Florida’s Chinese Drywall Problems Go Back at Least 3 Years
Over the past several months, owners of newer homes in South Florida have been complaining of drywall that smells like rotten eggs. In several cases, they have had to leave their home because the smell was so bad.  In addition to the putrid smell, many South Florida homeowners have reported problems with air conditioning and other systems that are likely related to the defective Chinese drywall.  Some spent hundreds - even thousands of dollars - to have air conditioning, pipes and wiring repaired.

Builder barred from industry
A state commission on Wednesday banned Jarrell homebuilder Pete Stucky from working in the residential construction industry for his lifetime. The Texas Residential Construction Commission said Stucky and his affiliates victimized dozens of homeowners when he failed to make repairs that were under warranty and hid the fact some properties he built and sold had liens against them. And folks who bought Stucky’s homes who have warranty problems have nowhere to go for redress.

Rep. Johnson seeks to strengthen consumer, employee rights
Rep. Hank Johnson (GA-04) introduced legislation today known as the Arbitration Fairness Act. The bill aims to protect consumers from business practices that require them to cede their rights to a jury trial as a condition of service. The Judiciary Committee, on which Johnson serves, held hearings on the bill in 2007 and 2008. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) introduced similar legislation in the Senate in 2007. Today, many businesses rely on mandatory and binding pre-dispute arbitration agreements that force consumers, employees and franchisees to settle any dispute with a company providing products or services without the benefit of a jury trial.  Read more...

Update: Residents of the Contaminated Lennar Built Wescott Community in Summerville SC
Continued and new health issues have Wescott residents deeply concerned.  The residents with the help of Erin Brokovich who has been working with the Lennar homeowner for nearly two years are beginning to realize results.  Former Senior Science Policy Advisor at EPA Region 9, Matt Hagemann who also worked at the Superfund and Waste divisions will send test results from Wescott to the EPA.  One resident has confirmed contact with The Fraud Discovery Institute in San Diego as well.  More Updates soon...

Screwed by the Fine Print
Arbitration does not grant the three main safeguards guaranteed by our public courts: fairness, accountability and neutrality. The corporation chooses a private individual--who is not necessarily a judge or lawyer--to hear and decide the case. Corporations are repeat customers whose appeasement generates steady business. Studies show that arbitrators have financial reason to rule in their favor. Corporate clients get preferential treatment; regular people do not get anything resembling neutral decision-making.

Builder Banned for life
Banned for life. Pete Stucky can build no more in the lone star state. The Texas Residential Construction Commission approved the ban against Stucky and his business Affiliates LLC. Stucky's legal troubles are far from over... He was arrested late last year on misdemeanor perjury charges accused of signing legal documents saying there were no unpaid debts on several houses he built. Investigators told us Stucky admitted he signed the documents knowing it was false. His case is expected to go before a Williamson County grand jury next week.

Lennar Has Begun Removing Defective Chinese Drywall in Florida Homes
Over the past several months, owners of newer homes in South Florida have been complaining of drywall that smells like rotten eggs. In several cases, they have had to leave their home because the smell was so bad.  In addition to the putrid smell, many South Florida homeowners have reported problems with air conditioning and other systems that are likely related to the defective Chinese drywall.  Some spent hundreds - even thousands of dollars - to have air conditioning, pipes and wiring repaired.

Contact 13 Investigation: Red curbs in one Southwest neighborhood
"Oh, it's crazy!  It's just crazy!" Minkler says...Builder KB homes put in streets in the development that are too narrow for emergency vehicles to get through if cars are parked on both sides... Eleven cars were gone with no explanation...  Every car parked on their street had been towed away just hours after the curb was painted... Some neighbors met for the first time at this Custom Towing office where each one of them had to come up with $300 cash to get their cars back.  Neighbors tell us their single-car garages are too small for most cars, and the auxiliary lot a block away fills up fast, leaving them nowhere to park.

Homeowners getting stuck with homebuilder bills
The housing bust is leading to a disturbing trend across North Texas. Homeowners who've paid for their new house once are finding they may have to pay for it again.  Beverly Devaughn thought she found her perfect home - a $1.3 million mansion, the Frisco doctor built from the ground up. "I wanted to build a dream home," she said but added it had turned into a "nightmare." That's because near the end of construction, letters started arriving - liens, totaling $200,000, filed by angry subcontractors. Even though Devaughn fully paid her builder, he didn't pay the subcontractors he hired.

Grassroots Resistance to Housing Foreclosures Spreads
"This is a crowd that won't scatter," James Steele wrote in the pages of The Nation some seventy-five years ago. Early one morning in July 1933, the police had evicted John Sparanga and his family from a home on Cleveland's east side... A grassroots "home defense" organization, which had managed to forestall the eviction on three occasions, put out the call, and 10,000 people--mainly working-class immigrants from Southern and Central Europe--soon gathered, withstanding wave after wave of police tear gas, clubbings and bullets, "vowing not to leave until John Sparanga [was] back in his home." ...By the end of the 1930s, farmers' and home-owners' struggles had pushed the legislatures of no fewer than twenty-seven states to pass moratoriums on foreclosures.  In the early months of 2007, as the first of the subprime lenders began to declare bankruptcy, Bautista started contacting major lenders, asking them to stop foreclosures and take part in a "massive loan-modification program"--dropping interest rates, writing down principals and donating executive bonuses to a fund for borrowers at risk of default. ...At the time, almost one-fourth of Countrywide's subprime loans were delinquent. The meeting, Bautista says, was fruitless: "Eyes are closed, ears are closed." Over the next few months, she met three more times with Countrywide management, getting nowhere

Homebuilder under investigation seeks stimulus tax break
One homebuilder that's under federal investigation and has left starter home communities in Charlotte, N.C., struggling with foreclosures is vying for a tax break in the almost $900 billion stimulus bill being considered by Congress. Beazer Homes USA is one of 37 companies that signed on to a letter last week urging senators to give businesses a waiver on income taxes they'd owe on canceled debt. The tax break, estimated to cost more than $19 billion, has widespread support across several industries — mortgage bankers, truckers, farmers and contractors among them.Atlanta-based Beazer is the subject of a mortgage-lending probe involving the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The North Carolina Real Estate Commission is also investigating the company's lending practices.

State Law- Predatory Lending & Mortgage Fraud
State AG's Make Countrywide Pay - When will  Board Members, the masterminds be held accountable. Countrywide sold subprime loans, including adjustable rate mortgages ("ARMs") with teaser rates that were unaffordable and unconscionable to West Virginia consumers. These loans exposed consumers to foreclosure and loss of their homes. Countrywide also used unfair and deceptive acts or practices to sell loans and service loans. Read more...

UPDATE 2-KB sees Open Series as half of 2H09 deliveries
KB is targeting the first-time buyer now because that buyer does not need to jump the hurdle of first selling a home before buying a new one, Mezger said. KB can offer Open Series homes cheaply because the designs are more efficient and take less time to build, Mezger said, offering the example of a 1,700 square foot home that cost 15 percent, or about $23,000, less to build than a comparable older product. But because the company only lowered the price about 10 percent, its margins increased, providing an enhanced profit and a cushion against further marketwide price declines, Mezger said.

Defective Chinese Drywall Used in Florida Lieutenant Governor’s Home
According to a report on NBC2News.com,  Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp is warning others who suspect they have a drywall problem to have the air in their homes tested.  According to NBC2News.com, Kottkamp’s home in Fort Meyers was built with the defective Chinese drywall.  The home was Aubuchon homes, which incidentally, is owned by Gary Aubuchon.  Aubuchon was appointed to Kottkamps’s seat in the Florida state house when he became Lieutenant Governor, NBC2News.com said. Kottkamp told NBC2News.com that an investigation is needed to determine how suppliers ended up with the drywall.  He also said the drywall problems show a need for tougher standards on either the federal or state level.  Finally, he urged other Florida homeowners experiencing smells or other problems in their homes to have them tested.