Tarrant home builders, others fined
Three Tarrant County-based builders have been fined by a state agency that oversees home builders. The Texas Residential Construction Commission fined 17 builders in all. Larry Travis, a partner with his brother in Travis Construction, said everything is cleared up now. The company forgot to re-register on time. "It's a new policy, and I know it's caught a lot of builders off guard," he said. Representatives from La Ventana Homes and Austin Design/Build did not return phone calls Friday seeking comment.

TRCC site is no help
Although I filed complaints against my builder and received numerous letters from state officials, including the attorney general's office and Gov. Rick Perry, stating they were forwarding my complaint to the Texas Residential Construction Commission for action, my complaint does not show up on the Web site. Texas Residential Construction Commission obviously has made a concerted effort to hide the true number of complaints filed against homebuilders? Perhaps it's something I should have expected, since TRCC is run by the homebuilders for the protection of homebuilders. Website: Destiny Home Horrors

Who'll stop the rot?
Parliament passed legislation establishing the Watertight Homes Resolution Service (WHRS) in 2002...Mr McQuade and the 4060 other New Zealanders who made claims to the WHRS have to pay their own legal fees and expert witness costs. Usually that costs them tens of thousands of dollars. Even if they win - either through mediation or adjudication - there are no guarantees other parties will honour obligations...Though the changes won unanimous support from parliamentarians, National's building and construction spokesman Nick Smith predicted they would make little difference. "They are minor improvements in the right direction," he said. "But the Government is fooling itself if it believes they will solve the problem." He said Dr Smith's figures showed only 7 per cent of claims made to the WHRS had been settled. Each claim had cost claimants $96,000. But the average payout was just $68,000.

Texas Legislative Session should be good news for builder accountability and new homebuyers
This years Texas Legislative session just may become ‘ground zero’ of heated debate that highlights the magnitude of increased shoddy homebuilding since the creation of the scandalous Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC)... The Texas legislature begins in a couple of weeks and the issues of bad building, massive builder mortgage fraud, epidemic foreclosures, abusive binding arbitration clauses and the failed state ‘builder-protection-agency,’ TRCC will be priority issues this session.

 Check out your builder - Web site allows users to check background of companies, remodelers
The Texas Residential Construction Commission site at www.texasrcc.com includes information on builder and remodeler registration, inspection reports, and records of any administrative action taken against the company.  Send us your comments This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Clay Robison: Cash may stand in way of changing 'builder protection agency'
Does money talk in Texas politics? No, it screams. And Perry is the gift that keeps on giving for many candidates and officeholders, mostly Republicans but some Democrats as well. Check the campaign finance reports of state leaders or conservative committees, and you will frequently see Perry's name, often followed by figures with five or six digits.

Press Release - Bills Would Protect Homeowners from Shoddy Construction
AUSTIN – Representatives Jessica Farrar and David Liebowitz have filed the first two bills intended to amend the Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC) in the upcoming 2007 Legislative Session.  Since its creation in 2003, the TRCC has repeatedly come under fire for its inability to successfully assist homeowners in resolving home construction defects, and for the lack of enforcement powers to make builders comply with the conclusions of the commission.

“Death Spiral” Makes Home Builders Angry!
Yesterday, UBS analysts held a conference that brought together some of the country’s top home builder CEO’s in an attempt to further understand the state of residential housing. The CEO’s, in an unusually candid manner, uniformly agreed that there was no end in sight for the housing downturn, squarely challenging the assessment offered by the former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan who recently indicated that most of the downturn “may well be over”.