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Following we are in need of the same in a city not far…so far we have been working with Mi Casa Bella but I do have some issues/concerns with them.

Hi, what issues and concerns are you having with them?

Response time, a $10,000  price increase when we were told our contract would not be subject to the increase and just hoops to go thru to get things moving…I do like that they have existing models but to make changes is fairly costly.

Is your house completely built and are you happy with it?

Does Casa bella handle all of the permits needed? Also how involved did you have to be during the construction. I don't live in Puerto Rico thats my concern.

Personally, whether or not I were in Puerto Rico, I would also hire a project manager to guard the chicken coop. I would never rely on the bank or the contractor to complete the work timely and to code. The project manager, usually an architect, performs interim inspections and reports problems to the owner independently, and submits AIA docs to the owner advising how much should be paid to the contractor for the scope completed at that point.

I would do this anywhere in the world. An owner is not knowledgeable enough to tangle with a contractor. They are all crooks.

We are just starting this process, but yes Casa Bella will pull all necessary permits but does require pre contract work that other builders do not.

How far into the process are you and did you shop around before deciding to go with Casa bella? I would like to build in Aguadilla where are you building? Also if you don't mind me asking how much are spending and what model did you pick? (Excluding land purchase) Thanks.

What is precontract work?

I am working with Casa Bella.  They were slow to respond to begin with.  However, now we are finishing the changes to the Paula model.  They are communicating with us very well.  We are hoping to move forward to the permitting process in the next few weeks.

We were in the same spot as you, making final plan changes to get to the contract signing and today Casa Bella just called to say they were not accepting new contracts for a year and on top of that increasing all model prices by 25%. For the model we chose, this is a $67,000 increase to us and they are using the "cost of materials" as the reason...now here in the states, the material costs have not increased that much and where it has, PR cannot even use those materials.  Did anyone also get this same communication? I'd love to hear from anyone who has been working with Casa Bella or anyone that might have some insight to fair consumer practices in PR that have clearly been violated in our case we confirmed there was no price increases coming as Casa Bella was dragging their feet to initiate a contract for us.

You might want to call DACO: