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ABC Special Report
Investigation: New Home Heartbreak
Trump - NAHB Homebuilders Shoddy Construction and Forced Arbitration

Property Rights Denied!
Protecting HOA Members' Rights is NOT The #1 Priority
of Managed Communities
The High Price of Managed Living, Books and Records Hidden
gives appearances of impropriety
Editorial Feature: Part One - Are Homeowners' Rights a Myth? 

Part Two: HOA Bureaucrats Overstep Their Authority

2004 Archived News Reports
Thursday, 04 December 2008

2004 Archived News Reports

ATTENTION:Individuals who have the new home warranty HBW and feel they have been treated unfairly or   
Wednesday, 01 September 2004
ATTENTION:Individuals who have the new home warranty HBW and feel they have been treated unfairly or been adversely affected by an unfair arbitration, please read and respond: Background: Home Builders Warranty (HBW) has a history of selling new homebuilder warranties and declining 86% of all homeowner claims.  There is wonderful news out of Washington – Public Citizen founded by Ralph Nader has been investigating HBW and its conflict of interest with Construction Arbitration Services (CAS) and is calling for investigations in 12 States.
Read more...
 
Looser lending leads to more foreclosures  
Saturday, 28 August 2004
Looser lending leads to more foreclosures
Saturday, August 28,
By PAMELA YIP / The
Dallas Morning News
""Over the last 10 to 12 years, underwriting guidelines have gotten much more lax,"" said David Motley, an executive vice president at Colonial National Mortgage in Fort Worth . "Today you can get a 100 percent loan on a purchase or a 106 percent loan on your purchase to cover the closing costs."

Critics say the looser standards contribute to high foreclosure rates nationwide because owners with no equity in their homes find it easier to walk away from mortgages if they get into financial difficulty – and can get approved for another mortgage later.

Even with low mortgage rates, first-time buyers have strapped on so much mortgage debt that ""roughly one-third now pay at least 30 percent of their after-tax income on shelter, and half of the lowest-income households spend at least 50 percent of their incomes on housing,"" according to a report published this month by Merrill Lynch.

 
The Times – Mercer County  
Monday, 16 August 2004
The Times – Mercer County
Home builder probed
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP - Under fire from local officials for unfinished work in upscale neighborhoods he built here, developer Merrick Wilson's business practices have landed him in hot water with the state as well. The state Department of Community Affairs launched an investigation this month into River Valley Heights Corp., a construction company believed to be headed by the embattled builder.
 
FRISCO ENTERPRISE  
Saturday, 14 August 2004
FRISCO ENTERPRISE - Frisco Top Stories
Group aims to remodel city charter
The largest single investment most people make in their lifetimes is the purchase of a new home. It is part of the American dream.   For Dr. David and Carol Becka of Frisco, however, that dream turned into what they described as a nightmare as the new custom home they built in Starwood became a ""money pit"" of problems. They blame shoddy construction and plumbing problems for rendering their ""dream home"" uninhabitable, and appeared before the Frisco City Council last year to share their fears over what they said was black mold that grew in the damp environment caused by water leaks in the house that began shortly before they closed on the home in June 1998…
Read more...
 
Pepperell Free Press  
Saturday, 14 August 2004
Pepperell Free Press
Pepperell mold victim going national to back mold bill, Davis takes her story to Washington

By Don Eriksson
Friday, August 13, 2004 PEPPERELL -- Mold victim Nancy Davis will carry her story to Washington , D.C. , and tell it to legislators during Mold Awareness Week, Sept. 19-24, as part of a national consortium that is drumming up support for a bill filed by Michigan Congressman John Conyers Jr. that would establish federal mold regulations.
 
Residential housing standards are in the works  
Friday, 13 August 2004
Residential housing standards are in the works
Adolfo Pesquera
Express-News Business Writer
Skating between the public's skepticism and an industry increasingly sensitive about its image, the Texas Residential Construction Commission rolled into San Antonio late Wednesday to solicit comments on its draft for housing standards…

The existing draft is essentially a carbon copy of the limited warranties that homeowners have found so troublesome over the past decade, said Janet Ahmad, president of Homeowners for Better Building … Despite Thomas' assurances, Scott Emerson of Scott's Inspection Co. spoke for many in the audience when he noted that the commission had a perception hurdle to overcome — eight of its nine members earn their livelihood within the homebuilding industry.

 
Texas Commission - Perception of Impropriety  
Friday, 13 August 2004

Residential housing standards are in the works
Skating between the public's skepticism and an industry increasingly sensitive about its image, the Texas Residential Construction Commission rolled into San Antonio late 
Wednesday to solicit comments on its draft for housing standards… The existing draft is essentially a carbon copy of the limited warranties that homeowners have found so troublesome over the past decade, said Janet Ahmad, president of Homeowners for Better Building… Despite Thomas' assurances, Scott Emerson of Scott's Inspection Co. spoke for many in the audience when he noted that the commission had a perception hurdle to overcome — eight of its nine members earn their livelihood within the homebuilding industry.

Read more...
 
Consumer groups skeptical of new law  
Thursday, 12 August 2004
Consumer groups skeptical of new law Industry-created legislation creates dispute resolution
By PURVA PATEL Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Texas builders received a little-noticed victory during last year's legislative session: the industry-drafted Texas Residential Construction Commission Act. ""Although it was touted as legislation that extends more homeowner protections with the creation of a commission to govern the industry, consumer advocates say the new law works more to protect builders than homeowners. Homeowners really don't have any rights at all,"" said Cheryl Turner, a consumer attorney in Dallas.
 
Crooked contractors leave clients in shambles  
Thursday, 12 August 2004

Crooked contractors leave clients in shambles
'I feel like I have zero rights,' says a homeowner whose work was left shoddy and unfinished
By PURVA PATEL

Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

•The state attorney general's office received about 750 complaints about contractors in the last two years.
•The Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Houston has received some 4,200 complaints in the past three years.
•The Harris County district attorney office's consumer fraud division reports receiving more complaints about contractors than any other profession since Tropical Storm Allison struck the city in 2001.

 
HOBB Press Release - TRCC Hearing  
Wednesday, 11 August 2004
Public Hearing -TRCC drafts State Homebuyer Warranty to protect Homebuilders
Read more...
 
Bank dismisses mortgage for mold-affected Davis family  
Thursday, 01 July 2004
Bank dismisses mortgage for mold-affected Davis family
""Washington Mutual Savings Bank [of Jacksonville , Fla. ] and Fannie Mae is charging off the mortgage,"" Nancy Davis said. ""It's just wonderful news… on May 28 the Department of Housing and Urban Development released a ""Radon Gas and Mold Notice and Release Agreement"" ( www.aerotechlabs.com) that is now a requirement for all HUD home sales contracts to make certain that purchasers know radon gas and mold may cause health problems.
 
New Jersey continues to crackdown on development & builder political corruption  
Tuesday, 29 June 2004
New Jersey continues to crackdown on development & builder political corruption
FBI raids the home of former mayor of Marlboro, while a former mayor of Ashury Prark Kenneth ""Butch"" Saunders is set to be sentenced in federal court in Newark July 8 for conspiring four years ago to bribe a city councilwoman, for her votes on redevelopment. Ocean Township Mayor Terrance D. Weldon, pleaded guilty in October 2002 to extorting bribes from land developers in that township.

 

FBI raid former Marlboro mayor's home
MARLBORO --- A raid by federal agents on the home of a former mayor is the latest move in an expanding probe into whether developers influenced local politicians to get projects approved, according to a published report. ""We're investigating allegations of bribery, extortion and public corruption in Marlboro and the former Marlboro political climate,"" Edward J. Kahrer, an FBI supervisory special agent, told the Asbury Park Sunday Press.

Ex-Asbury mayor to be sentenced July 8 for bribe plot, tax fraud
ASBURY PARK -- Former city Mayor Kenneth ""Butch"" Saunders is set to be sentenced in federal court in Newark July 8 for conspiring four years ago to bribe a city councilwoman for her votes on redevelopment so that he could get his own corrupt payments if a deal went through.

McCarren is the lead prosecutor of charges against several Monmouth County officials the past two years, including former Ocean Township Mayor Terrance D. Weldon, who pleaded guilty in October 2002 to extorting bribes from land developers in that township.

 
DEPARTMENT OF REAL ESTATE ASSESSES CIVILPENALTIES AGAINST KB HOME FOR REAL ESTATE VIOLATIONSPRESS  
Tuesday, 29 June 2004
DEPARTMENT OF REAL ESTATE ASSESSES CIVIL
PENALTIES AGAINST KB HOME FOR REAL ESTATE VIOLATIONS PRESS RELEASE: STATE OF ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF REAL ESTATE
CASA GRANDE– Real Estate Commissioner Elaine Richardson recently signed a
Consent Order finding developer and broker KB Home-Phoenix to be in violation of Real
Estate laws in the SK Ranch Subdivision located in Casa Grande. Combined civil
penalties and settlement payments totaled in excess of $43,000.
 
Builder admits payoffs to ex-Hudson exec  
Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Builder admits payoffs to ex-Hudson exec
For $115,000, political contributor won $10 million in government funds
Joseph Barry, a politically active builder whose luxury homes and shopping complexes have reshaped towns throughout New Jersey , admitted yesterday paying nearly $115,000 in bribes to win government financing for a project on the Hoboken waterfront… Barry told U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano, was a ""reward"" for Janiszewski's help in getting almost $10 million in government grants and loans for the Shipyard, a 45-acre riverfront housing and shopping complex in Hoboken. Unbeknownst to Barry, Janiszewski at the time was cooperating with the FBI after being caught taking bribes from another contractor.
 
Contractor took money, but did no work, police say  
Wednesday, 23 June 2004
Contractor took money, but did no work, police say
On Sunday, borough police charged the contractor, Roger Louis Hemhauser, 54, with nine counts of theft, saying he has bilked borough residents out of approximately $200,000 since November. He took at least $98,000 more from residents in Edison and Woodbridge , according to police in those townships.
 
KB revives an old tone with a whole new meaning – “Home, home on the range.” ONLY IN AMERICA  
Wednesday, 16 June 2004
KB revives an old tone with a whole new meaning –
“Home, Home on the range.” ONLY IN AMERICA !

Finally some of the true facts are beginning to emerge about KB’s opportunistic benefits, compliments of federal taxpayers.
We as taxpayers need to ask elected official, HUD and VA how KB Home was allowed to continue building and selling 300 additional federally insured homes on the bomb-ridden land despite extensive public exposure and after it was designated a million dollar, #1 US Army Corps of Engineers priority clean up site.  Please write your elected officials and request answers as to why HUD after being informed did allow construction to continue unimpeded.

Quote of the year from president of the Fort Worth division for KB Home:
 ""There are a lot of happy homeowners,"" Christian added. ""(Homes) continue to sell at a fast pace."
Truly it can be said that KB made a Lemonade Empire out of Lemons that gave a “BOOM” to the homebuilding industry like creative Corporate America has never seen.  Corporate Welfare is alive and well in America.  See Fact Sheet - Southridge Hills subdivision.

Read more...

Home on the bombing range   
Wednesday, 16 June 2004
Home on the bombing range
Inman News - Military history still haunts development site
Unexploded bombs that may be present at the site could have the potential to injure or kill people, according to Army Corps of Engineers reports. In 1983, during the construction of a 35-acre mobile home park at the former Five Points site, work was halted when a practice bomb was discovered there. A cleanup on that site followed, and an estimated 3,000 practice bombs were recovered from that portion of the site… Other bomb types were reportedly dropped at the site including the 100-pound M38A2 practice bomb and practice versions of the M47 chemical bomb…
According to court documents, King-Lewis stated in a sworn affidavit that she was approached in 2002 by Victor Toledo, a KB Home representative who allegedly ""did attempt to coerce, bribe, induce, manipulate and persuade me to sign…false affidavits."" She also reported that Toledo ""was unquestionably clear in his attempts to harass and force my family and me into submission by the offer of financial compensation as an inducement, in exchange for my signature on a false affidavit, which would be used to give witness against Janet Ahmad in his pursuit of future criminal actions against her."
Read more...
 
Federal Audit may cost $2.02 million  
Wednesday, 28 April 2004

SAHA faces giving back fed funds
The San Antonio Housing Authority must repay $1.86 million to the U.S. government and could be charged an additional $2.02 million, according to a federal audit of the Mirasol Homes public housing project. Details in the report released Tuesday suggest there was a sweetheart deal between SAHA and builder KB Home that went back to 1997, two years before the Mirasol contract was signed. The audit says $1.86 million must be returned because it was spent in mismanaging the contaminated landfill at Mirasol. The report also said SAHA violated state environmental laws. The $2.02 million was money spent on salaries the housing authority hasn't documented.

Read more...
 
VA Investigates Pulte Foundations  
Monday, 23 February 2004

VA looks into Pulte Homes after complaint
The VA has also requested copies of other construction complaints received from homeowners in all Pulte subdivisions in the Houston area in which the foundation design has been used since 1999, according to HomeOwners for Better Building. HomeOwners is encouraging all Pulte homeowners with HUD/FHA and VA loans in the Houston area and throughout Texas with signs of foundation problems to send a certified letter to Pulte Homes and file a complaint with either the FHA or VA.

Read more...


 

 Texas, First Home Lemon Law Debated in the Nation
Homebuyers Need a Home Lemon Law

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Outsized Ambition, Greed and
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Builders Looking for Federal Handouts

How Texas Home Building Industry shaped the TRCC to regulate buyers 

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