CORCORAN, Calif. ( KSEE/KGPE ) – Over a dozen home buyers in the Kings County city of Corcoran say they have been unable to move into their new houses due to PG&E’s inability to provide the new builds with power.
Since 2021, realtor Reina Madrid says PG&E has worked with developer D.R. Horton to build and power the homes on the Fox Run development in Corcoran. Madrid says in August 2023, families had rental contracts in their hands and were ready to move in – but that excitement was swept out from underneath them after PG&E kept delaying the process to power to the development.
‘How am I supposed to make it?’: Homeless moved from Fresno County encampment “It was first like, February, March, April, May, June, July,” Madrid said. “Now there’s not a specific timeframe on when they should be getting keys.”
Madrid says between 17 and 25 families were in rental agreements out of the 48 lots on the Fox Run development. Two families that she knows of had to sell their homes, and another family had their rent raised after leaving their annual lease agreement for a month-to-month arrangement – all while waiting for their homes to be ready.
According to a letter from D.R. Horton Division President David Hatch to homebuyers, D.R. Horton paid PG&E $98,219.68 on June 29, 2023, to start doing their part to provide power.
“We completed our installation, it was inspected and signed off by PG&E as being installed according to the plans they approved,” the letter reads.
According to the letter on December 8, 2023, PG&E cleared Fox Run for construction, meaning PG&E crews were approved to pull wire through the conduit Horton had installed.
That’s when the first delays took place, according to the letter, while PG&E went through their internal bidding process until January 9, 2024. D.R. Horton was then under the impression that the PG&E construction would take place from March 2024 to April 2024.
However, PG&E also told Horton in February 2024 that easements from neighboring landowners were required to access existing utility poles and conductors to provide power to the development – easements that PG&E had failed to acquire earlier.
Based on PG&E’s initial statement that construction would take place from March to April, Horton decided to give homebuyers the initial move-in date of May 2024, according to homebuyer Mario Carvajal. Carvajal says that’s when the delays started.
“They said that they were going to push it back again to July, August,” Carvajal said. “Then again, we heard mid-July. Now that we’ve had a couple of city council meetings and now we have no date whatsoever.”
Carvajal and his wife were looking forward to becoming first-time homeowners. Due to PG&E’s inability to provide power, they have had to switch to a month-to-month agreement with their current landlord while waiting for the work to be completed.
Carvajal says PG&E is not treating Corcoran as a priority because it is a small community.
“One of the representatives told me that this is not the first time dealing with PG&E in small communities,” Carvajal said. “There’s people unfortunately have been kicked out, sold their homes. Now they have to rent after being homeowners, now they have to rent waiting for a company that obviously doesn’t care what happens to the community.”
In a statement to YourCentralValley.com, PG&E says it has been collaborating closely with D.R. Horton and its designer since May 2021 to explore multiple solutions to provide electricity to Fox Run.
Currently, the homebuilder and its designer are preparing a new redesign for utility service to the subdivision. As part of its collaboration with D.R. Horton, PG&E shared information about potential service to the Fox Run site extensively with the homebuilder beginning in July 2021 and going forward during numerous discussions about various requirements that affect project status and timing. PG&E repeatedly made D.R. Horton aware of these requirements and status so that the company could keep its customers informed of the project timeline.
As it has from Day One, PG&E will continue to collaborate with D.R. Horton to discuss plans for energizing Fox Run safely and reliably. We also continue to keep our stakeholders in the City of Corcoran informed.
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
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