Leah and David Hamilton, outside their Howey in the Hills home, on Monday, August 15, 2022. The Hamiltons bought a house on spec from Dream Finders, a large, nationwide builder. For almost a year, they have been dealing with one of the worst sewage issues ever: their wastewater comes out through the shower, bathtubs, and sinks. (High-dynamic-range composite image by Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel) (Orlando Sentinel)

HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS — David Hamilton walks out of his Howey-in-the-Hills home to his wife, Leah, who is staring into the sewer line clean-out.

Leah still hasn’t seen the toilet paper David flushed more than a minute ago, so David heads back inside and turns on the downstairs guest tub faucet. “Is it still not moving?” he asks.

It’s not, so they know what they have to do next. Both David and Leah run back inside and scramble to the other bathrooms, opening the faucets on all the tubs.

Then they run back outside, relieved to see water flowing, which means this time raw sewage won’t spew back into their brand new home.

“We’ve had fecal matter come up through the tubs, the kitchen sink,” said Leah, 60. “We’ve had to disinfect the washing machine, the dishwasher. My husband has taken five crappy showers.”

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The $416,100 custom-built house the Hamiltons bought in this south Lake County town from builder Dream Finders Homes last year has an extreme plumbing issue.

Fixing it has become a Herculean challenge involving the builder, three teams of plumbers and even the government of Howey-in-the-Hills. The Hamiltons want Dream Finders to buy back the house, but they say they have been told that won’t happen.

“They should get a new house,” said John Grimaldi of Orange Blossom Home Inspections, who inspected the house in August. “Everything was extreme, and I don’t ever use that word.”

Asked to comment, Dream Finders’ general counsel Robert Riva said as the Hamiltons have retained an attorney and are following their contract’s dispute process, Dream Finders “remains committed to working with Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton and their counsel to reach a satisfactory resolution to their claim.”

The Hamiltons decided to move back to Florida from Tennessee last year to be closer to their son. They liked quaint Howey-in-the-Hills and started talking to custom builders.

Dream Finders, a national home builder founded in Jacksonville in 2009, was starting construction on the Talichet neighborhood, spearheaded by developer Flagship Land Group.

Everyone else they talked to offered them lots with septic tanks, a deal breaker. The Dream Finders home was going to be connected to city sewer.

Leah Hamilton, with paperwork for one of the proposed mitigations the builder has offered, at her Howey in the Hills home, on Monday, August 15, 2022. The Hamiltons bought a house on spec from Dream Finders, a large, nationwide builder. For almost a year, they have been dealing with one of the worst sewage issues ever: their wastewater comes out through the shower, bathtubs, and sinks. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel) (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)

The contract for the home was signed in spring, and by September the Hamiltons were ready to move in to their new, 2,922-square-foot, four-bedroom, five-bathroom house.

Three days into their new home, Leah, a banking compliance consultant, was at work when David, a “stay-at-home husband,” called to say the toilet was backing up.

According to the Hamiltons, Dream Finders sent out a plumber who found a test ball used to check for proper water flow in their pipes. The ball was removed, the line cleared and the Hamiltons thought they had seen the last of it.

It was barely a few weeks later before it backed up again. “The next thing we know, we have nine plumber’s trucks outside our house,” Leah said.

This time, the plumbers cleared the lines and said they needed toilets with larger tanks to push with more force.

But the new toilets didn’t stop the backups. Plumbers kept coming out and clearing the lines, unsure of the issue.

After their master bathroom flooded with sewage, a warranty manager for Dream Finders came out, the couple said. While he was there, just a couple days before Thanksgiving, filthy water poured from the second floor through the kitchen light fixtures.

“For Thanksgiving, our house basically looked like a scene out of ‘Criminal Minds,’” Leah said.

The Hamiltons were put up in a hotel by the builder while the second floor was repaired. But when they returned, so did the plumbing issues.

Eventually, two other independent contractors confirmed the source of the problem: the plumbing was back-pitched, which means the sewer line doesn’t slope down as it should. Instead, it ran flat to the street or even toward the house.

Tub faucets and sometimes other faucets have to run at the same time to force the sewage to the street. And it’s not just toilet trouble. Tubs must run during cycles of the dishwasher and washing machine, too.

The Hamiltons’ water bill in July was $1,219. According to data from RentCafe.com, the average water bill in a Florida household is $34.

A prematurely rusted bathtub drain in Leah and David Hamilton’s Howey in the Hills home, on Monday, August 15, 2022. The Hamiltons bought a house on spec from Dream Finders, a large, nationwide builder. For almost a year, they have been dealing with one of the worst sewage issues ever: their wastewater comes out through the shower, bathtubs, and sinks. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel) (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)

Leah says Dream Finders has offered to cover part of the water bill as they told her it was no longer cost effective to keep sending out plumbers to clear the lines.

But Leah says the worst is having to watch each morning to see each other’s waste go through the clean-out.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s your spouse,” Leah said, choking up. “It’s horrifying.”

In July, Howey-in-the-Hills stepped into the fray and stopped issuing new permits to Dream Finders because of the messy situation. “This was not a decision that was entered into lightly,” said town administrator Sean O’Keefe.

The city ordered Dream Finders to identify the issue, explain what they planned to do about it and how they would prevent it from happening with other construction.

Dream Finders, through Orlando law firm Holland & Knight, responded on Aug. 1, first acknowledging that the “nature of the problem is that raw sewage is flowing back into the house,” caused by a lack of “adequate pitch” for the main drain lines.

In an email July 7 between Pro-Team, Dream Finders and the city’s inspectors, Wayne Fortner of Pro-Team Plumbing laid out a proposed solution: lower the main line to feed into a small tank with a lift pump outside the house.

But Leah is against having a tank and a mechanical pump that will require maintenance. Her main concern is the plan to cut through her foundation in several long sections.

Talichet subdivision by Dream Finders Homes in Howey in the Hills home, on Monday, August 15, 2022. Leah and David Hamiltons bought a house on spec from Dream Finders, a large, nationwide builder in this subdivision. For almost a year, they have been dealing with one of the worst sewage issues ever: their wastewater comes out through the shower, bathtubs, and sinks. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel) (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)

Because Dream Finders responded, the town began issuing permits to the company, but with the caveat that they might stop again if Dream Finders doesn’t resolve the issue quickly.

“After the builder is gone and the developer is gone, these are our neighbors,” O’Keefe said. “We’re the ones who live here. We want happy people living here.”

Attorney Karl Pearson of Pearson Doyle Mohre & Pastis in Maitland is handling the case for the Hamiltons. He said he’s reviewing the contract and weighing the next options, which could include arbitration.

Leah said the couple can’t afford to walk away and buy a new house. “We can’t do this forever,” she said. “I would like to retire eventually.”

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