a touch of his hand. And it scares him.
âIt could fall over, yes sir. It is not a very safe situation in the neighborhood,â said Touve.
Inside his 5-year old home, his wife Faye isnât dancingâsheâs tapping on her tile, which emits a hollow sound. Faye Touve said her kitchen tiles are coming loose; evidence that the foundation is moving underneath them, slipping the home toward the hillside.
âI would say at least 40-50% of the homes have one problem or another,â she added.
So dozens of the Fairhaven homeowners are documenting their problems in buy-back letters they are writing to Pulte Homes.
The Touveâs driveway, and those of some neighbors, shows more than
3-inches of separation. And there are cracks visible in some foundations within neighborsâ garages.
The Lawrence family said their crack splits the 7 month-old-home in
two. Jessica Lawrence said Pulte Homes got an independent contractor to come out and look at it in November, but nothing has been done to
fix it.
âThey blame it on the weather, whether it is dry or itâs wet. Itâs everything else except for the possibility that they may have built us a shoddy house,â said Lawrence.
In Patricia Alpersinâs backyard, a 3-story high wall faces her patio windows. Alpersin tells KENS-TV she checks the wall daily, after discovering cracks and separations among the bricks.
Last week there were 28 cracks, she said. Monday she counted 31. The news has Alpersin worried. She remembers Pulteâs retainer wall collapse
in San Antonioâs Rivermist subdivision in 2010.
The homeowner on top of the wall tells her his yard is shifting her way.
âHe says his house is coming this way, his land is coming this way. I canât imagine what is going to happen. I feel afraid, afraid to sleep,â said Alpersin.
Valerie Dolenga, spokesperson for Pulte Homes, issued this statement to KENS-TV:
âWe intend to stand behind our homes and repair any necessary issues to the home - with all related costs paid for by Pulte.â
âThe engineer and construction firm are different than the ones used in Rivermist and is constructed using a different method of construction,â Dolenga added. âThe retaining wall has been inspected as recently as April 2011 by an independent engineer to ensure the wall is performing
as designed. The engineer validated that the retaining wall is performing as designed and is secure. Additionally, extra drainage systems for the retaining wall were installed this past summer and are working properly.â
http://www.kens5.com/news/Schertz-homeowners-want-builder-to-buy-back-their-homes-136546238.html