What’s that? You didn’t kick back in front of your computer, open a cold one, and enjoy nearly 12 hours of testimony about homebuilding codes? Ah, you probably haven’t had to deal with the TRCC before, then.

In an ongoing theme this session, we have an enormous amount of time and energy devoted to overhauling another ineffective state agency. A relative newcomer to this group of do-nothings, the Texas Residential Construction Commission joins the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and, biggest and baddest of them all, the Texas Youth Commission on a list of agencies that appear to be doing pretty much the opposite of what they’re supposed to do.

A little background: As we’ve detailed, in 2003, during tort-reform fever, the Lege created the TRCC to protect Bob Perry, owner of Perry Homes and the biggest Republican donor in the state. Wait a sec, that’s not how it was sold. The TRCC was supposed to get homebuyers to resolve disputes with homebuilders without filing suit. Buyers dealing with builders that were dishonest or incompetent (or that had just made old-fashioned mistakes) were forced to take their complaint first to the TRCC. Then the TRCC would rule whether the buyer’s complaint was valid. And then the homebuilder would have to … well, do a lot of nothing.

The TRCC has no enforcement power, so a favorable ruling for the buyer is good only as evidence in, you guessed it, a lawsuit. Now plaintiffs have an extra hoop to jump through, and the state comps legal discovery for the builders. Sounds like a sweet deal, overseen by a commission that has eight of nine members connected to the building industry and not a single consumer advocate.

A full docket of bills were discussed at the State Affairs hearing. Perhaps the two bills to watch are HB 295 and HB 1038, which seem to propose the most comprehensive reforms at TRCC. The one with the best marketing, though, was Rep. Senfronia Thompson’s “home lemon bill.” Thompson said buyers needed better protections against builders who don’t comply with certain warranties. “Basically the big dog won’t let the little dog come up from under the porch. And all I’m trying to do with this bill is let the little dog come from under the porch,” she said.

Since the vast majority of new homes are not defective, this is one of those tricky issues where a few people with horror stories are pitted against builders with a lot more money to kick around campaigns. And we all know how that usually works out.

See this story at: http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=185