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Hutto’s City Council Looking Into Expansive Soil, Builders Cutting Corners, and little Homeowners Recourse
The homebuilding business has been booming throughout Texas especially Hutto, and after Thursday night’s City Council meeting some are saying the commonality of expansive soils problems and defective trusses are a major concern. As the magnitude of builder mistakes start to come to light and property values decline, cities like Hutto will be faced with tough decisions. Unfortunately, according to some experts, things will only get worse before it gets better. However, for residents of Hutto and some other small communities it appears officials are taking the issues of shoddy building very seriously and headed toward finding solutions.
Hutto’s City Council Looking Into Expansive Soil, Builders Cutting Corners, and little Homeowners Recourse
By Janet Ahmad, President, Home Owners for
Better
Building
Daily headlines across the country report skyrocketing foreclosures and homes self-destructing due to construction defects.
The Business Week August addition featured an in-depth cover story titled “Bonfire of the Builders†that discusses how by rushing into the mortgage business big-time, homebuilders helped fuel the housing crisis. Now they’re hurting—and so is Wall Street.
Recently, the Washington Post reported that Prince William,
Virginia
officials are investigating a 982-home development built on bad soil that could; over time crack the foundations of the new homes.
A CNN, “A House Divided†two part series reported that builder short cuts and building on expansive soils are cracking foundations.
The report referred to the cheap land as a ticking time bomb and worse yet homeowners are left with little recourse.
Hutto city officials are finding themselves in the middle of some of these same controversial issues.
The homebuilding business has been booming throughout Texas especially Hutto, and after Thursday night’s City Council meeting some are saying the commonality of expansive soils problems and defective trusses are a major concern.
Hutto Chief Building Official Daniel McDowell reported to the council that it appears excessive movement has caused increased stress loads to the building components due to expansive soil in the area causing nail pops, cracks in drywall, slabs and masonry are prevalent and that homeowners are complaining that Lennar Homes repairs are inadequate.
Angry homeowners stepped to the podium complaining they obtained what they say are falsified HUD Builders Certification, form 92541, in which Lennar certified that the soil the homes were built on was not expansive.
Homeowners went on to echo the same common defects in their homes as those reported in an March 5, 2007 American-Statesman article that residents of the Legends of Hutto subdivision complained of cracks in walls, nail pops caused by shifting foundations, defective and incorrectly installed trusses. As the night wore on, one-by-one homeowners called on city officials to ban Lennar Homes from building in Hutto.
The
Florida
based Lennar Homes is not without controversy and has been widely reported in the news in other parts of the country.
Most common detailed are roofing structures that are plagued with improper instillation of defective trusses. Lennar responded and bought back homes in
Florida
and as well as
Texas
.
Daily headlines across the country report skyrocketing foreclosures and self-destructing homes due to construction defects with little or no recourse because of Binding Arbitration clauses in builder’s contracts that deny families the 7th amendment right to sue the builder in court.
Texans were especially hard hit in the late 90’s when builders were an instrumental force in the passage of the first Tort Reform legislation in to country to limit builder’s liability.
Then in 2003 the industry lobbied heavily to create the controversial builder dominated Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC) that requires homeowners pay a fee to participate in burdensome, state bureaucratic inspection process (SIRP) for up to one year before taking any legal action, that usually ends in excessively expensive binding arbitration.
In a 2006 the State Comptroller’s office issued a scathing report that condemned the TRCC as a builder protection agency when it found that even when 82% of homeowners confirmed defects in their homes, the builder failed to make repairs.
As the magnitude of builder mistakes start to come to light and property values decline, cities like Hutto will be faced with tough decisions. Unfortunately, according to some experts, things will only get worse before it gets better. However, for residents of Hutto and some other small communities it appears officials are taking the issues of shoddy building very seriously and headed toward finding solutions.
This article is from The Hutto Business Update magazine: Volume 3, Number 4 Oct/Nov 2007, pps.18, 19
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