San Antonio to Forth Worth Pulte-Centex Wall Failure
Irizarry Family worries as more rain approaches and the crumbling wall looms with danger. Same story different City, same builder. See latest Irizarry wall photos, plus the San Antonio Rivermist Story

Latest Photos: Fort Worth Pulte-Centex Wall Failure

 San Antonio January 2010 - The Great Pulte-Centex Wall    
Pulte-Centex and Binding Arbitration Clauses in the News, as New Houses Teeter on Hillside 

     Saturday, January 23, 2010 Rivermist Subdivision: As nightfall approached and families settled down for the day; some describing their evening as interrupted by a bit more new home settling noises than usual.  Throughout the night homes creaked, squeaked, moaned and groaned.  Little did residents know that they were literally in for a rude awaking.   

Sunday morning, January 24: Phones range throughout the Rivermist Subdivision and when answered, the conversation went something like; Good morning… this is the San Antonio Police Department, your community is being evacuated; you have two minutes to leave your home… By 5:00 PM their subdivision was the subject of the national evening news.  Two days later the city reported that the failure was due to improper construction of the retaining walls as well as improper compaction of fill and that the builder did not obtain building permits to construct retaining walls.  By Wednesday homeowners were in Austin to tell their shocking experiences at a hearing held by the Texas House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee on Binding Arbitration.

As a result of their life changing experience families quickly learned the issues were much greater than their own personal suffering.  Like most new homebuyers they never suspected that buying a new home in Texas could be so dangerous. Most never knew that homebuilders were not licensed or regulated or they had signed binding arbitration agreements giving up their constitutional right to sue Pulte-Centex homes.