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Never Buy from Triumph

ACT7

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After having purchased a new construction condo from Triumph (Howard Park Condos), I would strongly advise never buying from them. Sloppy, unprofessional, and flat out incompetent.

Anyone else have experience with these goofs? Please share.
 
It would be helpful to prospective buyers if you provided more detail on the exact complaints you have with Triumph.
 
For a developer that bills itself as high end, the workmanship in the units is very amateur.
Paid upgrades are not fulfilled, namely the kitchen and bathrooms. Poor workmanship with respect to cabinetry (not aligned, chipped, scratched, separating from the bulkhead). Cheaper appliances than we were promised. Crappy plumbing, poor caulking in the kitchen and bathrooms. Upgraded floors are uneven and scratched. Heat pumps haven't been working for the full month that we've occupied the unit. Overcharging for lease costs that violate signed amendments to the purchase agreement, . No notice when entering units. Overall incompetent workers that don't seem to be able to fix much. I could go on and on and on.

I used to live in one of the City Place condos a few years ago and as bad as their reputation is for poor workmanship, it's better than Triumph. I would highly suggest steering clear of them.
 
I'm renting at the Howard Park and I've seen some of the issues you mentioned (quality of flooring and caulking in the bathroom, shoddy work and lack of notice for repairs, general disorganization). But this is the first new-build unit I've lived in, so I'm not sure how much of that is to be expected. Hopefully all the issues will be fixed eventually.
 
The masses are buying because the options are limited. Either rent from a d-bag landlord or buy from a d-bag developer. Or, if you can afford it, buy a million dollar fixer-upper. Doesn't mean that developers should be able to get away with the stuff they get away with. And if I have the chance to call one out because of my personal experience with them, then I will.

On an absolute scale, I would give Triumph a 3 out 10 in terms of quality and professionalism. On a relative scale with other new builds I've lived in, I would give them a 1 out of 10.
 
All of the above sounds pretty typical. Most of the workmanship in the boom condos is pretty mediocre. "high end" "low end" it doesn't matter. The all use the same trades.
 
It happens in pretty much every development. As I mentioned before, they build it quick and they build it cheap. They use foreign workers because they don't have to pay them as much. The more units a worker finnishes, the more money he/she makes.

Developers are known for cutting corners with poor quality products. Instead of buying from Canadian or American manufacturers that offer warranties, they would rather purchase poor quality products from China with no warranty.

I have seen a worker that forgot to plug in a dishwasher properly, which caused multiple units to be flooded. Poor quality copper in the plumbing will cause major leak issues - I have spoken to plumbers who say they have never seen 3 year old buildings with so many plumbing issues. I have spoke to Locksmiths that are making a killing off certain buildings because the developer decided to use poor quality door handles/locking mechanisms. The list goes on and on.

Sad thing is, everyone's hands are dirty - there is no protection for buyers regardless of what is said.
 
It happens in pretty much every development. As I mentioned before, they build it quick and they build it cheap. They use foreign workers because they don't have to pay them as much. The more units a worker finnishes, the more money he/she makes.

Developers are known for cutting corners with poor quality products. Instead of buying from Canadian or American manufacturers that offer warranties, they would rather purchase poor quality products from China with no warranty.

I have seen a worker that forgot to plug in a dishwasher properly, which caused multiple units to be flooded. Poor quality copper in the plumbing will cause major leak issues - I have spoken to plumbers who say they have never seen 3 year old buildings with so many plumbing issues. I have spoke to Locksmiths that are making a killing off certain buildings because the developer decided to use poor quality door handles/locking mechanisms. The list goes on and on.

Sad thing is, everyone's hands are dirty - there is no protection for buyers regardless of what is said.

And that's the thing. Everyone is in bed with everyone else so there is zero protection for the buyer. It's one gigantic condo industry circle-jerk/orgy. Even Tarion, the very people in place to protect the new buyer, is seemingly impotent when it comes to taking on developers.
 
And that's the thing. Everyone is in bed with everyone else so there is zero protection for the buyer. It's one gigantic condo industry circle-jerk/orgy. Even Tarion, the very people in place to protect the new buyer, is seemingly impotent when it comes to taking on developers.

Look at Tarion's board of directors: http://www.tarion.com/About-Tarion/Pages/Board-of-Directors.aspx

It's all developers. The foxes are watching the henhouse.
 
I bought at 25 Ritchie (the building right besides yours) pre-construction 8 years ago. There were certainly some issues as you have described. In my case, most of them were resolved but they did take some time to fix. A few bait and switch tactics were used to. I have nothing to compare it to, but my experience was in the middle. I feel like it could have been worse...I did love the building though
 
"high-end", "luxury", means nothing. All it means is you will pay more. Builders all build to the minimum rquirements which are pretty low in a lot of cases anyways. Whether you're spending $400/ft or $1000/ft you will get the same materials and same starndard of construction. There is the odd builder that will do a bit more, but the things you can't see are all done to the minimum standard. This is happening in every industry. A race to the bottom.
 

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