Lawmakers to take closer look at agency that should protect homeowners
On Monday the state Legislature will take another look at a state agency that was supposed to protect homeowners against shoddy home builders. But in the two years that the Texas Residential Construction Commission has been around, critics say it’s done nothing but help big builders. Dorina Corrente has planted herself deep into a swampy quagmire of red tape. Or blue tape that plasters her Sugar Land home. “Look at the mold, look at the damage,” she said. She said poor drainage and bad construction have sent her new home to rot. The lawn is always wet. The foundation, crumbling. The blue tape marks what she says is wrong — what she says her home builder, DR Horton, won’t fix.

Lawmakers to take closer look at agency that should protect homeowners

Monday, March 19, 2007
By Lee McGuire / 11 News   Click to watch video  http://www.khou.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=129202&catId=35

On Monday the state Legislature will take another look at a state agency that was supposed to protect homeowners against shoddy home builders.

But in the two years that the Texas Residential Construction Commission has been around, critics say it’s done nothing but help big builders.

Dorina Corrente has planted herself deep into a swampy quagmire of red tape. Or blue tape that plasters her Sugar Land home.

“Look at the mold, look at the damage,” she said.

She said poor drainage and bad construction have sent her new home to rot. The lawn is always wet. The foundation, crumbling. The blue tape marks what she says is wrong — what she says her home builder, DR Horton, won’t fix.

One place she won’t turn is to the state of Texas and the Residential Construction Commission. Lawmakers established that agency to help people just like her.

But last year a scathing report from the state comptroller found it has no authority to resolve disputes and “lacks the authority to enforce its own building standards.”

“They are together with the builders,” Corrente said. “They only support the builders — not the homeowner.”

So, from her home office, which she said is falling apart around her, Corrente is fighting the home builder herself.

“They promised that they would do anything I wanted,” she said. “As soon I signed the paper they avoided me.They want to make me look like I am the worst witch of the forest.”

DR Horton’s offices are closed on Sundays, but in letters to Dorina Corrente, the company said it would like to make her a repair offer, but can’t, because she won’t let engineers inside her house to make an estimate. She said that’s true, but after three years of dealing with the company, she just doesn’t trust it.

It’s the kind of standoff the Texas Residential Construction Commission was designed to resolve. Instead, after three years, this homeowner said she’s mired in a mess.

The Residential Construction Commission is designed to add a neutral, professional, opinion to disputes between home builders and home buyers. That opinion is legally binding in court - but the agency itself has little authority to demand that a builder make any repairs.

Lawmakers will hear testimony on a series of bills to reform that agency Monday.
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