Mirasol owners to sue KB, realty firm

About 35 homeowners from the San Antonio Housing Authority's beleaguered Mirasol Homes neighborhoods plan to file lawsuits today against KB Home and Magi Realty alleging that their residences were poorly constructed.  The homeowners, all represented by the Law Offices of Frank Herrera, will file individual suits and have access to all information already gathered by Coats Rose, the firm representing SAHA in its ongoing case against KB Home.

“Their lawsuits won't have to start at ground zero,” SAHA board Chairman Ramiro Cavazos said.

KB Home officials couldn't be reached for comment late Wednesday.

SAHA recently deconstructed some houses in the West Side subdivision and found evidence of shoddy construction, Cavazos said. Defects include frames that weren't properly anchored to their foundations and roofing materials that were insufficient, according to SAHA.

The housing authority had already determined that doors and windows hadn't been installed correctly, and massive repairs affected all 246 homes in the neighborhoods.

The individual lawsuits could help bring a quicker resolution to SAHA's own suit against KB Home, Cavazos said.

“If we don't employ more aggressive means by actually representing the homeowners who want to be represented, we may never see a courtroom based on the trial date that was set by the judge a few months back,” he said. “We wouldn't see a courtroom (in our case) against KB until 2010. What we're trying to do is by using these means, we may get into a courtroom sooner rather than later.”

The homeowners are being realistic about their claims, Cavazos said. They're hoping to get roughly the same deal as homeowners who sold their houses back to SAHA — $30,000 for single-story homes and $50,000 for two-story homes.
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