re: Anyone know this guy Jim Fussell?

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stout

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PBG Homes of LA, LLC f/k/a Provident Homes, LLC

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We came close to buying a home through them off Simms road (deep in the heart of Livingston Parish. Waaaaay past Live Oak near Live Oak Landing, ironically).

They were building some spec homes off of Simms and had some in another neighborhood back there off of Simms called Siegel Landing. We signed the purchase agreement but I wrote into that the agreement was dependent upon receiving a LOMA. I wasn't around when they poured the slab and they were cagy on the elevation question so I included it as a poison pill just in case.

They recommended me to GMFS, and I won't say the person's name that worked with us on that, but while he wasn't bad at his job by any stretch, he did invite me to lunch in order to solicit me for a Multi-Level-Marketing "business" he was involved with during our financing efforts.

Provident's "in-house realtor" kept telling me that they were waiting on getting the elevation cert back from the engineer they used, and I kept thinking that was strange because they can't even start building in Livingston Parish without at least an initial elevation being shot. So how did they get that one to start building in the first place?

So I kept asking and then got told they may have to close with a CLOMA (Conditional LOMA), and then said they couldn't close even with one of those, so the builder offered to pay the flood insurance for two years if it was actually in a flood zone and the LOMA was rejected (which they assured me it was not). When I asked who was going to pay for the last 28 years, they had no good answer. Also, the policy they had wouldn't have covered finished construction anyway as it's only a builder's risk flood policy which is pennies compared to a homeowner's actual flood insurance policy.

Finally, I got fed up and once we got final approval for the loan, I asked for the name of the engineering company that shot the EC. Called them up and they said they'd had it since they started building and had never been asked and that they were surprised Provident was able to build.

I asked why and they indicated that Provident actually KNOWINGLY built below the Base Flood Elevation (BFE) for the area according to the Flood Rate Insurance Maps (FIRM) Data and that was actually a violation of Parish Building Codes.

Needless to say, we exercised the clause in our Purchase Agreement and walked away. Would not recommend ANYONE to do business with them.