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Disgruntled Ryland homeowner turns Internet into soapbox
Unhappy that his year-and-a-half-old home has wall cracks wide enough to stick a hand through, Ronald Jech recently took an unconventional path in the hopes of getting his home repaired. Jech aired his compliant online with a website, www.RylandTroubleToo.com, which features dozens of photos of his house, along with an inspection report. The site has gotten more than 10,000 hits in the few weeks since it went live. And Jech and a handful of other neighbors, who are also having problems with homes in the Bridlewood Park subdivision in Live Oak, for four weekends have been staging a protest of sorts, picketing from their beds of their pickup trucks. At the height of the traditional summer home selling season, they’ve parked near the builder’s model homes in Bridlewood Park and offering house hunters a tour of Jech’s home, where the walls are cracking, doors are sticking and some of the kitchen sheetrock fell on his wife Dina one night while she was cooking. View: photos
Disgruntled Ryland homeowner turns Internet into soapbox
06/06/2007Jennifer Hiller
Express-News Business Writer
Unhappy that his year-and-a-half-old home has wall cracks wide enough to stick a hand through, Ronald Jech recently took an unconventional path in the hopes of getting his home repaired.
Jech aired his compliant online with a website, www.RylandTrouble.com, which features dozens of photos of his house, along with an inspection report.
The site has gotten more than 10,000 hits in the few weeks since it went live.
And Jech and a handful of other neighbors, who are also having problems with homes in the Bridlewood Park subdivision in Live Oak, for four weekends have been staging a protest of sorts, picketing from their beds of their pickup trucks.
One of their signs reads, “Warning. Talk to Homeowners Before You Buy.â€
At the height of the traditional summer home selling season, they’ve parked near the builder’s model homes in Bridlewood Park and offering house hunters a tour of Jech’s home, where the walls are cracking, doors are sticking and some of the kitchen sheetrock fell on his wife Dina one night while she was cooking.
Jech, who is about to retire from the Army after more than 29 years, said he and others only resorted to the unconventional tactics after several months of e-mails, phone calls and letters to the builder, Ryland Homes, did not result in repairs to the homes.
“I’ve had an open house every day for a month,†he said. “My wife has toured hundreds of people through this house.â€
But now the builder says it is willing to fix the problems in the homes as soon as the owners are willing to let them do the needed work.
Richard Schroeder, division president for Ryland Homes in San Antonio, said the company plans to address the problems, and can have crews in the homes in the next three to five days.
“By all means, we recognize that there are some warranty things are going on out there,†Schroeder said. “I’ve got folks out there that will get on this stuff immediately to work on those houses. What we want to do is complete the houses and make sure there are no more warranty issues.â€
Some of that work, Schroeder said, would include shoring up some of the foundations. He said consultants will look at the home to determine a work plan and that he has subcontractors ready to do the work.
Until then, Jech and a neighbor on his street, have “open house†signs in their yards and posted photos of the damage in their front windows.
“They keep telling us, ‘It’s normal. It’s normal, ' †said Phung Luong, of the cracks in the house she shares with her mother and grandparents.
The Luongs and Thaddeus and Rebecca Kochan filed complaints with the Texas Residential Construction Commission, which regulates the home building industry.
Independent state inspectors agreed with at least some of their complaints, but both families who have gone through the process say it hasn’t helped much, and didn’t result in repairs.
Todd Ferguson, who lives on the bottom street of the hillside neighborhood with his wife Nancy, has video of rainwater washing over a retaining wall like a waterfall into his backyard and one of his neighbor’s yards. He’s been in his truck on the weekends protesting with Jech, and also has a sign in his yard directing people to the Jech’s open house.
The neighborhood association recently sent Ferguson a letter threatening to sue if he doesn’t remove the sign.
The Fergusons are concerned about drainage on their property, and when they protested their tax appraisal at the Bexar Apprasial District last week, also were given maps that show their house is in a floodplain. They do not have flood insurance.
“It’s made me regret moving,†Nancy said. “We left a perfectly good house for this.â€
Schroeder said the concerns about the floodplain caught him off guard.
“We’re not in a flood plain, nor have we ever been,†Schroeder said.
Scott Wayman, Live Oak city manager, also said no part of the neighborhood sits in a flood plain, and that the maps the Bexar Appraisal District is using are either approximations or are inaccurate.
Schroeder is asking the city to send letters to all the residents of the neighborhood to reassure them.
Wayman said he has been trying to act as a peacemaker between the residents and the builder.
“The most important thing with this whole deal is that it’s a dispute between property owners,†Wayman said. “The city doesn’t really get involved in that. We’re just here to make sure that everybody gets along well together.â€
The upscale hillside community is filled with large three- and four-bedroom brick-fronted homes that sell in the high $100,000 to low $200,000 range, and Wayman says the city has nicknamed it the “mansions of Live Oak.â€
“We wanted to make sure that everything remains peaceful,†he said. “We are certainly hopeful that the area continues to develop the way it has.â€
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