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Florida mother deployed overseas frustrated with leaks in brand-new home

A deployed mother's recently built house that she purchased has a leaking roof. (Photo: ActionNewJax.com)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A deployed mother told Action News Jax she's frustrated that her brand-new house is leaking while she's serving overseas in the Navy.

The builder is a company Action News Jax has investigated in the past for complaints of shoddy construction.

Olivia Cannon’s next-door neighbor told Action News Jax he also noticed multiple leaks in his Dream Finders home in June, six months after he moved into his newly constructed house.

“The entire situation is tiring, it’s stressful and it shouldn’t be happening. Not in a six-month-old house,” Cannon said.

Before Cannon deployed with the Navy to Japan, she wanted to make sure her two kids and mother had a nice place to live.

That’s why she bought a brand-new home from Dream Finders.

“This is the first new home I’ve lived in my entire life. I’ve worked my entire life to have a home like this. And I couldn’t have been more disappointed when I received this information,” Cannon said.

In January, a home inspector reported that he spotted three roof construction problems at the home that could lead to leaks.

Cannon said she spotted three holes in the ceiling leaking water into a bucket before she closed on the home in January.

A form that Cannon said shows what Dream Finders promised to fix before move-in noted “roof leak and nail heads.”

Cannon's mother Elaine Sturgeon said the ceiling started leaking again in the same spot on Saturday.

“I looked up there and it was a little spot, where that little spot is right up there, it was bulged out like there was something behind it. And it was water,” said Sturgeon.

Dream Finders’ attorney Robert Riva said no one from Dream Finders was willing to talk on camera about this, but Riva answered Action News Jax’s questions by email.

Action News Jax asked Riva if Dream Finders is experiencing known issues with its roofing subcontractors leading to leaks in its new construction.

“To my knowledge, no,” Riva said in an email.

Roofers were supposed to come to Cannon’s house Thursday to fix the problem, but that did not happen.

Riva said the roofing subcontractor is supposed to fix the problem this week.