With the help of a professional engineer we exposed structural problems and code violations in new homes here in the triangle. The owners of these homes thought something was wrong, but say they were told it was just normal settling. In reality, we uncovered the kinds of issues that only get worse until they're fixed.
Troubleshooter Diane Wilson shares the story of one homeowner who was supposed to move into her dream home, instead it's been years of heartache and financial loss. And to this day, she still can't move into her new home. If you look at Lisa Daniel's house from the outside you can see the problems. Cracks through the brick and mortar, cracks throughout the concrete. Inside it's just as bad, as there's cracks in the ceilings, walls, and floor. The worst problem the house is not square. Lisa says the back of her home is 7 inches shorter than the front. Lisa tells Troubleshooter Diane Wilson, "When you are that off your supports don't line up, foundation supports don't line up" Right before moving in, Lisa hired a professional engineer who found more than 30 code violations in her new home. He recommended the house be demolished. She says, "It's ended up just being a nightmare. And just taken all our money because we had to pay for that house, somewhere else to live, it's just ruined all of our goals. It's like our life just stopped." What angered Lisa even more, a Wayne County Inspector approved each phase of Lisa's construction, right up to the final inspection. She says, "They had signed off on everything all the way up till we started finding problems." And Lisa says she heard she's not the only one with problems. "If what the people in the business were telling me was true, I got a camcorder for Christmas, I said 'Hey let's check it out.'
Armed with a camcorder Lisa videotaped new Wayne County homes some under construction others just finished and fresh on the market. She went into crawl spaces to show what you typically don't look for when you're buying a new home. At one of the homes she videotaped water leaking from the duct work.
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In almost all homes, she says she videotaped left over construction debris and garbage left in crawl spaces which is a code violation, one reason it attracts termites. But out of all the video what was most shocking was the severed joists, joists which offer support completely cut in half. A code violation she videotaped not just in one home but three. She actually videotaped two severed joists in one house within 6 feet apart.
We took Lisa's video to the NC Department of Insurance. The Deputy Commissioner of Engineering, Christian Noles looked at portions of her video. He said he did see code violations and agreed the problems we showed him are a concern. He says, "This joist right now has no load bearing capabilities, there's nothing to hold it up here. There's also nothing to hold up the load from the floor from above. If it's left like this that's a code violation after acceptance of the building." Noles says these code violations can be corrected.
Besides videotaping problems underneath homes, Lisa started following the man she says did her wrong, Wayne County Inspector Joe Nassef. She tells Troubleshooter Diane Wilson, "The first day we followed him, he did 8 inspections in 1 hour in 40 minutes from one side of the county to the other." She says she videotaped Nassef doing inspections for six months. One inspection she videotaped was from an insulation inspection visit. On the video you see Joe Nassef walking into the home at 10:41:50, less than 40 seconds later, at 10:42:16 he's out of the home and seems to sign the inspection sheet. At another home he does a rough-in inspection. He starts at 10:32:55, he goes into the home to inspect the framing, electrical, and plumbing, anything that would be covered up by the sheet-rock. 1 minute and 30 seconds later, the video shows him exiting the home, and giving his sign of approval to this rough-in inspection in a matter of 1 minute and 30 seconds. Lisa said, "It was just like he just walked around and I don't know how much framing, roofing, electrical, and plumbing you can look at in a minute and a half." What appears to be some quick work also at a foundation inspection at another Wayne County home. At 11:37 he gets out of his car to inspect the foundation on a two story home. He looks around, no blue prints in his hand and less than 40 seconds later, he seems to sign off on the foundation inspection. Lisa told Troubleshooter Diane Wilson, "I've never seen him walk around a home, crawl under a home, on any inspection ever."
Armed with this video, Lisa sued Wayne County. She settled for $94,600 but the county admitted no liability. As for Joe Nassef, he got promoted, then retired, and is now working for Wayne County again as a part-time inspector. We reached Joe Nassef by phone, but he had no comment regarding the Lisa's issue.
Meanwhile, years later, Lisa's dream home sits empty. She says the cost to repair all of it is more than what it would cost to rebuild the same house. As for the builder of her home, he lost his license, and Lisa also sued him. She won a judgment of more than $700,000 but so far not a penny has been paid.
Lisa hopes her story helps other homeowner be more aware of what to look for and to also hire your own home inspector/engineer to check out your home, and if you're building make sure they check it out through-out the building process. And there is a difference when you hire a home inspector or engineer, legally a home inspector can not point out code violations, only engineers can do that.
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=triangle&id=5027565
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