Hold on now.  TRCC is and has always been in major trouble.  Most victims are very anxious to testify and see it as a great opportunity.  A lot more is happening.  Soooo...Stay tuned...

House Judiciary Subcommittee - 3 Arbitration bills voted out of Committee
Update on the mark-up that occurred this afternoon before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.  All three bills passed!!! The hearing began with Chairwoman Sanchez introducing the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act... Next up was the Auto Arbitration Fairness Act, H.R. 5312...Lastly, Congressman Johnson introduced the Arbitration Fairness Act, H.R. 3010... 5 - 4. Yes votes were Watt, Delahunt, Johnson, Sanchez, and Cohen. Although Congresswoman Lofgren was not present at the time, she previously stated she would support the bill. No votes were Jordan, Cannon, Keller and Feeny.
Read more... 

Why spin a message of deceit.
Let me remind you that most consumer products are manmade and have a real warranty. The homebuilding industry has had centuries to perfect its trade yet homes today are built to self-destruct within a few short years while 300-year-old structures built by pioneers with primitive tools remain standing.

Contrary to what Brian Binash had to say, the official Texas IRC building standard is the lowest in the nation and home warranties are unenforceable. Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an official opinion that the state adopted International Residential Code (IRC) could be amended to a lower MINIMUM standard. Consequently the Texas IRC code is officially being amended by cities throughout the state and the county has no enforcement of building standards whatsoever.

For crying-out-loud, have some pride in the homebuilding profession.

This area is designated for requests and suggestions. If you have a builder that needs to be added to the board or a burning topic with no area for discussion, let us know and we will try to accommodate you better.

Create a new topic in this area and let us know what we can do to make this a better community for you and others.

Thanks for your time.

The admins.

Ooops!  I just noticed it appears threads are blank again. It happens when the thread gets up to 10 responses.  If you logout you can read the posts, but of course you can't post without being logged in.  I understand it can be view using Fire Fox rather than Internet Explorer.
 I am still trying to get someone to work on it.

     We are so happy to see the site is back up again.  I am sorry for the problem and it appears that everything is finally working fine.
Thanks to all for your patience.

I think any discussion on legal matters needs to be very informal.   The last thing we want to do is promote legal action.

I have been having problems for some time now and thought it was just me.  Now others are having trouble. It appears it starts happening when the thread gets up to 10 responses.  If you logout you can read the posts, but of course you can't post without being logged in.
 I am trying to get someone to work on it.

Ron Jackson & Ed:

That is where I was headed when I wrote the following:
I believe any effort to assist in helping resolve issues between the homeowner and contractor can be accomplished in a much more informal way than labeling it mediation or arbitration.  
Perhaps the third (part) could be a public discussion titled "Between Builder and Customer" that encourages builder participation, which might generate even volunteer legal expert discussions that would encourage resolution of the problems..

It could function as a method for oversight.
That is what I had in mind when I suggested the third part of the forum, "Between Builder and Customer".  This might be the area to help bring many issues to resolution for the victim.  First I envision it as a place for victims to be heard, which some might say is risky and too negative for the purpose of ECHO. However, if approached right it should be a place for the builders to be heard as well and be promoted as a positive vehicle or should I say an opportunity for builders to show their professional side or even redeem themselves.  

Example: In the past many builders have contacted me about negative posts by their customers on the HOBB website and plead their innocence and asked me to remove the post that was killing their business. After I explain that our policy does not allow us to remove any posts, I learned that they are very frustrated and want a way to resolve the issues.  A few phone calls and e-mails soon brought resolution for some.   I am thinking ECHO would become a center for dialog to bring resolution, which could improve the industry's image.

What I would look for is a means to encourage participating ECHO contractors in good standing to show their concern and lend their expertise to assist both the victim and encourage the builder to show good faith to resolve the issues before escalating too far. It would be a place for the builder's side to be heard.  I understand builder’s reluctance in participating on the HOBB site but ECHO might make them more comfortable since it will be promoting builders.

To be effective it must be a site that encourages the most public interest participation. Last year I visited some building industry related sites to join in the discussion about the problems within the industry and made what I thought were non-inflammatory comments. As Ed might remember, my comments were immediately attacked, but than other builders or industry affiliates surprisingly came to my defense.  What it did was create interest and the activity on that forum I’m sure substantially increased.  Which I thought was good.

Does anyone feel this might be feasible?

A FANTASTIC IDEA!
I wholeheartedly praise any positive message to promote ‘Better Building’ and would enthusiastically endorse honoring those contractors that display professional ethical principles. In fact, I would consider it an honor to volunteer my time to sit on the ECHO board.

We at HOBB have often contemplated a list of trustworthy approved contractors with the “HOBB seal of approval” endorsement.

The ability to find good, trustworthy contractors is really not that difficult because we recognize there are many that would be eager to be acknowledged for their good work and pride in their profession.  Unfortunately, for the good guys it is the bad guys that deservedly make the big headlines.

The problem is, like everything else it takes volunteer time and computer programming technology.  If that could be provide the idea of ECHO would be a blessing.

There is only one part of this discussion that is a bit unsettling to me.  That is talk of including legal advice, mediation, especially arbitration in any form.  I would rather see more discussion about the use of a positive ECHO website to give public attention to contractors that do good honest work in the building industry.

I believe any effort to assist in helping resolve issues between the homeowner and contractor can be accomplished in a much more informal way than labeling it mediation or arbitration. 

For example, a carefully crafted positive message website with a 2 or 3 part forum might accomplish the same thing.  The first part of the forum would definitely need to be a positive forum that praises honest contractors.  By the same token the second part would need to be a forum that is geared to helping give homeowners troubled by the bad guys a voice to expose the bad behavior in the industry.  Perhaps the third could be a public discussion titled "Between Builder and Customer" that encourages builder participation, which might generate even volunteer legal expert discussions that would encourage resolution of the problems.

In my opinion it is the healthy public discussions that will ultimately bring out the honesty of builders and their sincerity to take care of unhappy customers.  Public discussion is healthy and can produce positive results.  In fact, the HOBB website has many examples of success stories as the result of public discussion.

As one unhappy customer testified in the Sandra Bullock trial, when describing his unpleasant experience and conversation with the same builder said,  “Word on the street is Sandra Bullock is going to sue you.  You need a happy customer.  I can be that customer if you just do the right thing.  The rest is history… A well covered media event became the demise of one very arrogant bad homebuilder.
 
Industry networking with consumer groups to sheds light on the good in the building industry as well as the problems, even with less emphasis, is healthy for both the industry and the consumer. 

You can count on my endorsement.

We took the button off becasue there were too many buttons across the top.
Instead I put a feature on the left side    "Visit HOBB Forums"

I just saw the last post by Ray Koenig while responding and will change the color.  You comments and suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks to all who participate.
Janet

I didn’t mean my comment to sound negative.

What I don’t understand is that I have not seen a drop in e-mail, letters, phone call complaints, and community organization to fight back.  To the contrary, I have seen a sharp increase. The traffic on the sight is consistently over $1 million a month.

What is troubling is why more people are not participating on the forum.  It must have something to do with the forum itself.  If HOBB is serving the needs of victims and the traffic is high, then why are people not taking advantage of the opportunity to be heard?

 Any ideas what can be done to make the forum more inviting?

 I'm surprised more people have not commented on the injustice.

Mirasol Homeowner Belonging Held Hostage
http://www.ksat.com/news/16262254/detail.html

This recent display of immoral behavior is common.  This time KB got caught and was exposed.

KB Home has a pattern of this kind of bullying behavior.   As a matter of warranty policy KB requires homeowners sign a full release and has even been known to routinely require homeowners to sign a non-disclosure agreement to get basic warranty repairs completed.

Example, during a walkthrough a buy noted the carpet was defective which KB agreed to replace if they closed on the home that day.  After three months of constant pleading and begging KB finally agreed to replace the carpet if the owner agreed to sign a non-disclosure to not tell anyone, especially their neighbors or the news media, etc.

Of course the owners agreed, their carpet was replaced and the story never made the news.

With KB Home a home warranty is conditioned upon the homeowner signing away their rights. While most industries pride themselves on the quality of their products, the homebuilding industry survives on producing defective homes with conditional warranties. 

Builders, not just KB challenge their customers to hiring an attorney to make warranty issues legal disputes, knowing the average family can not afford litigation as their foundations fail, defective windows and roofs leak and their health declines and mold grows, etc.

It's “Deal or No Deal” not a warranty!