Complaints against builder illustrate agency's problems

 

WFAA-TV

Brian and Lisa Partington say they lost their dream home and their savings due to their builder.

After moving into new homes, many Texas homeowners have just one goal in mind: to sue their builders.

So two years ago, the state Legislature created an agency designed to help consumers and builders work out their differences - but critics say the agency does more harm than good.

Home construction in Texas is a booming industry that's full of problems. That's why builders must now register with the state's two-year-old Texas Residential Construction Commission, or TRCC. But that agency, designed to help consumers, has now also become the target of complaints.

In one particular instance, people are angry at one homebuilder, Robert Tidwell.

"He got me for $25,000," said Bob Bryant.

"I'd spent $220,000, and it wasn't completed," said Britt Moreland.

"All I wanted was the house," said Lisa Partington. "I wanted this house."

Tidwell said he has hundreds of satisfied customers.

"I built probably half the homes in this neighborhood," he said.

Brian and Lisa Partington say you couldn't prove it by them.

"When he quit building after about three or four months, the green roof was on the house," Lisa Partington said. "No brick - nothing inside finished. That's it."

It was supposed to be their dream house. More than four years ago, the Partingtons hired Tidwell to build it. They signed over their lot to him; he took months to build a little, then quit. They sued him and won $65,000, but Tidwell never paid them, and they lost everything - the lot and their partially-finished house, where someone else now lives.

It's all because Tidwell declared bankruptcy. He blames his financial problems on 9/11, a bad court system, not enough legal funds, a bad bank, questionable appraisers and the Partingtons.

"They're very greedy," Tidwell said. "Mr. Partington is especially greedy."

But records obtained by News 8 raise questions about Tidwell's credibility. He said he has no assets, but he just finished building two houses near Forney. It turns out they're in his sister-in-law's name.

The builder is listed as JM Builders and Investments; the president is Tidwell's wife and records show the firm has the same office address as Tidwell's in Dallas.

"He's taken our life savings, and he's hurt us emotionally," Partington said.

When the Partingtons' problems with Robert Tidwell began, there was no agency regulating home builders in Texas. Now, there is the TRCC - but critics said it's had little impact.

"The TRCC was not created to help the consumers," said consumer advocate John Cobarruvias. "It was created for the builders; it was created by the builders."

The fact is, for $150 anybody can register to be a builder with the Texas Residential Construction Commission. But it costs a consumer $350 to register in the complaint resolution process. Consumers don't necessarily get that money back.

Bryant said the TRCC doesn't protect consumers or subcontrators like him against bad builders. He said Robert Tidwell owes him $25,000 for electrical contracting, and Tidwell has other judgments against him. But the TRCC doesn't even collect that information.

As for keeping Tidwell from taking advantage of others, he currently can't build - but his registration with the TRCC is pending.

Consumers can't find out about general complaints against a builder because the TRCC doesn't release them. Only the number of formal complaints against a builder, called SIRPs, are listed on the TRCC's website; to find out specifics a consumer has to ask in writing.

"They'd have to contact us directly to get that information," said the TRCC's Steve Thomas. "It'd be an open-records request, and we'd provide it."

The Partingtons have lost their dream home, but they fight on, hoping to prevent their misfortune from happening to others and improve the agency that's supposed to protect the public.

"This was everything we had, this was everything," Lisa Partington said. "This was our life savings."

Three bills to change the TRCC went before the Legislature this session; they all died. One reason might be that the homebuilding industry spent nearly $9 million lobbying in Austin over the last four years.

As for Robert Tidwell, he has still not paid the Partingtons a dime.
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