Cibolo backs efforts for home buyer legislation
By a 6-0 vote, the Cibolo City Council Feb. 26 passed a resolution supporting state legislation that would provide protections and remedies for homeowners whose homes have structural problems. Cibolo is the first area city to support the home buyer protection legislation. Issues with substandard home building, Hartman said, have come up in cities across the state.  “We are trying to show it is not just a Cibolo, Metrocom, or San Antonio problem,” the mayor said. “It is way beyond our community. We need to address this at the state level and give home buyers protection.”

Cibolo backs efforts for home buyer legislation
By David DeKunder, Staff Writer

          Cibolo stands firmly behind homeowners who are pushing for legislation to protect Texas homebuyers.

By a 6-0 vote, the Cibolo City Council Feb. 26 passed a resolution supporting state legislation that would provide protections and remedies for homeowners whose homes have structural problems. Cibolo is the first area city to support the home buyer protection legislation.

The council passed the resolution the same day Mayor Jennifer Hartman and Mayor Pro Tem Steve Liparoto traveled to Austin urging legislators to support better protections and remedies for home buyers of homes with structural defects.

While Cibolo approved stricter home building standards in January, Hartman said more needs to be done at the state level to protect home buyers.

“This (home buying) is the largest investment people make in their lives,” Hartman said. “We believe it deserves the same warranties as any other product.”

Cibolo has adopted stricter home building standards as several residents in the community have to deal with cracked foundations and other structural defects in their homes, particularly in the Falcon Ridge and Bentwood Ranch subdivisions.

Issues with substandard home building, Hartman said, have come up in cities across the state.

“We are trying to show it is not just a Cibolo, Metrocom, or San Antonio problem,” the mayor said. “It is way beyond our community. We need to address this at the state level and give home buyers protection.”

Janet Ahmad, president of the Home Owners for Better Building, said several attempts in the past to get a legislative home buyer protection law have failed. But cities and counties statewide are strongly behind the effort this time around.

“This is the first time we have had a joint effort between cities and counties and the Legislature,” Ahmad said. “We have a lot of support for this from across the state.”

While leading the efforts to give home buyers more protection, Hartman has had to deal with issues of a cracked foundation in her own home.

“I have a greater sense of empathy of the issues ... because I have been dealing with and experiencing the same issue,” Hartman said. “I work twice as hard to make sure this gets taken care of.”

Guadalupe County Commissioners are expected to consider supporting the resolution at an upcoming meeting.

County Commissioner Jim Wolverton, who represents parts of Cibolo and Schertz, has been working with Schertz homeowners in the Fairhaven subdivision, who have cracked foundations, and the home builder, Pulte, to resolve the problems.

While the county doesn't have any regulatory authority when it comes to home building, Wolverton said the county will lend its support to back a home buyer protection law.

“The county is 100 percent behind the citizens in this matter, and we will do whatever we can to help them,” Wolverton said. “It is a crying shame some of these homes are in the shape they are in.”

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