FOUNDATION UPDATE:
The myths of watering foundations and under designed foundations.
Too much rain, lack of rain, trees as “Acts of God” exposed as a fairy tale.

Because of so many homeowner complaints describing foundation failures the American Society of Engineers asked for comments and recommendations from all engineer in Texas.  The recommendation from the engineers who participated was to design slabs stiffer.  The suggested proposed results were astounding; the recommended guideline changes would increase foundation strength by 2700% at an estimated cost of only a $1,000 for a 2,500 square foot one story home or a 5,000 square foot two story.

At a recent meeting of the Texas Residential Construction Committee (TRCC) Warranty Standards Committee, a group of engineers presented their suggestions regarding what it would take to beef up foundations.  They described and acknowledged that home foundations are being designed by engineers to less stringent standards in order to build foundations cheaper.
 
One of the committee members describing how homeowners are instructed by the builder to put a soaker hose around the perimeter of the home, and never turn it off in order to keep the foundation from cracking and keep it stable.  He then asked how much water was needed to maintain a foundation.  The well known engineer responded, you can not maintain a foundation by watering it because “you can never water enough.”   

It was then pointed out that the cost of water over even a relatively short period of time would far exceed the cost of $1,000 to stiffen the foundation significantly when it is built.

So finally we have it on authority that the excuse for foundation failures caused by too much rain, lack of rain or trees is a fairy tale, and that “Acts of God” are manmade in order to increase builder’s profits.

Janet Ahmad

It’s my opinion that the builder, Sitterle Homes has shot themselves in the feet.

You see, the press was all over this story and the court room was filed with cameras when the trial began last Thursday.  I dare say this case would have gone unnoticed but for the unwise decision by Sitterle Homes to so shamelessly try to intimidate an active duty Colonel with a frivolous lawsuit.

Have builders gone mad with their sense of power? What it comes down to is a very public display of arrogance by Sitterle attempting to suppress free speech of a unhappy customer that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Not a wise decision, but one that will definately send a message to other builders - that it is wise to assure that homeowners are happy customers.

It’s my opinion that the builder, Sitterle Homes has shot themselves in the feet.

You see, the press was all over this story and the court room was filed with cameras when the trial began last Thursday.  I dare say this case would have gone unnoticed but for the unwise decision by Sitterle Homes to so shamelessly try to intimidate an active duty Colonel with a frivolous lawsuit.
 
Have builders gone mad with their sense of power? What it comes down to is a very public display of arrogance by Sitterle attempting to suppress free speech of a unhappy customer that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Not a wise decision, but one that will definately send a message to other builders - that it is wise to assure that homeowners are happy customers.

HomeOwners for Better Building
PRESS RELEASE
                                     
Hirata vs Sitterle Homes
Thursday, September 28, 2005
Bexar County Court House

Trial begins in the face of builder’s attempts to deprive US Army Colonel of Constitutional Rights
         
        San Antonio –  The trial of active duty US Army Colonel Jay Hirata and wife, retired Lieutenant Colonel Joy Hirata, a 31-year Army Veteran verses homebuilder Sitterle Homes begins tomorrow.

Last week Colonel Hirata and Joy had planned to speak to the Mayor and City Council members to express their concerns for careless building practices in San Antonio and inadequate city inspections. However, on September 18, 2006 the homebuilder, Sitterle Corporation, unexpectedly filed a defamation suit against Colonel Hirata for filing a public complaint about their defective home. 

After two years of amassing thousands of dollars in legal fees, the Hiratas obtained favorable rulings from the state agency TRCC, the Third Party Inspector (assigned by the TRCC), and the TRCC Appellate Panel regarding multiple construction defects.  Despite the confirmation of the defects in the home, Sitterle failed to make the repairs so the couple filed a lawsuit against Sitterle Homes regarding their 2-year-old home that has water intrusion issues in the basement.

During these difficult times, the couple has been apart 15 months due to the on-going litigations and inability to sell their home.  Colonel Hirata was transferred to a NATO assignment in Spain while his wife was forced to remain behind and handle the demanding legal matters.   

Recently, Colonel Hirata expressed his frustrations publicly regarding their ordeal and of dealing with the much-criticized TRCC system, and its inability to force the Sitterle Corporation to remedy the construction defects with their home as outlined by the TRCC.

The couple wrote local, state, and congressional leaders, local military installations within San Antonio and consumer organizations, and posted a complaint on the HOBB.org website expressing frustration over the inability to hold Sitterle accountable.

In this unprecedented move, Sitterle’s has filing a suit to oppress the free speech of a US Army Colonel who continues to serve his country, which creates a scandal that even the building industry must find outrageous. 

According to the Colonel in a written statement, this experience with the TRCC and the Sitterle Corporation has been more stressful than his combat tours in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom) and Pakistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) combined.
 
This family has endured an unnecessary separation, financial hardship and stress which was preventable.  They should be enjoying their lives together, but instead have suffered through the TRCC process and litigation, and now face another war on the home front, to defend the right of free speech in what is seen as a frivolous lawsuit designed to intimidate.

Janet Ahmad, National President
   

Shooting themselves in the feet
Thank you for the facts about SLAPP-suits.
It's worth repeating: “Sitterle’s has done the unthinkable by filing a suit to oppress the free speech of a US Army Colonel who continues to serve his country, which creates a scandal that even the building industry must find outrageous.”  We must see to it that this episode will not go unnoticed.

Perhaps now we will hear from those respectable builders who build decent homes and care about how badly it reflects on their industry.  However, based on their past performance I predict the building industry will be conspicuously silent, unless it begins to reflect on their business.

This event should outrage all Americans and we must all express our outrage to our elected officials and to the press by writing letters to the editors of every paper, radio and TV station in the nation.  Hopefully news coverage will make Sitterle Homes and other irresponsible builders to think twice before displaying their lack of integrity so publicly.

Unfortunately Choice Homes filed another brazen SLAPP-suit on a family this past Thursday.  More on that bizarre event later…… 

I don’t think it’s a question of the definition of a “Showcase Home.”  It also doesn’t mean whatever your builder says it should mean or what you mean.  Basically you bought a used model home that needed some specified cosmetic repairs and replacements, which also came with a new home warranty. 

Unfortunately, you should have specified exactly what you wanted replaced that showed ware and tear in the house before signing the purchase contract.  I believe it was up to you to define what your expectations were about what you wanted to be replaced when you signed the contract to buy the home.

Just because you noted it on the walk through does not mean the builder was willing to change out those items.  The purpose of a walk through would be to assure that the home was in the condition agreed to in the purchase contract before you closed on the house.

Did you ever think the builder's sales person was not really looking out for your interest.

Now a day it’s almost impossible to get builders to do warranty work on a brand new home with all new components.  For the most part a new home warranty is worthless and most people don’t get even minor or major defective repaired on new homes.

If you thought the builder was conscientious or even concerned about having satisfied customers, welcome to the real world of an industry that only looks at the bottom line.  The overused catch phrase “Customers Satisfaction” is nothing but a false advertising phrase.  Cars come with a better warranty and a better record of “Customer Satisfaction,” than a home.

I am truly sorry that you like so many have been misled by a builder's slick saleslady.

Janet Ahmad

A Home Lemon Law is by far the best idea.  A Home Lemon Law would give an incentive to builders to build homes right the first time or buy them back; as opposed to a state agency like the Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC) that has no authority to hold builders responsible. Texas is the first to propose a Home Lemon Law and the building industry spent million in campaign contributions each session to keep it from getting out of committee.

Speak up! Share your experience and comments on binding arbitration here.
See another outstanding chatboard regarding the injustices, inequality and bias of Binding Arbitration.
Go to: Counsel.Net, Attorney Network – Business Law Chatboard
http://counsel.net/chatboards/business/topic731/6.28.06.14.00.59.html

Have you seen the following about Tremont Homes in Houston?
Featured Homebuilders
Tremont Homes
http://www.hobb.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=397&Itemid=262
Tremont - Latest News 
http://www.hobb.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=25&Itemid=244

NOYB
This is not necessarily a question of homebuyers paying more to avoid defective foundations. Foundation failures are the result of an unregulated industry and builders cutting corners for the sake of higher profits.
 
It has been well established that foundation failures are prevalent in Texas.   Over the years numerous experts have testified extensively about the serious problem of builders cutting corners and the foundation inevitably is the first example described.

The disgraceful response by the building industry is that homeowners have a maintenance responsibility to water their foundations to protect the structural integrity of their homes. 

Texas has highly expansive soils as well as many other states however, no other place but Texas are homeowners instructed to "water their foundations."  Other states officials and experts laugh when they hear that in Texas homeowners are blamed for foundation failures because they didn't water their foundations or they watered too much.

HUD's Code of Federal Regulations addresses this issue. The Builders Certification (HUD 9254) addresses the issue of expansive soil.  Question "f. Foreseeable Hazards of Adverse Conditions: (2) Does the site have unstable soils..."  If the builder answers that question by checking the "yes" box the property is ineligible under HUD guidelines.

The solution to the expansive soil problem is to engineer foundation adequately to withstand the adverse effects of expansive soil or not building homes where those soils exist.  The figures $800 to $1,500 are figures used by those who testified about the need to beef up the foundations.

Builders have a responsibility to build defective free foundations however; in Texas where the industry is unregulated, homebuyers are unable to hold their builder accountable for cutting corners. So the new home defective foundation problem will continue to worsen.

Good Foundation:
You are absolutely right. Builders find it highly profitable to cut corners on the most important component of a house, the foundation and cities are allowing it to happen.  It has been estimated that it would cost an extra $800 to $1,500 to build a decent foundation in Texas.  If given a choice homeowners would gladly pay the difference to avoid seeing their home and investment self-destruct.  The problem is buyers are not told about the problem or given a choice.

Your builder, Goff Homes has already tried to take away your first amendment rights by placing outrageous deed restriction that prohibits you from the following:
FILE ANY PROTEST, GRIEVANCE, OR COMPLAINT… INCLUDING THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU OR ANY MEDIA ENTITY, TELEVISION OR OTHERWISE… AGREES THAT NO SIGN OR BILLBOARD OR WRITING OR CHART OR DRAWING CONCERNING THE CONDITION OF THE HOME AND/OR PROPERTY SHALL BE ERECTED OR PLACED IN SUCH A WAY THAT IS VISIBLE TO PERSONS PASSING BY THE PROPERTY… and much more.
I can’t for one moment believe that any judge or jury would condone such behavior. As for the actions of an arbitrator well, that’s another battle for another day.

If we can't or do not speak up when tyrants (builders) seek to impose contemptible restrictions on families buying defective homes, the consequences will be far greater.  Consumers will all forever lose basic constitutional protection right when purchasing all other consumer products.  If these shameless homebuilding bullies are allowed to succeed with their disregard of the law we all lose.  I can’t imagine that any of us will allow that to happen at least while I’m living. 

Binding Arbitration History
In 1994 the National Assoc. of Home Builder (NAHB) and the American Arbitration Association (AAA) entered into a joint venture to write arbitration rules and builders put arbitration clauses in their contracts.  For the past 9 years NAHB’s members continued to supply AAA with excessively expensive binding arbitration business while homebuilders consistently receive favorable binding arbitration decisions from AAA.  AAA document: "...AAA created the Construction ADR Task Force, comprised of 55 representatives of the construction industry and its advocates... with a goal of improving AAA services and helping the AAA be more responsive to the needs of the construction industry."

Construction Arbitration Services (CAS) is another success story of big business binding arbitration and is perhaps the fastest growing arbitration service in the country. Home Buyers Warranty (HBW), is one of the most popular warranty companies amongst builders, however; it has an official record of denying 86% of all claims, then rushing homeowners to CAS for binding arbitration. HBW as well as other 3rd party warranty companies habitually use CAS, whose sole purpose, emphasized by its name “Construction Arbitration Services,” is to conduct arbitration for the home construction industry nationwide.
“Arbitration Used by Home Builders to Subvert Consumer Laws”
http://www.hobb.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=330

Welcome to the Hobb Forums!

Many individuals and families have experienced life altering-experiences when they wanted nothing more than to attain the American Dream but found instead a nightmare of buying a home. 

This forum offers a valuable tool to help HOBB provide hope and inspiration to many for a better tomorrow.  Now you can meet others and share your experiences with those who can relate to your problems,and truly understand and feel your pain. 

You will hear from experts who will join in to offer suggestions and professional comments about how you can get through this most difficult experience. You will learn how you, too, can participate in the legislative process to make a real difference.

At HOBB we have seen that sharing experiences and helping others help themselves does work.  Working together, we can and will help to make a difference. 

We truly hope you enjoy using this forum.  So let's get started.

Thanks,
Janet Ahmad, president