HomeLatest NewsFeatured HomebuildersHome Buyer ResourcesBinding ArbitrationResource LinksSubmit ComplaintsView ComplaintsTake Action 101!Report Mortgage FraudMortgage Fraud NewsForeclosure NewsConstruction DefectsHome DefectsPhoto GalleryFoundation ProblemsHomeowner Website LinksHOA Reform
Main Menu
Home
Latest News
Featured Homebuilders
Home Buyer Resources
Binding Arbitration
Resource Links
Submit Complaints
View Complaints
Take Action 101!
Report Mortgage Fraud
Mortgage Fraud News
Foreclosure News
Construction Defects
Home Defects
Photo Gallery
Foundation Problems
Homeowner Website Links
HOA Reform
Featured Topics
Builder Death Spiral
Report Mortgage Fraud
Foreclosure Special Report
Mold & New Home Guide
Special News Reports
Centex & Habitability
How Fast Can They Build Them?
TRCC Editorial
Texas TRCC Scandal
Texas Watch - Tell Lawmakers
TRCC Recommendations
Sandra Bullock
People's Lawyer
Prevent Nightmare Homes
Choice Homes
Smart Money
Weekly Update Message
News
Latest News
HOBB News
Editorials
New Jersey
New Jersey & Texas
Write Letters to the Editors
TRCC in the News
Texas TRCC Scandal
Survey
Fair Use Notice
HOBB Archives
About HOBB
Contact Us
Fair Use Notice
Legislative Work
Your House

 HOBB News Alerts
and Updates

Click Here to Subscribe

Support HOBB - Become a Sustaining Member
Who's Online
ABC Special Report
Investigation: New Home Heartbreak
Trump - NAHB Homebuilders Shoddy Construction and Forced Arbitration
Are You Next by Jordan Fogal
Sunday, 06 February 2005

ARE YOU NEXT?
The Many Levels of Texas Bureaucracy 
By Jordan Fogal

ARE YOU NEXT?
The Many Levels of Texas Bureaucracy
by Jordan Fogal

My First Six Months in a Tremont Home
We purchased our Tremont/Stature home April of 2002. The first night in the house my husband took a bath in the garden tub on the third floor. When he got out, 100 gallons of water came through the dining room ceiling and flooded the living room and dining room on the second floor.  While the plumbing was being connected and the ceiling replaced the yard began to flood. Ankle deep water stood and the grass rotted. The kitchen window started leaking; the stucco outside cracked and rust colored water ran out. Then we were hit with a $500 dollar assessment from the newly elected homeowners association because Tremont/Stature had stolen our homeowner’s dues. This is what we got with a $360,000 dollar home?

Living in an ADR State
If you live in Texas, an ADR State you no longer have seventh amendment rights. You are told to go to the TRCC for RCLA and SIRP because we no longer have the DTPA and you will end up in AAA. Now, do you have any idea what I am talking about?   Neither do most Texans. 

·         ADR – Alternative Dispute Resolution... it means you don't get a trial by jury and you cannot sue the builder. 

·         TRCC – Texas Residential Construction Commission… a new state bureaucracy that regulates homebuyers. 

·         RCLA – Residential Construction Liability Act… a state law that regulates homebuyers.  Also known as Requires Considerable Legal Assistance.  

·         SIRP – State Inspection Resolution Process… a mandatory state procedure that requires homeowners pay a fee of $350, $450 or $650 for the SIRP complaint process.  

·         DTPA – Deceptive Trade Practices Act… and act that once protected homebuyers from deceptive business practices, which was nullified by the passage of TRCCA. 

·         AAA – American Arbitration Association… works well among equals in business. 

Believe me; AAA conducts business like a demented collection agency at the request of a builder in Texas.  Beware; it is not a fair playing field.  If you go into their process have a minimum of $50,000 on hand and be prepared to pay $100,000. You have to pay dearly even to file, and in my case the filing fee is $6,000. 

Then you must pay an arbitrator $2000 plus, per day, plus an hourly fee for pre and post study.  AAA does not provide a maximum limit on costs, so they ask for a credit card authorization. The entire burden of proof is on you – the homebuyers. You pay for all expert testimony, depositions, a stenographer, and even the rent on the room to conduct the arbitration.  Of course your attorney’s fees are on top of that.  

The courts uphold binding arbitration, not having a clue as to what is going on behind closed doors. People come out of arbitration broke, bankrupt, and under secrecy agreements. It is not a level playing field. The great, once sovereign state of Texas was bought by the homebuilders for over 9.4 million dollars in campaign contributions. My advice after being in this system for 29 months is, don't buy a new house in the state of Texas.

What I am left with…
We are left with a 30-year mortgage on a house that didn’t last two and a half years. Our house has, buckling hardwood floors, flashing problems, water intrusion in the walls and some ceilings, sagging second and third floors, and a shower wall that is bowed out and has fallen in.  There are Stachybotrus, aspergillum and chaetomium molds that grow on the baseboards, on the trim, up the walls, in the shower and even growing out of the carpet…  We now live in an apartment.  

Jordan Fogal - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

                                                         

 
< Prev   Next >

 Texas, First Home Lemon Law Debated in the Nation
Homebuyers Need a Home Lemon Law

Search HOBB.org

Reckless Endangerment
BY: GRETCHEN MORGENSON
and JOSHUA ROSNER

Outsized Ambition, Greed and
Corruption Led to
Economic Armageddon


Amazon
Barnes & Noble

NPR Special Report
Part I Listen Now
Perry Home - No Warranty 
Part II Listen Now
Texas Favors Builders

Washington Post
The housing bubble, in four chapters
BusinessWeek Special Reports
Bonfire of the Builders
Homebuilders helped fuel the housing crisis
Housing: That Sinking Feeling

Consumer Affairs Builder Complaints

IS YOUR STATE NEXT?
As Goes Texas So Goes the Nation
Knowledge and Financial Responsibility are still Optional for Texas Home Builders

OUTSTANDING FOX4 REPORT
TRCC from Bad to Worse
Case of the Crooked House

TRCC AN ARRESTING EXPERIENCE
The Pat and Bob Egert Building & TRCC Experience 

Builders Looking for Federal Handouts

Build it right the first time
An interview with Janet Ahmad

Voting Texas Style
What Lawmaker is Voting for you?

Bad Binding Arbitration Experience?
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or call 1-210-402-6800

Homebuilding Texas Style
And the walls came
tumblin' down

Pulte Homeowner Survey
Warranty & Mortgage Experience
 Click to participate

Tort Reform Feature
Texas Monthly
 Hurt? Injured? Need a Lawyer? Too Bad!

 Feature: Mother Jones Magazine
Are you Next?
People Magazine - Jordan Fogal fights back
Because of construction defects Jordan’s Tremont Home is uninhabitable
http://www.tremonthomehorrors.com/
You could be the next victim
Interview with Award Winning Author Jordan Fogal

Letters to the Editor
Write your letters to the Editor

top of page

© 2024 HomeOwners for Better Building
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.