HOBB Community

•   Roof trusses that are barely attached
•   Missing roof bracing
•   A missing roof truss
•   Roofs that leak
•   Cracked foundations
•   Lagoons that are filled with silt
•   retaining walls that fall down
•   timber bridges that are in "nobody's" jurisdiction
•   Stucco that doesn’t meet minimum building code requirements (too much water; not enough cement)

Who’s minding the store? Nobody is.

In Beaufort County, South Carolina, the Office of Building Code Enforcement re-inspected more than 2,500 houses after it was discovered that they issued occupancy permits for houses where roof trusses were barely attached and were missing roof bracing, and in at least one house, even missing an entire roof truss!

More than six months ago a property owner reported to South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Ocean & Coastal Resource Management, that lagoons in his neighborhood are filled with silt and don’t function properly. What has DHEC-OCRM done? For more than six months, they’ve been “studying” the problem! How long does it take to conclude that there’s a problem with lagoons that plans show should be several feet deep, but have birds walking around in the middle? Apparently, six months isn’t long enough for the officials at SCDHEC-OCRM!

When Pulte's engineer made public statements that Sun City Hilton Head's houses are "robustly constructed", but hadn't inspected said houses, South Carolina's professional engineer review board (SCDLL&R) did nothing about it.

Don’t expect the big media to take on the egregious practices of big builders. Big builders pay big bucks for advertising.

Don’t expect the politicians to take on big builders. Big builders contribute big bucks to the politicians’ campaigns.

Who’s minding the store? Nobody is. It’s a scary thought, isn’t it?

It is the few victims that are willing to speak up and warn others what they may encounter with new construction; although I was very pleased to see the Houston Chronicle doing a front page story on shoddy construction a few weeks back.