NPR to spotlight political moneyman Bob Perry
By Wayne Slater
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Bob and Jane Cull -- the retirement-age couple in a 10-year legal battle with Houston homebuilder Bob Perry -- will have their story in the national spotlight this weekend. NPR's "Weekend Edition" will report Saturday morning on the Culls' uphill fight against the billionaire, who's the biggest financial contributor to politicians in Texas. On Sunday morning, NPR will report on the creation of a state agency sought by Perry that has effectively served to protect builders from homeowners with defective houses.
The Mansfield couple says the house Perry Homes built for them is full of problems but Perry won't fix it. They won an $800,000 arbitration award. Perry refused to pay it and the case has bounced a decade through the courts.
The battle has come to symbolize the disadvantage that an average homeowner faces in going up against a builder with deep pockets -- especially one as politically well-connected as Bob Perry. The Houston homebuilder is Gov. Rick Perry's (no relation) biggest campaign donor, and the governor was instrumental in creating the state agency that Perry wanted. The homebuilder has contributed money to much of the Legislature and to every member of the Texas Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor last year -- overturning the arbitration award and a string of court rulings and directing the Culls to start all over. Bob Perry spokesman Anthony Holm says the homebuilder is defending his legal rights.
We told their story here and here. Meanwhile, the House Business and Industry Committee is mulling over whether to make the state housing agency more friendly to consumers. As our Marcus Funk pointed out earlier this week, Bob Perry has given campaign money to 10 of the 11 members of the committee -- totaling more than a third of a million dollars.
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It's disgusting that there are thousands upon thousands of home buyers in this country who are involved in years-long battles with the builders of their houses, and/or 3rd-party warranty companies. Arbitration clauses that prevent them from using the courts are part of the problem. Arbitration strips home buyers of important legal rights and therefore important leverage. These companies won't strike the clause and terms of warranties are non negotiable. A home buyer gets the warranty after closing, since the builder buys the policy.
Arbitration clauses are so widely used, one-sided, and non negotiable, that that the courts should never have enforced them but they did. (There are a few decisons against them but not enough!) It's become a big problem for consumers. And a sweet deal for the industry that has all but immunized itself from the majority of its shoddy work. Besides arbitration, the industry lobbies for all kinds of laws that benefit it, at the expense of their customers.
A new house can have serious defects. Consumer Reports found 15% of new houses had at least two serious defects, (Jan 04). I've seen other studies that show worse. Many times the problem is unobservable on a finished house, and isn't discovered until after closing when the foundation fails, roof leaks, etc. My heart goes out to the Culls. They have fought long and hard, and their courage and the publicity this has gotten has served to educate many consumers who would otherwise not have heard of these problems. I only hope that those who read about it, take it seriously. I certainly do.
Wonder if NPR will do a piece on the Top 20 Companies taking taxpayer funded bailout money giving 3.2 million to Obama in addtion to the millions given to those in Congress to ignore repeated calls for regulation.
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012 CHANGE TO SOCIALISM YOU CAN BELIEVE IN
Wonder if NPR will do a piece on the Top 20 Companies taking taxpayer funded bailout money giving 3.2 million to Obama in addtion to the millions given to those in Congress to ignore repeated calls for regulation.
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012 CHANGE TO SOCIALISM YOU CAN BELIEVE IN