The boom in housing construction brought home ownership to more people, created jobs and spurred economic growth. As beneficial as that was, the longer-term good would be a bit more impressive if home buyers had greater assurances of quality work.

Sen. Brian Weinstein is engaged in an important effort to provide greater consumer protections for buyers with several bills, most notably SB 5550. That measure would create a statutory warranty on new homes, greatly increasing buyers' assurance that residences in which they are frequently putting most of their assets will be free of major defects.

Among other provisions, the bill requires coverage for electrical, plumbing and heating problems the first three years; water penetration for five years and structural defects for the first 10 years. If a home is sold again, the remaining time on warranties would be carried over.

Building industry opponents say the results would be attorneys running amok enriching themselves while doing nothing for clients, insurers dropping contractors and prices inflating to California levels. That all seems rather fantastical.

There is, however, no shortage of horror stories from house, condo and townhome buyers. Quality builders would do better to work with Weinstein's ideas than to suggest putting unlicensed contractors out of business is somehow an adequate alternative to new legislation. Everyone wins with a housing market in which trust is reinforced with solid new foundations in law.