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Defects in a new home rose from 52.7 in 2004 to 62.4 in 2005 |
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Sunday, 07 May 2006 |
Snagging Problems On The Rise
According to research carried out by Inspector Home, a specialist snagging company that works on behalf of buyers, the average number of defects in a new home rose from 52.7 in 2004 to 62.4 in 2005. |
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Strayhorn said she'd do it again |
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Friday, 05 May 2006 |
Abbott: Comptroller had no authority to issue building report
State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn had no authority to investigate and release a critical report about the performance of the Texas Residential Construction Commission this year, state Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled Wednesday. Strayhorn's response: She'd do it again, and she all but dared Abbott to try to stop her...She criticized the agency, created in 2003, as acting as a "builder protection agency" with no power to enforce homebuilders to repair construction defects in new houses. |
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State Agency Fleecing Texas Homeowners |
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Friday, 05 May 2006 |
A collection of South Texas Political gossip
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Wednesday that Carole 4 names, 3 parties had no right to investigate the organization set up to facilitate the fleecing of Texas home owners...State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn had no authority to investigate and release a critical report about the performance of the Texas Residential Construction Commission this year, state Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled Wednesday. Strayhorn's response: She'd do it again, and she all but dared Abbott to try to stop her. |
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Strayhorn rapped over investigation |
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Friday, 05 May 2006 |
Attorney general rules she didn't have authority to recommend an agency be closed
"I was asked by a legislator to investigate the Texas Residential Construction Commission. I did it, and if the attorney general wants to take me to court, let's go," she said.Strayhorn said her investigation was prompted by a request from state Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, who wanted to know how the agency's consumer complaint process compared with other states and if legislation that created the commission discouraged good home building.
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Thursday, 04 May 2006 |
Home builders see declines in shares
Shares of Hovnanian fell $2.39, or 6.2 percent, to close at $36.39 on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of other home builders also suffered. D.R. Horton Inc., the largest home builder, fell 30 cents, or 1 percent, to finish at $29.44 on the NYSE. Pulte Homes Inc. shares dropped 85 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $35.75, while KB Home shares slipped $1.16, or 1.9 percent, to $59.50. |
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TRCC Builder Protection Agency in the News Again |
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Wednesday, 03 May 2006 |
AG says comptroller had no authority to issue critical report
"I did it, and if the attorney general wants to take me to court, let's go," she said. "If a legislator requests me to act when it comes to the fiscal matters of this state, I will act. This is a constitutional office and we disagree with the opinion," she said. The review was requested by Rep. Todd Smith of Euless in August 2005. Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, then asked Abbott if Strayhorn had the authority to conduct such a review...The practical effect of the ruling on the construction agency report is negligible. Strayhorn's report was finished and released months ago. She held a news conference the day she put it out. |
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Ryan Homeowners Sound Off |
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Thursday, 27 April 2006 |
PlanetFeedback - The Voice of One, The Power of Many
Ryan Homeowners Sound Off
"There is one thing that Ryan Homes/NVR Mortgage/ NVR Inc. is good at, and that’s sucking the fun and happiness out of building a new home. At a time when my family should be ecstatic about moving into a brand new house, we are nothing but stressed and depressed about what owning this new house means." |
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Mold Case Settled But Family Still Homeless |
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Saturday, 22 April 2006 |
In mold fight, state must lend a hand
The Chandlers spent four years, much of their time and all of their money fighting to be compensated for their unlivable home... Holidays came and went; years passed, and the Chandlers were still locked in a legal battle with the insurance company, trying to get justice for themselves and their kids. And at the end of the battle, at the end of four years of court fights, of homelessness, of watching their children suffer, the Chandlers are still without the one thing that started this in the first place: a home. |
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Saturday, 22 April 2006 |
Habitat house demolished after mold problem found
Mary and Darin McHenry watched Thursday as demolition workers scooped up debris from what once was their home and piled it into a big truck to haul it away... Habitat officials decided it would be less expensive to have it demolished and a new manufactured home moved in than to fix the problems. Bad breaks and mistakes have left Habitat officials with a big bill and an even bigger disappointment: the gift of a good Samaritan turned into a pile of boards and crumbled drywall.
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Mold in New School Settled After Long Battle |
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Saturday, 22 April 2006 |
Settlement Reached After Mold Found In Madison School
Almost three dozen teachers and students settled their four-year-long lawsuit on Friday against a construction company after mold was found in a Madison elementary school in 2001.Chavez Elementary School opened in 2001, but closed two months later because mold was apparently found in a majority of classrooms, WISC-TV reported. See extensive news coverage. |
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Saturday, 22 April 2006 |
$650,000 settlement in Madison school mold case
The lawsuit claimed that the company that built the school allowed the mold to grow during construction. After the problems showed up, the school was closed, torn open, cleaned and reconstructed to rid it of mold in many classrooms. An investigation found that damp interior walls and other moisture problems had been allowed to go unchecked, leading to mold along ceiling tiles, baseboards and other parts of the building. |
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KB Home’s CEO Bruce Karatz Compensation $164 Million |
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Saturday, 15 April 2006 |
CEO pay in US continues its relentless climb in 2005
Few things expose the real character of American society and politics more clearly than the extraordinary and ever-increasing level of inequality, the accumulation of vast, almost incomprehensible, sums of wealth in the hands of relatively small group of people... USA Today published its annual report on CEO pay April 10, based on data collected by eComp Data Services. The analysis included a chart of the compensation doled out to chief executives at 240 of the country’s largest companies, where total compensation included direct salary, bonuses, incentives, gains from exercised stock options, and the value of newly issued stock options.... The other executives at large companies breaking the $100 million mark were KB Home’s Bruch Karatz ($164 million)... See related story: KB CEO gets $34 million pay-Equal to surge of KB's annual profit |
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Saturday, 15 April 2006 |
A California Builder’s Guide to Reducing Mold Risk
The research project which generated this report is titled “Energy-Efficient Mold-Resistant Building Materials and Construction Practices for New California Homes.” The project resulted from a concern that mold in residential construction has become a prominent public issue in recent years, and that mold problems may have implications for energy consumption. The people of California funded this project under the PIER program (Public Interest Energy Research), which is administered by the California Energy Commission on their behalf. Mold & New Home Guide |
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Beware of Mold - Investor Sells HUD Condemned House |
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Wednesday, 12 April 2006 |
Before buying a home, check for mold
Rubdie now has fans, dehumidifiers, and air purifiers throughout the house to try to cut down on the moisture and mold. Meanwhile, she says, "I received an anonymous HUD listing in the mail and it said this house had been condemned. It said there was no admittance to the property because of toxic mold." In the year since HUD found the toxic mold, the house was sold twice before Rubdie bought it. During that time it was gutted and fixed up but wetness in the concrete slab apparently remains. That moisture causes mold growth inside the walls that rest on the concrete. |
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Don't Blame Lawyers - Build It Right or Just Fix It |
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Wednesday, 12 April 2006 |
Homebuilders fighting defect lawsuits get aggressive
After four construction-defect lawsuits were filed by 85 of its homebuyers starting last year, JTS Communities Inc. opted to bypass the plaintiffs' attorneys to deal with the homeowners directly -- a tactic JTS says has led 55 plaintiffs to drop their complaints.The attorneys counter that if builders don't want to be sued, they should build better houses (see story below). It took lawsuits to get builders to pay attention to homeowners, they claim, and there are more Band-Aids than permanent fixes in the new strategy to go directly to homeowners to get lawsuits to go away. |
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