Five On Your Side 'Dives' Into Holly Springs' Pool Situation

Kyle and Kathryn Kornbau have a sign on their Holly Springs house that is more of a demand than a question -- "Where's our pool?" They say the neighborhood pool the builder promised is supposed to be right across the street.

"We thought that would be great," Kathryn said.

But instead of clear, cool, refreshing water, Kathryn said "we have a dirt pile."

The Kornbaus said the promise of a pool is a big reason they bought in Fortis Homes' Braxton Village.

"They were selling us on the pool. We were very adamant with our real estate agent and with them. We want to be in a pool community and they kept going, 'Yeah, we're going to get one,'" Kathryn said.

The "planned" community pool was advertised in the NewHome Book and on the Fortis Homes Web site. The opening date was supposed to be in spring 2002, but then last fall, the Kornbaus saw "for sale" signs going up across the street. After letters and meetings, the Kornbaus got an answer.

"We were told, 'Well, it was proposed. We really didn't promise it,'" Kathryn said.

At least 49 others in the Braxton Village community signed a petition saying they, too, were promised a pool, so Five On Your Side called Fortis Homes.

Area President Mike Reiser told Five On Your Side the company did not build as many homes as originally planned and did not want to foot the entire bill for the pool. When Five On Your Side suggested that was not the homeowners' fault, he said he would get back with us.

Reiser did get back to Five On Your Side and now he said Fortis and the developer are within a week or two of nailing down the specifics of the pool project. He said Five On Your Side "lit a fire" under them and called it "a good thing."

The Kornbaus and their neighbors said the new development is definitely a good thing, and they said they have learned something from this incident.

"I will never buy another house in a community that's not at least almost completely done, and I will not trust people when they tell me about the future," Kyle said.

There is no word yet from Fortis or the developer when the pool will be started, but Five On Your Side will continue to update this situation.