At least one, maybe more, of your neighbors have identified some defects which are actionable under the California Code Title 7, Chapter 2, sections 896 and 897. (Assuming your home’s original sale date was after 2002.)
Those defects may or may not occur at your home. The law firm will (or probably already has) hired experts in a number of disciplines, including but not limited to architecture, plumbing, HVAC, roofing, windows, stucco, concrete, geotechnical and structural engineering. Those experts will inspect your home, and approximately 1 out of every 3 or 4 homes will also undergo invasive testing, where they tear pieces of your house appart to either find or verify evidence of defects. The defense will, more likely than not, follow up with their own similar inspections.
The experts will find problems with the grading, the windows, probably the roofs and windows. Many of these problems will show no symptoms in your particular home, though some may be apparent.
The experts will prepare a list of building standards violations, a repair plan and a cost of repair. Both sides will participate in a number of settlement conferences. They case may go to depositions, in which case you will be deposed, along with the experts in the case. The likelihood that the case will go to trial is almost nil.
This process will take 2 to 4 years. Your communication with your attorneys will be very limited. Unless you specifically request it, they will not tell you what conclusions the experts reached with regards to your home. (asking may be problematic with regards to future disclosure issues, should you want to sell your home.)
The case will settle, probably before depositions, for somewhere between $25,000 and $40,000 per house in the case. Lawyers fees and costs will take approximately 1/3. The expert consultant fees will take another 1/3. You will end up with a check for somewhere between $7,500 and $12,500, 2 to 4 years down the line.
It’s possible that your case may be different. Maybe there are severe drainage problems or soils problems which may double the settlement value. Or maybe they are even smaller than typical cases, and you could end up with nothing. (Less significant defects may not decrease expert fees. They do the same work to find nothing there.)
If it’s worth $7,500 to $12,500 to you to go through the hassle of as many as 4 (maybe even more) inspections and days of testing, the stress of being involved in a lawsuit, the added stress of possibly being deposed, the downside risk of possibly having to disclose the litigation to future buyers, and realizing that under almost no cirucumstances will you end up with enough money to fix any of the defects they find, then go for it. Otherwise, skip it.
Of course, your mileage may vary. Occasionally there are exceptions.
(If you’re wondering how i know what will happen, i’ve been professionally involved in hundreds of CD cases over the last 12 years.)
