Agency's sanctions of builders don't go far
A state agency designed to bring more accountability to Texas home builders recently -- and with much fanfare -- released a list of 49 builders that the agency has penalized. But none of the penalties levied by the Texas Residential Construction Commission have anything to do with improper home-building practices, nor had the agency taken steps to identify them on its Web site...Instead, all of these infractions are for the bureaucratic failure to register with the agency. The penalties announced this month are in addition to penalties the agency has given to builders in the past. Those also focus on registration rather than home-building problems.

Star-Telegram
SHLACHTER, PEROTIN, FUQUAY & CO.
Agency's sanctions of builders don't go far
By Barry Shlachter, Jim Fuquay, Maria M. Perotin
Star-Telegram Staff Writers

A state agency designed to bring more accountability to Texas home builders recently -- and with much fanfare -- released a list of 49 builders that the agency has penalized.

But none of the penalties levied by the Texas Residential Construction Commission have anything to do with improper home-building practices, nor had the agency taken steps to identify them on its Web site.

The agency has been criticized for its inability to take action even when it finds that home builders have not lived up to their obligations.

Instead, all of these infractions are for the bureaucratic failure to register with the agency. The penalties announced this month are in addition to penalties the agency has given to builders in the past. Those also focus on registration rather than home-building problems.

It's a sore spot for critics, who have long said that the nearly three-year-old agency does little to sanction builders for shoddy work. In this latest batch of penalized home builders, all but one builder was fined between $150 and $2,500 for late registration with the agency. The most serious fine, $1,000 for Lifestyle Design/Build of Houston, was for "using fraud or deceit in obtaining a registration."

The variance in the fees depends on the amount of time that the registration was tardy and whether the builder had been late before, agency spokesman Patrick Fortner said after Star-Telegram reporter Andrea Jares made inquiries.

The agency contends that builders who do not meet the obligations of registering with the agency do not meet the legal requirement that Texas builders be "trustworthy, honest and acting with integrity," according to a news release.

"It is important that consumers shopping for builders and remodelers have this information," Duane Waddill, executive director of the agency, said in a news release.

But how would anyone know even this limited information about the home builders? As of Friday afternoon, a look at the agency's own Web site showed no indication of any of the 13 North Texas home builders the agency fined for registration problems.

Weeks after the announcement, Fortner said the agency had not yet updated the searchable database that would link the builders' record and any information on problems regarding any builders where consumers could find it.

For builders the agency previously fined, the paperwork is available on the Web site. Those offenses also centered on registration or not paying a court judgment.

But not home construction.

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