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New Jersey Looking at Consumer Protection for Defective Homes
The State Commission of Investigations holds hearings
Trenton
New Jersey –
The New Jersey State Commission
of Investigations (SCI) is holding hearings on the widespread
abuses in new-home construction. The hearings are the result
of a comprehensive ongoing SCI probe of flawed and deficient
construction practices, graft and incompetence in
code-violation inspections.
http://www.state.nj.us/sci/ncirelease.pdf
This crisis of defectively built homes in New Jersey has a
widely chronicled history of victims who are left with
substandard homes and no resolution of their problems.
“Our members are
elated with the acknowledgment of the problems by the State
Commission of Investigations and encouraged with recent state
hearings that give voice to the many victims,”
said Janet Ahmad, national
president of HomeOwners for Better Building (HOBB).
“As early as August 2001, HOBB members met with State
Assemblyman Christopher Bateman to discuss the introduction of
the Home Lemon Law as a solution to the growing problem of
defective home building in New Jersey. Now that SCI has
confirmed the seriousness of the problem we are optimistic at
moving forward with the prospects of a State Home Lemon Law
that would give equal consumer protection when buying a home
as one gets when buying a new car,” Ahmad continued.
The problem is
not unique to the State of New Jersey. Recently the Orlando
Sentinel did an unprecedented 8-day series in cooperation with
the
Orlando WESH-TV station, which did 20 consecutive weekdays of
reports
on the crisis of
substandard home building in the State of Florida.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-asec-housingmain110303,1,7179235.story?coll=orl-news-utility
This past May, the Texas Legislature in an effort to curb the
onslaught of complaints crafted and passed the Texas
Residential Construction Commission (TRCC) which was
ironically patterned after the very same New Jersey procedure
that is now under fire by state officials that question the
adequacy of their states complaint-response mechanisms,
home-warranty programs and remediation options for
new-homebuyers.
“Our board will continue follow events and work with our HOBB
New Jersey Chapter on the passage of a Home Lemon Law. As for
Texas, we will remain vigilant and remain cautiously
optimistic with the developments of the new State Commission,
which has no provision for a consumer commissioner
represenative,” said Ahmad
HomeOwners for Better Building is a national not-for-profit
organization dedicated to the support of meaningful long term
solutions to the problem of the unregulated homebuilding
industry. Our effort encourages strict regulations and
standards at the local, state and national levels and promotes
consumer protection through the passage of the Home Lemon Law
throughout the country.
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