing happened when he tried to have Toll Brothers address a similar problem with his second floor, at which point he was told by the Registrar of Contractors office that if he could find an outside engineer to declare the home was not within tolerance, the registrar would take a look at it.

The engineer he contacted said he needed to see the original engineering drawings, which Toll Brothers wouldn't release, Kevin Olson said.

"It just seems like the whole system is set up to where we don't have a voice in it at all," he said.

Carroll said Toll Brothers doesn't have the authority to release engineering drawings to customers because the drawings are subject to copyright, but homeowners and their representatives can come into the Toll Brothers offices to review them.

John and Dawn Grinevich say they did get Toll Brothers to shore up their second floor after they moved in and found that just walking by a table could knock glasses over.

The repairs muted the noise but did not eliminate it, they said. To this day, if their daughter Nicole walks in the upstairs bedroom above the kitchen, the ceiling fan beneath makes a clanking noise.

"If she plays 'Guitar Hero' we're in real trouble," Dawn Grinevich said.

The Grineviches and the Steinkes say they are considering legal action, but don't want to take that route.

"The point is, we just want our floors fixed. We don't want a class-action lawsuit, we don't want to bring Toll down," Dawn Grinevich said.

Steinke said Toll Brothers should be more responsive to customer complaints, particularly with the housing market in the condition it's in.

"I don't want to come across as bitter. I love my house, I hate my builder," he said.

Carroll said Toll Brothers does stand behind its homes. "Our 10-year limited warranty closely follows the Registrar of Contractors Guidelines and Standards, and if there's something wrong with a construction issue under warranty, we fix it, no matter what it takes," he said.