Question/Opinion – Builder “Class Actions”

[sc_alum]

Can anyone offer an opinion on the Class Action lawsuits that *seem* to be commonplace with new developments?

Example: We bought our home in early 2003, in what was then release 12 of I think a total of 14. We had the standard builder warranty that covered any issues you had for a couple of years. We then started receiving solicitations to join up with Class Actions that were being filed against the builder (I just got another one today, which sparked this topic).

We didn’t have any obscene problems (beyond what I would consider tract-home “you get what you pay for” issues), and the solicitations read very boiler-plate to me, so I was never interested in jumping on board. That, and I’m against the whole overly-litigious society we’re turning into, but I digress…

My question is – has anyone ever joined one of these, what was the outcome, and did you really have a claim, or were you just jumping on the bandwagon?

[svelte]

Yes, I have joined one in the past. No, I didn’t just jump on the bandwagon. Here’s the story:

We bought our home new from a developer who went BK shortly thereafter, during the 90s downturn. Therefore, we had noone to turn to for claims.

Fortunately, we had a house that held up well as did most (not all) of our neighbors. When the first class action was being organized, we declined because we had no issues to speak of. Several of our neighbors joined that first lawsuit and asked us to join, but we declined each time. I am not knowledgeable enough to know whether they had issues that needed to be remedied, but I have my suspicions.

That lawsuit ran it’s course, and they began to organize a second lawsuit. By this time, we did have a few relatively costly issues, nothing extremely serious but they did eat up a bit of cash (water damage, etc). We also had discovered things that were not uncovered by the initial walk-through, such as the fact that many of the roof tiles were not even nailed in and there was no paint whatsoever on the exterior trim that was very high off the ground. Obviously workers cut corners where they knew we wouldn’t look.

Again, there was no builder to turn to and the lawyers were quick to point out that the statute of limitations was about to run out on recovering any damages from the insurance carriers. Therefore, we joined the lawsuit. We eventually did get a settlement, and it basically covered the repairs that we had done to the house (by chance – they simply took the award and divided it amongst the homeowners). When we sold the home, we disclosed all of the above to the new owner and told them the exact repairs done.

One thing I did learn from the lawyers: even if the builder did not follow code and did unlawful things, they cannot be sued for that. From recent court rulings, you can only collect in a home defect lawsuit if the code violations, etc, led to some sort of secondary damage (water leakage, broken wires, etc).

Would I do it again? Probably – I was upset with the builder for leaving us in the lurch…there were several articles in the press about how they used clusters of companies to protect their assets from BK, complete with pictures of their mansions and expensive furnishings. And – I think I saw their name in the paper as owners of a new construction company awhile back, so they are still livin large (well, maybe not now in 2008 🙂 ). But I was also not real happy with the way the lawyers manipulated (in my opinion) the neighbors into feeling that they were all victims.

My advice: if you’re buying a new home, get an inspector up on that roof to tug on tiles and check paint pronto!

[svelte]

Yes, I have joined one in the past. No, I didn’t just jump on the bandwagon. Here’s the story:

We bought our home new from a developer who went BK shortly thereafter, during the 90s downturn. Therefore, we had noone to turn to for claims.

Fortunately, we had a house that held up well as did most (not all) of our neighbors. When the first class action was being organized, we declined because we had no issues to speak of. Several of our neighbors joined that first lawsuit and asked us to join, but we declined each time. I am not knowledgeable enough to know whether they had issues that needed to be remedied, but I have my suspicions.

That lawsuit ran it’s course, and they began to organize a second lawsuit. By this time, we did have a few relatively costly issues, nothing extremely serious but they did eat up a bit of cash (water damage, etc). We also had discovered things that were not uncovered by the initial walk-through, such as the fact that many of the roof tiles were not even nailed in and there was no paint whatsoever on the exterior trim that was very high off the ground. Obviously workers cut corners where they knew we wouldn’t look.

Again, there was no builder to turn to and the lawyers were quick to point out that the statute of limitations was about to run out on recovering any damages from the insurance carriers. Therefore, we joined the lawsuit. We eventually did get a settlement, and it basically covered the repairs that we had done to the house (by chance – they simply took the award and divided it amongst the homeowners). When we sold the home, we disclosed all of the above to the new owner and told them the exact repairs done.

One thing I did learn from the lawyers: even if the builder did not follow code and did unlawful things, they cannot be sued for that. From recent court rulings, you can only collect in a home defect lawsuit if the code violations, etc, led to some sort of secondary damage (water leakage, broken wires, etc).

Would I do it again? Probably – I was upset with the builder for leaving us in the lurch…there were several articles in the press about how they used clusters of companies to protect their assets from BK, complete with pictures of their mansions and expensive furnishings. And – I think I saw their name in the paper as owners of a new construction company awhile back, so they are still livin large (well, maybe not now in 2008 🙂 ). But I was also not real happy with the way the lawyers manipulated (in my opinion) the neighbors into feeling that they were all victims.

My advice: if you’re buying a new home, get an inspector up on that roof to tug on tiles and check paint pronto!

[svelte]

Yes, I have joined one in the past. No, I didn’t just jump on the bandwagon. Here’s the story:

We bought our home new from a developer who went BK shortly thereafter, during the 90s downturn. Therefore, we had noone to turn to for claims.

Fortunately, we had a house that held up well as did most (not all) of our neighbors. When the first class action was being organized, we declined because we had no issues to speak of. Several of our neighbors joined that first lawsuit and asked us to join, but we declined each time. I am not knowledgeable enough to know whether they had issues that needed to be remedied, but I have my suspicions.

That lawsuit ran it’s course, and they began to organize a second lawsuit. By this time, we did have a few relatively costly issues, nothing extremely serious but they did eat up a bit of cash (water damage, etc). We also had discovered things that were not uncovered by the initial walk-through, such as the fact that many of the roof tiles were not even nailed in and there was no paint whatsoever on the exterior trim that was very high off the ground. Obviously workers cut corners where they knew we wouldn’t look.

Again, there was no builder to turn to and the lawyers were quick to point out that the statute of limitations was about to run out on recovering any damages from the insurance carriers. Therefore, we joined the lawsuit. We eventually did get a settlement, and it basically covered the repairs that we had done to the house (by chance – they simply took the award and divided it amongst the homeowners). When we sold the home, we disclosed all of the above to the new owner and told them the exact repairs done.

One thing I did learn from the lawyers: even if the builder did not follow code and did unlawful things, they cannot be sued for that. From recent court rulings, you can only collect in a home defect lawsuit if the code violations, etc, led to some sort of secondary damage (water leakage, broken wires, etc).

Would I do it again? Probably – I was upset with the builder for leaving us in the lurch…there were several articles in the press about how they used clusters of companies to protect their assets from BK, complete with pictures of their mansions and expensive furnishings. And – I think I saw their name in the paper as owners of a new construction company awhile back, so they are still livin large (well, maybe not now in 2008 🙂 ). But I was also not real happy with the way the lawyers manipulated (in my opinion) the neighbors into feeling that they were all victims.

My advice: if you’re buying a new home, get an inspector up on that roof to tug on tiles and check paint pronto!

[svelte]

Yes, I have joined one in the past. No, I didn’t just jump on the bandwagon. Here’s the story:

We bought our home new from a developer who went BK shortly thereafter, during the 90s downturn. Therefore, we had noone to turn to for claims.

Fortunately, we had a house that held up well as did most (not all) of our neighbors. When the first class action was being organized, we declined because we had no issues to speak of. Several of our neighbors joined that first lawsuit and asked us to join, but we declined each time. I am not knowledgeable enough to know whether they had issues that needed to be remedied, but I have my suspicions.

That lawsuit ran it’s course, and they began to organize a second lawsuit. By this time, we did have a few relatively costly issues, nothing extremely serious but they did eat up a bit of cash (water damage, etc). We also had discovered things that were not uncovered by the initial walk-through, such as the fact that many of the roof tiles were not even nailed in and there was no paint whatsoever on the exterior trim that was very high off the ground. Obviously workers cut corners where they knew we wouldn’t look.

Again, there was no builder to turn to and the lawyers were quick to point out that the statute of limitations was about to run out on recovering any damages from the insurance carriers. Therefore, we joined the lawsuit. We eventually did get a settlement, and it basically covered the repairs that we had done to the house (by chance – they simply took the award and divided it amongst the homeowners). When we sold the home, we disclosed all of the above to the new owner and told them the exact repairs done.

One thing I did learn from the lawyers: even if the builder did not follow code and did unlawful things, they cannot be sued for that. From recent court rulings, you can only collect in a home defect lawsuit if the code violations, etc, led to some sort of secondary damage (water leakage, broken wires, etc).

Would I do it again? Probably – I was upset with the builder for leaving us in the lurch…there were several articles in the press about how they used clusters of companies to protect their assets from BK, complete with pictures of their mansions and expensive furnishings. And – I think I saw their name in the paper as owners of a new construction company awhile back, so they are still livin large (well, maybe not now in 2008 🙂 ). But I was also not real happy with the way the lawyers manipulated (in my opinion) the neighbors into feeling that they were all victims.

My advice: if you’re buying a new home, get an inspector up on that roof to tug on tiles and check paint pronto!

[svelte]

Yes, I have joined one in the past. No, I didn’t just jump on the bandwagon. Here’s the story:

We bought our home new from a developer who went BK shortly thereafter, during the 90s downturn. Therefore, we had noone to turn to for claims.

Fortunately, we had a house that held up well as did most (not all) of our neighbors. When the first class action was being organized, we declined because we had no issues to speak of. Several of our neighbors joined that first lawsuit and asked us to join, but we declined each time. I am not knowledgeable enough to know whether they had issues that needed to be remedied, but I have my suspicions.

That lawsuit ran it’s course, and they began to organize a second lawsuit. By this time, we did have a few relatively costly issues, nothing extremely serious but they did eat up a bit of cash (water damage, etc). We also had discovered things that were not uncovered by the initial walk-through, such as the fact that many of the roof tiles were not even nailed in and there was no paint whatsoever on the exterior trim that was very high off the ground. Obviously workers cut corners where they knew we wouldn’t look.

Again, there was no builder to turn to and the lawyers were quick to point out that the statute of limitations was about to run out on recovering any damages from the insurance carriers. Therefore, we joined the lawsuit. We eventually did get a settlement, and it basically covered the repairs that we had done to the house (by chance – they simply took the award and divided it amongst the homeowners). When we sold the home, we disclosed all of the above to the new owner and told them the exact repairs done.

One thing I did learn from the lawyers: even if the builder did not follow code and did unlawful things, they cannot be sued for that. From recent court rulings, you can only collect in a home defect lawsuit if the code violations, etc, led to some sort of secondary damage (water leakage, broken wires, etc).

Would I do it again? Probably – I was upset with the builder for leaving us in the lurch…there were several articles in the press about how they used clusters of companies to protect their assets from BK, complete with pictures of their mansions and expensive furnishings. And – I think I saw their name in the paper as owners of a new construction company awhile back, so they are still livin large (well, maybe not now in 2008 🙂 ). But I was also not real happy with the way the lawyers manipulated (in my opinion) the neighbors into feeling that they were all victims.

My advice: if you’re buying a new home, get an inspector up on that roof to tug on tiles and check paint pronto!

[Anonymous]

You can find a lot of information on this online. It’s a very common practice considering how fast homes were thrown up in the past several years, Vegas is going nuts with construction defect litigation.

If you have a problem with the house try to work it our with the builder before getting lawyers. Lawyers are like doctors, you don’t want to see them until you absolutely have to. However, there is a statute of limitations on defects, so check on that.

[Anonymous]

You can find a lot of information on this online. It’s a very common practice considering how fast homes were thrown up in the past several years, Vegas is going nuts with construction defect litigation.

If you have a problem with the house try to work it our with the builder before getting lawyers. Lawyers are like doctors, you don’t want to see them until you absolutely have to. However, there is a statute of limitations on defects, so check on that.

[Anonymous]

You can find a lot of information on this online. It’s a very common practice considering how fast homes were thrown up in the past several years, Vegas is going nuts with construction defect litigation.

If you have a problem with the house try to work it our with the builder before getting lawyers. Lawyers are like doctors, you don’t want to see them until you absolutely have to. However, there is a statute of limitations on defects, so check on that.

[Anonymous]

You can find a lot of information on this online. It’s a very common practice considering how fast homes were thrown up in the past several years, Vegas is going nuts with construction defect litigation.

If you have a problem with the house try to work it our with the builder before getting lawyers. Lawyers are like doctors, you don’t want to see them until you absolutely have to. However, there is a statute of limitations on defects, so check on that.

[Anonymous]

You can find a lot of information on this online. It’s a very common practice considering how fast homes were thrown up in the past several years, Vegas is going nuts with construction defect litigation.

If you have a problem with the house try to work it our with the builder before getting lawyers. Lawyers are like doctors, you don’t want to see them until you absolutely have to. However, there is a statute of limitations on defects, so check on that.

[Coronita]

In my community, there was a law firm that went around trying to turn issues with a couple of homes in a general class action lawsuit against the builder. The builder responded by saying if you have issues with the home (even after warranty), let us know and we'll take a look.

In all, I had some minor grievances with minor things (like a seal leaks in a double pane windows), some minor cracks in some of the exterior stucco walls,etc. In all, the builder took care of things, even though I was the second owner and approximately 8 years out of warranty.

I didn't join a class lawsuit, namely because my problems were minor, it would have taken too long to get a resolution, the lawyers would have eaten all the money, and I would have otherwise thwarted efforts by the builder to actively address the minor issues i had, not to mention that you're home would now be in public records as being one that was involved in a class action for "construction defects", whatever future buyers,appraisers,lenders interpret from that. Probably not that big of a deal, but why make something appear so serious when it's not and the builder's willing to take care of it??

 

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

In my community, there was a law firm that went around trying to turn issues with a couple of homes in a general class action lawsuit against the builder. The builder responded by saying if you have issues with the home (even after warranty), let us know and we'll take a look.

In all, I had some minor grievances with minor things (like a seal leaks in a double pane windows), some minor cracks in some of the exterior stucco walls,etc. In all, the builder took care of things, even though I was the second owner and approximately 8 years out of warranty.

I didn't join a class lawsuit, namely because my problems were minor, it would have taken too long to get a resolution, the lawyers would have eaten all the money, and I would have otherwise thwarted efforts by the builder to actively address the minor issues i had, not to mention that you're home would now be in public records as being one that was involved in a class action for "construction defects", whatever future buyers,appraisers,lenders interpret from that. Probably not that big of a deal, but why make something appear so serious when it's not and the builder's willing to take care of it??

 

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

In my community, there was a law firm that went around trying to turn issues with a couple of homes in a general class action lawsuit against the builder. The builder responded by saying if you have issues with the home (even after warranty), let us know and we'll take a look.

In all, I had some minor grievances with minor things (like a seal leaks in a double pane windows), some minor cracks in some of the exterior stucco walls,etc. In all, the builder took care of things, even though I was the second owner and approximately 8 years out of warranty.

I didn't join a class lawsuit, namely because my problems were minor, it would have taken too long to get a resolution, the lawyers would have eaten all the money, and I would have otherwise thwarted efforts by the builder to actively address the minor issues i had, not to mention that you're home would now be in public records as being one that was involved in a class action for "construction defects", whatever future buyers,appraisers,lenders interpret from that. Probably not that big of a deal, but why make something appear so serious when it's not and the builder's willing to take care of it??

 

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

In my community, there was a law firm that went around trying to turn issues with a couple of homes in a general class action lawsuit against the builder. The builder responded by saying if you have issues with the home (even after warranty), let us know and we'll take a look.

In all, I had some minor grievances with minor things (like a seal leaks in a double pane windows), some minor cracks in some of the exterior stucco walls,etc. In all, the builder took care of things, even though I was the second owner and approximately 8 years out of warranty.

I didn't join a class lawsuit, namely because my problems were minor, it would have taken too long to get a resolution, the lawyers would have eaten all the money, and I would have otherwise thwarted efforts by the builder to actively address the minor issues i had, not to mention that you're home would now be in public records as being one that was involved in a class action for "construction defects", whatever future buyers,appraisers,lenders interpret from that. Probably not that big of a deal, but why make something appear so serious when it's not and the builder's willing to take care of it??

 

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Author]

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