A message from Janet Ahmad - "Give Me Back My Rights" Binding Arbitration Campaign

A message from Janet Ahmad
A couple of months ago I told of some exciting news to come, and to stay tuned… That time is now.  More than two dozen public interest organizations launched a nationwide effort called "Give Me Back My Rights" to stop the corporate use of binding mandatory arbitration (BMA) clauses.  HOBB has become a participating member of that distinguished Washington DC based coalition.  After many years of cooperate abuses of these inequitable clauses in homebuilder contracts as well as many other consumer products, the consumer advocacy movement to remove BMA clauses has begun in earnest.  

With your continued help and support we are definitely making a difference. Our collective efforts have been far reaching from the various local and state levels to Washington DC, where there is renew enthusiasm for positive consumer protection and talk of congressional hearings.  Not since Congressmen Charles Gonzalez and Ciro Rodriguez filed the first American Homebuyer Protection binding arbitration bill in 2001 have things looked so promising.   
Together we have and will continue to make a difference!  Help us to help you.

 Please take a few minutes to post your comments on the H O B B   F o r u m  and write you elected officials.  Your participation is vital.

Enjoy this weeks Outstanding News Updates

Thank you,
Janet Ahmad, President
Home Owners for Better Building

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NEWS UPDATES:

KB Home - SAHA tenant says, "we should be paid for baby-sitting their piles of crap"
Foundations worry SAHA residents
As they watch a house in their neighborhood undergo a foundation repair job, residents of the Villas de Fortuna subdivision on the West Side are worried about the structural integrity of their own homes and waiting for help to arrive... "They want us to buy these houses?" asked Ocampo, who is participating in SAHA's lease-to-purchase plan. "We should be paid for baby-sitting their pile of crap."...Fortuna is one of five subdivisions in SAHA's Mirasol Homes project that drew a firestorm of criticism in 2002 from West Side leaders who claimed the houses were poorly built. HUD/KB program -   Read more...

Home buyers hit with liens
LIENS PILING UP, HOUSES UNBUILT
It has been months since some Port Charlotte and North Port homeowners have heard anything from Construction Compliance Inc. of St. Petersburg about their houses. Meanwhile, subcontractors have filed hundreds of thousands of dollars in liens against the builder and its customers. Erik and Kathryn Matthews, for example, are still waiting for their house and have seen the following liens filed against them: Kimal Lumber, $9,801.20; Sunbelt Electric, $5,076.70; Jodfer Land Service, $12,600; H.D. Supply/Cox Lumber, $3,517.09; and Residential Dry Wall Inc., $6,622.00.The total: $37,616.99.  Read more...

Foreclosures up 51% - One out of 182 facing foreclosure
Florida Foreclosure Hotline Counsels 'At-Risk' Homeowners
The Florida Foreclosure Prevention Hotline is teaming up with state and local authorities, local and national lenders, and other groups both public and private to provide Florida residents facing foreclosure with free foreclosure counseling. Currently, Florida ranks second in national foreclosures. One in every 182 Florida homeowners is facing foreclosure...Almost 1 million foreclosures were filed nationwide in 2006, more than a 51-percent increase from the previous year. Two Florida cities rank in the nation's top 10 foreclosures—Ft. Lauderdale is second and Miami is fourth.

SLAPP meant to silence consumer failed
Johnson Development SLAPP-suit in Texas settled after nearly a 2 year battle with homeowners!
In 24 states, after a surge of SLAPP-suits over several decades, legislatures began to add statutory protections stopping SLAPP-suits before they can severely harm families/consumers. Since developers/builders use these tools to silence most often (Canen & Pring, 1996) they resisted in many states. In Texas the lobby blocked four fairly recent attempts. Where does this leave you? In our case, after nearly 2 years of litigation in a developer friendly court, we ended up settling. We consider it a stale-mate that may have cost the company conservatively attacking us close to half a million dollars (of course it cost us our life savings defending it and eventually our home). Read more...

Defective KB Homes - Did the city of San Antonio ever inspect?
SAHA Tenants: City Must Repair Our Dream Homes
First-time home buyers part of a city lease-to-own program said the San Antonio Housing Authority provided them homes that are beginning to fall apart and the city has ignored their requests to fix them...First-time home buyers part of a city lease-to-own program said the San Antonio Housing Authority provided them homes that are beginning to fall apart and the city has ignored their requests to fix them..."I wonder, did the city ever come and inspect these houses or did they just run around and turn the other way?" Olivara said. Read more...

Home builders, home improvements, remodeling and auto dealers top the list of BBB complaints
Consumer complaints rise at BBB
The Charlotte-area Better Business Bureau processed 11,389 complaints from consumers last year, a 30 percent increase on the 8,776 in 2005. Top industry complaints for the area were in the following industries: home improvements and remodeling, auto dealers, home builders, furniture and auto repair and service. Read more...

States compete for highest foreclosure rates
High home foreclosures signal Ohio's bigger economic problems
Ohio again leads the nation in home foreclosures, an indicator of how the state's lag in adding jobs is leading people to have trouble paying their bills, economists say. New foreclosure filings in Ohio increased by 1 percent in the third quarter of 2006 from the second quarter, trailing only Michigan and Rhode Island for the largest increase, according to the study of 42.6 million residences with one to four units. Read more...

KB Home gets preferential deal 
Access gate at Fremont-U.C. border to close
In 2002, Fremont City Council approved an interim access and improvement agreement with KB Home, allowing the developer to use Fremont streets until its Union City development had been completed. In May, the city granted an extension for that temporary access to expire in June. In July, the council granted another extension to expire on Nov. 30....Ricki Twist, who lives on the Niles Boulevard frontage road near Gold Street, said Fremont residents now shoulder the brunt of traffic that originates from KB Home's 415-unit development in Union City. "We were all led to believe that the access road would be temporary," she said. "The road in front of our homes is in disrepair. There are several sinkholes. It's scary, the amount of traffic there is now on that street."..."KB's No. 1 selling point when we moved in was that the road would be closed," Union City resident Davey Knox said. "There's a physical sign out there that repeats this is only temporary, and Fremont planning said it would be temporary." Read more...

Aggressive building pushes Colorado and Nevada to nation’s highest number of foreclosures
Suthers wants Legislature to crack down on appraisal fraud
Attorney General John Suthers on Monday urged a crackdown on schemes to inflate property values so buyers can borrow more money - a practice he said ultimately makes buying a home more expensive...Experts say inflated appraisals, along with aggressive building, risky loans and mortgage-fraud, have pushed Colorado to the second-highest number of foreclosures in the nation. Colorado led the nation for much of 2006 but has been overtaken by Nevada, Suthers said.

Builder takes money and claims he did nothing wrong
Builder 'going on offensive'
A group of customers suing a North Naples homebuilder over more than $300,000 they say was paid for services they never received are expecting counter lawsuits soon that will join more than a dozen other lawsuits pending in court, attorneys involved in the case said Monday. Six sets of Deco Homes of Southwest Florida's customers have filed lawsuits in Collier County Circuit Court. Many of the lawsuits were filed within the past two months and allege Deco Homes' owner, Carlos Pio, received deposits or took bank draws but never finished the homes. In some instances, he never started work, according to the lawsuits. Read more...

FBI targets mortgage fraud scammers
Good credit can attract a bad deal
More mortgage fraud scammers are targeting area, and an FBI team is targeting them...The scam artist walks away with the difference between the loan amount and the price paid for the home when, at closing, he represents himself as a consultant, remodeler or other service provider. Money is directed to him or through companies controlled by him... The straw buyer scam and other types of mortgage fraud have become so popular locally that the FBI's Houston division has formed a unit dedicated solely to fighting mortgage fraud...Though no one can give a precise figure, experts say many Houston-area homes are being lost to foreclosure because of mortgage fraud. "This is an epidemic that will come to roost in the Houston housing market," said Zugheri, president of Houston-based First Houston Mortgage Ltd. Read more...

Bankrupt Kara Home leaves behind unfinished community
$100G sought from builder
Soon after Kara Homes declared bankruptcy, contractors at Woodlake Greens in Lakewood packed up and pulled out their bulldozers Left behind were 113 unfinished homes, roads to be graded and mountains of construction debris to be cleared...Township officials plan to make a special petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, asking that $100,000 be released from the $3.7 million bond Kara Homes was required to obtain prior to construction. Read more...