Local homeowners call on Julian Castro to overhaul HUD
The Mirasol homes were built using HUD money, and homeowners said if builders had followed HUD's federal building guidelines, the builders would have avoided lawsuits and the wasted, taxpayer money.

When the little guy gets shut out of court
The trend toward mandatory arbitration clauses has been accelerating for years, but attempts to curtail it have run into an impenetrable roadblock from business interests that are understandably eager to stay out of court. Their point might be justified if the arbitration process was fair, transparent and accountable. It is not.

 Consumer advocates: Fine print could rob consumers of right to sue
Consumer advocates warn that a provision in an increasing number of consumer contracts robs consumers of their basic right to sue.  Greg Cole said he was forced into arbitration when his homebuilder, John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods, wouldn't fix construction mistakes to his home in a development in East Cobb. Cole said cracks in walls and ceilings caused leaks that created a mold problem that sickened his family. 

CFPB Monitor - FTC files amicus challenging arbitration provision
Last year, the DOJ filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant in support of the merchants who were challenging the class action waiver in American Express’ arbitration agreement.  (The Supreme Court ruled against the merchants in a 5-3 decision.)

Canyon Lake dream home fills with mold, not memories
She pays the mortgage and insurance, yet a local woman’s dream retirement home has been vacant for years. Karen Rutledge said dangerous mold lingers in the walls, in a house the builder refused to fix properly.

Another Blow to Class Action
This week, the Supreme Court continued its aggressive effort to favor corporations by forcing customers to raise grievances through individual arbitration rather than a class action or some other joint legal challenge...The decision makes it very hard, if not impossible, to stop bad corporate practices because the potential award for an individual would be too small to justify a suit.

Forced Arbitration: Killing the Right to Sue Big Companies, One TOS Agreement at a Time  So-called forced arbitration clauses say that in the event of a dispute, you won't be able to file a class-action suit. Instead, your dispute will be settled one-on-one in a private arbitration forum. These clauses are commonly inserted into terms of service agreements, which you must agree to if you want to use the product or service. For years, this practice was prohibited by law in many states. But in 2011 the Supreme Court ruled in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion that all state laws prohibiting forced arbitration clauses are preempted by the 1925 Federal Arbitration Act. And that opened the floodgates.

SEC's Aguilar Calls for End to Mandatory Arbitration Clauses
Such clauses, which are standard in brokerage contracts and often included by registered investment advisers, require any client claim of losses to be settled in binding arbitration instead of the courts. "Investors should not have their option of choosing between arbitration and the traditional judicial process taken away from them at the very beginning of their relationship with their brokers and advisers," Securities and Exchange Commission member Luis Aguilar said in prepared remarks for the North American Securities Administrators Association's annual conference in Washington on Tuesday. "By providing investors with the ability to choose the forum in which to bring their legal claims and protect their legal rights, we enhance investor protection and add more teeth to our federal securities laws."

Proposed ‘lemon law’ for new homes would only cover vets
The measure enjoys support among residents of Schertz and Cibolo, where foundation problems with dozens of relatively new homes — attributed largely to expansive soil — have caused heartaches for homeowners and headaches for municipal officials. Both cities have moved to strengthen their building codes. Cibolo Mayor Jennifer Hartman said her city has a high number of veterans but said the protections in HB 1887 should be expanded to cover all homeowners... She has successfully solicited support for the legislation from Guadalupe and Bexar County commissioners and from the Northeast Economic Partnership, a regional alliance of eight cities that includes Cibolo.

EDITORIAL: Home buyers need relief from the state
After a disastrous experience with the Texas Residential Constructio Commission, which ended in the agency being abolished, the Legislature has done little to address consumer and builder concerns that prompted the agency's creation...The agency was so flawed it did more harm than good to homebuyers and was dissolved in 2009... Legislation proposed by Democratic Reps. Joe Farias of San Antonio and Lon Burnam of Fort Worth would offer relief for homebuyers, but it does not protect all consumers...These problems are not unique to any region, and state lawmakers need to address them. Sidestepping the issues is unacceptable.