Angry Homeowners Take to the Web (Business Week)

[catgirl]

The outside of Susan Sabin's house in Lenexa, Kan., is covered with lemons: lemon-shaped foam cutouts, twinkling lemon Christmas lights, and a lemon-adorned wreath on the front door. If you go to her Web site, you can see for yourself. You'll also see photographs of splintered beams, bowed floors, and a graphic that declares: "Pulte Homes sold me a lemon!"


Sabin has been called crazy, but she's not the only dissatisfied customer. The Internet has rapidly become an outlet for frustrated homeowners to chronicle their bad experiences with new homes they have found to be structurally defective. Homeowners can now post complaints, discuss legal options, and warn future buyers on at least a dozen builder-directed "gripe sites," with names such as www.crapconstruction.com and www.khovsucks.com.

Careless Building During Boom?

As home values decrease and home sales slow in many parts of the country, construction problems seem to have become an even bigger concern for homeowners. "I notice the traffic has definitely picked up," says Andy Martin, a longtime consumer advocate who runs three sites: www.FightPulte.com, www.FightDiVosta.com and www.FightDelWebb.com. The three sites serve as national clearinghouses for those who think they may be victims of shoddy construction. During the housing boom, builders were working fast to keep up with all the people gobbling up new properties, and Martin believes the quality of building suffered as a result. "The pendulum swung too far in (the builders') favor," he says. "The Internet now is rising to level the playing field."



Not to mention many of the "new builds" are simply ugly!

[Maine-ah]

1. k& r

not surprised, really.

[DS1]

2. I know a guy who bought one well out of his purchasing power

but that point aside, his entire stair railing system was surface-mounted instead of actually put 6 or 8 inches into the underlying frame.

In other words, someone tripping would take the guard system over the side with them.

[Robbien]

3. Why would someone go to the web and talk down their investment?

Sure would ruin their chances of getting a decent price when they plan to sell.

[catgirl]

4. Many of them have to make repairs due to shoddy work...

just to sell their (new) houses. They lose big time. I just bought a nice old house.
The great quality workmanship is still evident.

[Maine-ah]

6. taking a guess here

potential buyers would have an inspection done. I would think that any building inspection would find many of the problems with the houses, so potential buyers would just run the other way. Plus, if it were me, and this was the house I was planning on spending the rest of my life in, I would fully expect the builder to fix all problems. They may also be in a situation that there is no way in hell they're going to get even their purchase price for the home because of the problems.

[spotbird]

7. They are required by law

to disclose material defects to a buyer. Even if they wanted to rip a buyer off, the defects would be hard to hide since there was probably a record of letters and litigation.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. I have been told never, EVER to buy a home without first hiring an inspector

The few hundred dollars it takes to hire a private, independent estimator (NOT one recommended by the seller's agent!) buys you considerable peace of mind. Get an estimate as to the quality of the roof, structural integrity, the presence of cracks, the solidity of the foundation, etc. In many areas, an inspection is actually required unless both buyer and seller agree to forego it.

I feel bad for the people who got cheated, but caveat emptor. If you are not going to open the bag before buying what you think is a pig, you will probably end up with just a cat, and an angry one at that.

Flame away, but what ever happened to buyer responsibility?

[youngdem]

9. So, if you bought a new car, and it fell apart the following year, is that tough shit too?

Of course not.

Builders should have a longer required warranty.

I am a builder, for what that's worth.

Pulte, KB and other such operations sell mass produced, Wal-Mart quality housing.

You get what you pay for, certainly, but their home should not be unsafe or unsaleable.

[TechBear_Seattle]

12. Car buyers are protected by federal law

Because the vast majority of cars cross state boundaries, Congress has the authority to pass laws governing quality control. Thanks to folks like Ralph Nader, Congress has passed such laws.

Houses are regulated solely by local and state law. Many states have mandated buyer protections; many states do not. In Washington, I believe that all home buyers may ask for an inspection using the inspector of their choice and the seller must cover one half of the inspector's fee (up to a maximum. I'm remembering this from several years ago when I last looked into buying.)

If your state is one that lacks basic buyer protections, it is up to the buyer to protect himself. The cost of hiring an inspector is just one of the many costs of buying a home. If the seller refuses to help pay for those costs, then you have a very big red flag against making the purchase anyway. This goes for an old home or one that is brand spanking new.

[youngdem]

13. It is worth noting that home inspectors do NOT inspect framing, floor systems or foundations

Nor plumbing, nor in wall electrical, nor do they inspect the gas works, etc etc.

A home inspection is NO guaranty of anything but some poor man to sue. E & O insurance for home inspectors exclude major systems in the home, including AC failure, structural deficiencies, engineering shortcomings, settling, electrical or plumbing failure, etc. So, they only offer a cursory look at your home. Good idea to do for $300, but really, it's not any sort of guaranty.

By the way, housing is regulated federally in many ways. The required structural requirements, dimensions, etc for lumber are internationally regulated and federally set, as are the adoption of IBC in almost all situations, including more and more most residential new construction.

In Washington, there is no rule regarding the inspector. The buyer and seller may negotiate anything they like of course, but there is no statutory requirement that the Seller pay, nor should there be. As a buyer, I want to know I alone am paying the guy giving me a critical report. I don't want that inspector worrying if he gives a bad report that he is gonna have a tough time getting a check out of him or her.

[Missy Vixen]

11. We bought a Quadrant home

Before that, we bought a condo that we ended up selling later that had fairly significant structural and construction defects. We had an inspection. Twice. The builder said (and I QUOTE, this was not paraphrased,) "If we'd built the house right, you couldn't afford it." If this was not enough, the City of Redmond never performed THEIR final inspections before issuing an occupancy permit.

Before you jump all over homebuyers, you may want to bear in mind that insurers simply pay out when builders fuck up. We're living proof.

Julie

[SharonAnn]

14. Inspectors can't find everything. We had to dig up our sewer line on the

lower level (cut a trench through the concrete from one end to the other) and replace the main line and all the connections to it.

The pipe had been laid on inappropriate grading. It didn't slope much and it had a sag in the middle. Eventually it clogged in the location of the sag and the sewer backed up all over the lower level floor (two bedrooms, family room, office, two bathrooms). what a mess!

We got a company in to clean the clog and they offered to run a video camera and create a VHS tape of the pipe for us for $100. We did it and found the problem. We tried to work around it, hoping we wouldn't have to dig everything up, but it happened again two years later. It's been re-plumbed now and we're just waiting for the concrete guy to come and pour new concrete over the trench so that we can cover the floors again and use that level.

Most inspectors wouldn't do this level of testing with a camera in the plumbing lines and you wouldn't find this problem without it.

The inspector did find a couple of minor problems which we had fixed before we bought the house.

[spinbaby]

15. Good luck with the building inspector

We had a building inspector look at our house before we bought it and he totally missed defects we amateurs had already discovered.

[fed-up]

16. and don't forget to ask neighbors/law enforcement about any former meth labs nt

[TechBear_Seattle]

17. Ok, ok, I concede

:hi:

I've never owned a home; here in Seattle, the cost of housing has been increasing much faster than average income levels, and prices continue to soar despite the slump elsewhere. I was going off of advice I heard repeatedly the last time I looked to buy, about seven years ago.

[Javaman]

8. People are stupid. seems to cover it all. nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. That's not far from where I live

She has gotten a lot of local publicity. More power to her!!