HomeOwners for Better Building MEDIA UPDATE October 5, 2006
The trial of active duty US Army Colonel Jay Hirata and wife retired Lieutenant Colonel Joy Hirata, a 31-year Army Veteran should be coming to an end.  After two years of trying to get their defective Sitterele home repaired the Hiratas will take the stand to tell their story today.

Trial begins in the face of builder’s attempts to deprive US Army Colonel of Constitutional Rights
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.

SITTERLE HOMES FILES FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT AGAINST ACTIVE DUTY SOLDIER STUCK WITH DEFECTIVE HOME
In this unprecedented move of revenge, 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. 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.

Jury Awards Compensatory Damages to 4 Bridlewood Homeowners - Another Settles! The Bridlewood group in Louisville , KY   finally got their day in court, which ended yesterday with compensatory damages ranging from $4,000 to $6,000 each.  As the leader of the group, it was very cathartic to get in the face of DR Horton VP and in-house counsel, David Maurice, yesterday and give him my expectations of DR Horton... we've battled an $11 billion per year monster.

Choice homeowners choose to seek help from the city
Choice homeowners say they have no ‘choice’ but to organize and make their concerns know publicly. Attending the press conference will be families from various Choice subdivisions that tell of non-compliance with minimum city codes and defects that threaten to destroy their homes and investments.

Texas Court Finalizes KB Home Arbitration Class Action Lawsuit
Laredo District Court Judge Solomon Casseb Tuesday approved a court supervised class action settlement of Timothy D. Pruitt vs. KB Home, which prohibits KB Home from requiring past, present or future customers to consent to mandatory binding arbitration for the settlement of warranty claims...Last month HomeOwners for Better Building obtained documents which appear to confirm that KB Home has again disregarded the FTC consent order and the terms of the of the new class action settlement.  While under the court provisional certification of the class action, the company referred at least one homeowner with major foundation problems to its third party warranty provider Home of Texas, who denied the claim and notified the homeowner to submit to Binding Arbitration, conducted by Construction Arbitration Services (CAS).