Take Back Your Rights PAC Response to TRCC Sunset Report - Abolishing the TRCC is the right thing to do for all Texans
Our organization commends the fine work that is outlined in the Sunset Staff Report.  This comprehensive report revealed the detrimental results the Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC) has on our new-home consumers.  Take Back Your Rights PAC knows that abolishing the TRCC is the right thing to do for all Texans...The commission should not be continued; it should be eliminated.  The TRCC is one more obstacle that homeowners in Texas must endure on the road to dispute resolution.  The foundation of the Texas Residential Construction Commission is structurally flawed and must be demolished.  The TRCC is both harmful to consumers and wasteful.  We must eliminate government waste and remove bad policy.

John Henneberger co-director Texas Low Income Housing Information Service
The hopelessly flawed Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC) has been recommended for abolition by the Texas Sunset Commission staff.  The Sunset staff report on the TRCC concludes, “Current regulation of the residential construction industry is fundamentally flawed and does more harm than good.” I reluctantly concur.

Consumer Watch : Opinions mixed on the fate of TRCC
Jeryl Bennett paid about $130,000 for her new home four years ago. The appraised value now: $77,000. That dramatic decrease resulted from what Bennett says is a foundation problem, symptoms of which she started noticing shortly after she moved in. But the builder, Lennar Homes, and the Texas Residential Construction Commission have told her the foundation is solid. Consumer advocates and some lawmakers contend that situations like Bennett's highlight their contention that the TRCC is an anti-consumer agency.  Nearly two weeks ago, the Sunset Advisory Commission said what TRCC opponents have been wanting to hear: The agency should be abolished because it is "fundamentally flawed."...Alex Winslow, executive director of Texas Watch, said he will encourage the sunset commission to go a step further to create a new agency that will "impose real protection for homeowners that ensures builder accountability, quality building standards and real oversight of the home-building industry."

Homeowners losing fights with builders
The Texas Residential Construction Commission agreed the builder is responsible for the plumbing fiasco, but the agency can't force the company to fix it. That disconnect is one reason the Sunset Advisory Commission staff this month recommended abolishing the agency... The Texas Residential Construction Commission agreed the builder is responsible for the plumbing fiasco, but the agency can't force the company to fix it. That disconnect is one reason the Sunset Advisory Commission staff this month recommended abolishing the agency... “The remaining 88 percent of reported cases are pursued by one party or the other using the legal system — the very outcome the process was enacted to prevent,” the report said.“

Builders Foolishly Claim Industry Understands what is Best for Consumers
Mr. Binash (President, Greater Houston Builders Association and Wilshire Homes) and any builder that is against abolishment of TRCC and claims the agency is good for consumers are selfishly incorrect.  No one is buying the industry (Binash) smoke and mirrors spin, that without TRCC homeowners will end up in "time-consuming and expensive litigation."  The true fact is Sunset concluded that of the homeowners with construction defects who were forced into TRCC, 88% were driven to “time-consuming and expensive litigation.”  Sunset further concluded TRCC is bad for homeowners and failed to protect them from the bad actors of the building industry.  Shame on the industry that claims an agency that they bought and paid for is somehow good for the consumer. The industry’s attempt to claim to be experts on the subject of what is good for consumers is a hoax. They had their chances and failed miserably while making our Texas legislators look incompetent for listening to the industry for its legislative wisdom. Abolish TRCC! It’s bad for consumers and it’s an embarrassment to the industry and Texas .  Janet Ahmad
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State Representative Garnet Coleman
This past week the Houston Chronicle editorialized in favor of abolishing the Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC), following the recommendation of the Sunset Advisory Commission from a report they issued last week... Texas homeowners deserve to have a state government on their side when they need it.

Sunset staff: Eliminate builder commission 
The Sunset staff report on the construction commission is already controversial. The homebuilder lobby immediately attacked the report’s recommendation to abolish the commission. The action of the staff itself, and ultimately the Legislature, will be an interesting test of whether lawmakers are actually committed to reducing the size of government."The Texas Residential Construction Commission was never meant to be a true regulatory agency with a clear mission of protecting the public," the staff report notes. "Despite changes last Session ostensibly to strengthen the process by making builders subject to new penalties if they refuse to offer repair of a confirmed defect, the Commission still has no real power to require builders to make needed repairs.

Time to demolish flawed commission
Critics contended that the resolution process was already stacked against homeowners before the commission went to work. So it was incumbent on lawmakers and Gov. Rick Perry — who appoints the nine commissioners — to create a new entity that leveled the playing field. That wasn't likely to occur in Austin, where the campaign contributions and lobbyists of builders and developers are a potent force... The sunset panel found a construction commission that was “fundamentally flawed.” “It's really doing more harm to homeowners than good,” the panel's executive director told the Express-News Austin Bureau.