DallasDirt » unscrupulous builders

Folks With Chinese Dry Wall Issues Now Uninsurable

Candy Evans — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:27:22 +0000

The Wall Street Journal reports that at least two home insurers in sunny Florida are dropping policy holders who have filed insurance claims linked to bad drywall imported from China. (The Chinese drywall is under investigation for emitting sulfide fumes which could cause corrosion of electrical wires and plumbing — lovely way to make your house disintegrate.) All of which could set off another huge round of disputes with homeowners and insurance companies, kind of like that four-letter word in the industry, M-O-L-D. I have not heard of any Chinese drywall used in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but I have heard of some in Houston during the post-Rita rebuilding period. If you have had any experience with Chinese drywall in Dallas, please let us know at DallasDirt.

Pool Overflowing

Candy Evans — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:00:47 +0000

Update: Karen Lukin tells me that the pool at Preston Towers also over-flowed, flooding the parking garage.

Getting Tough With Builders — Tell Us Your Story

Candy Evans — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:05:38 +0000

The Texas Residential Construction Commission, otherwise known as the TRCC, may be biting the dust after all. The agency was supposed to be a vehicle for consumers to get a fair shake out of builders but… thanks to the input of many home builders, that didn’t happen. For one thing, TRCC ruled that all disputes had to go to mediation, creating a virtual cloak of lawsuit protection for home builders. As one home builder told me last week: wouldn’t you love it if you were shielded from lawsuits? My concern: if we start suing home builders, will that lead to an increase in building costs? Will that give consumers any real protection? Anyhow, WFAA’s Byron Harris has done a ton of great reporting on this issue.

Note: I am seeking builder horror stories from consumers, so if you have any, please send them my way at candye@dmagazine.com.

Texas House Passes HB 2255: 6 More Years of TRCC

Candy Evans — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:25:42 +0000

Though the Legislature’s Sunset Commission staff declared that the Texas Residential Construction Commission ought to ride off into the sunset, the House passed legislation to keep the supposedly “save consumers from bad builders” agency keep on keeping on until 2015. Prior to final passage, the House adopted 23 amendments, including one to eliminate the $250 fee to file for state-sponsored inspection. No kidding: to even file a complaint against a Texas builder you have to pony up a $250 fee. It also raised the cap from $75,000 to $175,000 on what individuals can collect from the newly created homeowner recovery fund, which serves as a last resort for homeowners who could not collect damages or get a construction defect repaired. Last March, Channel 8′s Byron Harris filed a great story on how lawmakers received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Houston home builder Bob Perry, one of the TRCC’s biggest designers supporters. Perry says he supports the TRCC because it protects consumers from unscrupulous builders, but consumer groups say the agency needs to go bye-bye since it makes already-distraught consumers jump through too many hoops (including an arbitration process and inspections) before they can sue a bad builder. Those hoops, says one realtor, just might have been put in place to encourage inaction.