Some complain new homeowner-rights bill not enough
News 8 has reported numerous stories of homeowners complaining of shoddy construction, and being left with expensive repairs. Lawmakers promised to find a way to hold homebuilders accountable, but some wonder if a bill passed Monday really does that...Unsafe and leaky construction has forced Dawn Richardson to move out of the new home she's still paying for. Richardson said the problem was mold, and the lack of a statewide code that would require homebuilders to meet specific standards. "The builders know they can't be held accountable, so I don't think that they are working to resolve issues," Richardson said.

Shoddy Building in the Housing Boom?
Annette Perry was giving her daughter Susan a bath when she heard what sounded like "a truck" slamming into the second story of her new $133,000 home in suburban Phoenix. She ran outside with her towel-clad two-year-old to inspect the roof. Nothing was visibly wrong. It wasn't until she was back inside that she noticed her dining-room ceiling was newly cracked from front to back. She says the builder, KB Home (KBH ), had installed the wrong type of supports for the roof in one spot and failed to align them in another area, causing her walls to bow.

Contractor watchdog faulted
The state agency charged with watching over construction in Arizona isn't doing enough to protect consumers, according to a report from the Auditor General's Office.The audit said the agency needs to fix a $5.5 million deficit in the recovery fund, which helps people who lose money to licensed contractors. A residential builder pays $300 initially to the fund and then $150 annually.

Attention Taxpayers!  New Public Housing built by KB
For those of you who are keeping up with your tax dollars at work. "San Antonio Housing Authority commissioners narrowed the scope of their investigation into problems at Mirasol Homes to  three questions and told their attorney to hire experts to get answers as soon as possible. Are the homes structurally sound? Did SAHA get what was specified and paid for? Did SAHA administrators perform reasonable and acceptable oversight?"

Homeowners may get relief from KB Home 
A bitter battle over the quality of some new homes on the far West Side may be resolved by an offer from the builder, KB Home, to purchase the houses back from their current owners. KB officials released a letter from the firm's in-house counsel Tuesday that advises an attorney retained by three homeowners in the Tara West Subdivision of the repurchase option... Council members Enrique Barrera, Enrique "Kike" Martin and Nora Herrera looked at problems in the homes Tuesday and came away convinced the deficiencies were severe. Mayor Ed Garza said he, too, examined the homeowners' claims last weekend and became convinced a buyback by KB Home was the only appropriate response.   

Prospective Homebuyers, Protesters Mix At Grand Opening
The Lago Vista subdivision is the first in a series of subdivisions targeting low-income homebuyers in the inner cities. The houses are being built in a joint venture with American CityVista, a company that is headed by former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros. "Maybe it's the soil," Wiese said. "Maybe they shouldn't have built my house there. I need answers and I need something done. My house continues to crack." Janet Ahmad, a member of an organization called Homeowners For Better Builders, also was there to protest. "The builders cannot be held accountable," she said. "That's why people can only resort to this type of thing."

KB Homeowners Fighting Mad
Dozens of KB homeowners are fighting mad and taking their case to City Hall. They’re complaining about problems with their homes in the Northhampton, El Sendero and Tara subdivisions. KB homes admits having problems with shifting soils in the Tara subdivision but homeowners tell News 4 WOAI they wish they would have known about it before buying their new home.

David Weekley Homes' Hypocritical Donations Incite Families Hurt by Homebuilder
David Weekley Homes has hurt many families making them homeless, hurting them financially, and sometimes even injuring them physically. In the meantime, they have just given $50,000 to a national charity that provides homes to the temporarily homeless. This is beyond hypocritical - it is cruel and egregious that they would take hardworking families' money and build them houses so full of construction defects and contamination that they are unsafe to live in and then turn the other way refusing to take FULL responsibility for the economic damages, injuries, and pain and suffering they have caused.

Faulty construction, mold-attracting materials, builder shortcuts hazardous to new homes Willard and Cinda Thomas say their dream house almost killed them. Only four years after moving into the 3,000-square-foot model home in Keller, Cinda had joint pain to the point where she could barely walk. Willard became weak, depressed, asthmatic and arthritic...Mold may be the last thing home buyers think of on moving day. But home inspectors and some homeowners have found that new homes are not exempt from sometimes devastating mold infestation. Faulty building techniques, builder shortcuts during the construction boom and some materials that serve as food for mold are being blamed for mold moving into some new homes as fast as the new owners do.

New Weapons In The War On Toxic Mold
In March, the Richardsons sued the builder, David Weekley Homes, claiming that their negligence during the construction process created the optimal environment for the growth of toxic molds and compounds, many of which produce poisonous chemicals that cause chronic and acute health problems, including cancer.

Read the Fine Print
"We had no idea that by signing a contract we were giving up the right to ever have our story heard by a jury," says homeowner Dawn Richardson. "You never imagine that the people building your home are trying to hurt you." In March 2001, Dawn and her husband Scott filed suit against David Weekley Homes, claiming their new $300,000 Austin house was contaminated with toxic mold resulting from a water leak that began the previous year, just days after they moved in. Though the family spent only five weeks living in their new home, Dawn Richardson says both she and her young daughter suffered neurological damage that physicians diagnosed as environmental toxic exposure, which may be irreversible...Reggie James, director of Consumers Union's Southwest Regional Office, compared binding arbitration to a bullet: It does the same amount of harm to consumers whether they see it coming or not.

On April 26, 2001 an 18-wheeler ran off of I-30 and crashed into our home when its driver had a heart attack. We had lived in our new home for only one day when the accident occurred, which rendered it uninhabitable. The truck driver's insurance refused to pay for the repairs to our home claiming that the driver's heart attack was an act of God, and therefore, not covered.

Link: http://www.texaswatch.org/hallofshame_share_consumerlaw_story.asp?insurid=135