Whether you join or not is up to you. When the homeowners in our former development organized the original lawsuit, we did not join because our home was not showing signs of a defect.
Later on, the builder went BK and we did see a few signs of problems, so we joined a second lawsuit…since builder no longer existed, second lawsuit was against their insurers.
Two things come to mind that you should think about:
(1) Make sure that the paperwork they have you sign states that they take a percentage of the award and that you pay nothing out-of-pocket.
(2) Make sure you are aware that, technically, when you go to sell your home at some point in the future, you must disclose that you took part in a construction defect lawsuit on your home. It’s a part of full disclosure. That may or may not spook your buyers (it didn’t ours), but they will likely want to know how you reinvested the award fixing the defects.
It certainly doesn’t hurt to have the lawyer’s inspectors come out and give you their opinion on whether defects exist in your home. We did that, and then we joined the lawsuit.
Finally, be aware that it is likely the defendant’s inspectors will also likely want to inspect your house. I distinctly remember one afternoon where about six inspectors checked every square inch of my home for the insurers…crawling all over the roof and everything.
