The definition of a construction defect is: Construction defects usually include any deficiency in the performing or furnishing of the design, planning, supervision, inspection, construction or observation of construction to any new home or building, where there is a failure to construct the building in a reasonably workmanlike manner and/or the structure fails to perform in the manner that is reasonably intended by the buyer.
A construction defect is also a condition in your home that reduces the value of the home.
Construction defects include:
The trial courts have recognized that construction defects are tangible and can typically be grouped into the following four major categories:
The courts have typically used these categories and associated standards to determine culpability for construction defect problems. The metric used to measure is whether the specific condition under review has violated any applicable building codes, is the direct result of construction means, methods, or practices that are below the standard of care in the building industry, resulted from a deviation from the Permitted/approved plans and specifications, or the specific condition is below the reasonable expectation of the home buyer/owner.
Interior indications
Exteriod indications
14 September 2007. Lot 53, in the Timbers section of the Reserve is available again. The prospective buyer declined to purchase the house because of issues that would not be remedied.
11 May 2008. Another house available. The prospective buyer declined to purchase the house because of issues that would not be remedied.
Please note what is inside the circle in the For Sale sign. This, my friends, besides the economy is the reason house values are plummeting in this subdivision. This house is for sale for $195,990. Last summer 2007 a similar model sold for $249,900! That is a decrease in value of $53,710.00 in just one year!
Also, Kansas Real Estate Law states that both the seller and the realtor have an obligation to disclose both obvious and hidden defects with the house and/or the surrounding area.
It further qualifies the realtor's obligation to the buyer by stating
"duty to include facts and information within the Realtor's KNOWLEDGE or READILY AVAILABLE to the Realtor..."
Foundation issues within the Reserve subdivision can be viewed on the following page:
There are a lot of permits displayed in the windows of the houses in the Pulte Steeplechase subdivision in Leawood, Kansas. It appears there are some issues with the siding and stucco on these homes. These pictures were taken the week of July 2, 2007 . I understand there are more houses to be repaired. Stay tuned for more pictures.
This is mold!!!
Check out this flyer. It was developed by Building Justice . See link below. Ask Pulte about home warranty exclusions .
Building Justice One Home at a Time This is a definite must read and a real 'eye-opener'.
Another resident in the Lenexa Kansas Reserve Subdivision.
Check out this site. It is an eye-opener to say the least.
Poorly Built by Pulte Current and prospective owners of poorly built homes by Pulte need a place to go. To organize. To share information. To compare notes. To tell their stories. www.PoorlyBuiltbyPulte.info is that place.
The residents, who live within one block of the slide, were evacuated Sunday after a man called 911 and told officials his backyard was sliding downhill. Enormous chasms, some 15-feet deep, quickly emerged, splitting a towering retaining wall below and exposing the foundations of three hilltop homes.
The developer, Centex Homes, worked Monday and Tuesday to stabilize the homes and the hillside. The land was still moving slightly Tuesday, but engineers believed it was nearly stable, said Laurin Darnell, a Centex vice president.
About 90 homes were initially evacuated, but residents farther from the slide were allowed to return Monday. No one was injured.
Valerie Dolenga, a spokeswoman for Pulte Homes Inc., Centex's parent company, said about half of the residents who remain evacuated may be able to return in the next 10 to 15 days after soil engineers make sure their property is stable.
The other residents, whose homes sit on and below the crumbling hilltop, will be displaced longer as officials determine whether the houses can be made safe, Darnell said. The company is working with those families to find longer-term accommodations, he said.
Pulte's engineers continue to investigate the cause of the landslide, but San Antonio Planning and Development Director Roderick Sanchez said improper construction of the 30-foot tall, 1,000-foot long retaining wall and improper compacting of the fill dirt on the home sites caused the slide.
Darnell conceded Centex had no city permit to build the retaining wall, but he said he thought the company followed city regulations and standard industry practices in its construction. He disputed the city's allegation that the wall was improperly built.
An earlier retaining wall was torn down and the current one built after engineers found drainage problems in 2007, he said.
The company's engineers "feel this is very much an isolated incident. They feel it's being driven by some unique soil characteristics at the site," he said. He declined to describe those characteristics or comment on them further.
The engineering investigation should yield more answers on the slide's cause in the next couple of days, Darnell said.
More information about the Texas housing disaster.
Centex wrong about wall threat
The day after a towering retaining wall collapsed in a Northwest Side neighborhood, officials with Centex Homes told anxious residents that the San Antonio Fire Department was leaving the neighborhood because the danger had ended.
But at the same time, Centex was hiring off-duty firefighters to monitor the scene because of the “high risk nature of the work,” according to a city official.
The San Antonio Express-News received a video of the entire private meeting on Jan. 25 at a Drury Inn & Suites between Centex and residents of Rivermist and The Hills of Rivermist, filmed by an attendee. It shows Centex Homes’ Trey Marsh telling scores of families, “They don’t feel like there’s a threat anymore based on the work that we’ve done since this whole deal started.”
But city officials weren’t invited to the meeting. And when they later learned what Centex said, officials disputed the claim that city firefighters were departing, and that the neighborhood had been deemed safe.
“That’s a pretty bold statement for them to make,” Assistant City Manager Erik Walsh wrote colleagues at City Hall on Jan. 25 in an e-mail. Walsh pointed out that Centex was actually hiring off-duty technical rescue firefighters to stand by at the scene.
The Express-News also obtained city e-mails about the retaining wall failure under the Texas Public Information Act.
The e-mails and video offer a behind-the-scenes look at the initial chaotic days of the collapse, when residents were clamoring for clear answers but instead received incorrect information from Centex.
Company officials did not respond to interview requests. Instead, Centex released a written statement pointing out most residents were allowed to return to their homes after the initial evacuation, and those houses were out of harm’s way. “Centex’s first priority is to ensure the ongoing safety and well-being of those residents whose homes were directly impacted by the event,” the statement reads.
Was it safe?
On Jan. 24, a retaining wall of stone and mortar split open as gaping rifts scarred the earth on the hill behind it. Authorities evacuated 91 homes. Heavy rains were forecast that week, and some wondered if the hill was still a threat.
People who gathered in a packed hotel conference room the next night wanted answers from Centex, the video shows.
“Our kids live there,” one resident said at the meeting. “They play in the street. They go out. How can we be safe?”
The meeting turned rancorous at times. One man told Centex employees: “I tell you what: You go to my house and sleep tonight, and I’ll go to your house.”
During the 46-minute meeting, Centex officials frequently told residents that firefighters were leaving the neighborhood because it was safe.
“They would not have pulled out if they thought that this was still a dangerous situation,” said Damon Lyles, president of Centex and its parent company, Pulte Homes in San Antonio.
Marsh said: “What I’m trying to share with you is that the fire department believes that we have achieved a safe situation and they are no longer needed.”
To resident Carlos Pena, it sounded like the danger had passed. “They made it seem like it wasn’t a huge threat anymore,” Pena said. He remains evacuated from his home and is living in a hotel with his wife and three children.
No city officials were invited to the session. But Jill DeYoung, chief of staff for City Councilman Reed Williams, whose district includes Rivermist, managed to get inside.
DeYoung said the comments about the departure of the fire department surprised her.
“That was something that was said by Centex that was not the case at all,” DeYoung said.
DeYoung said she called Williams after the meeting, who in turn called City Manager Sheryl Sculley. DeYoung also spoke with Walsh, an assistant city manager who oversees the police and fire departments. After learning what was discussed at the meeting, Walsh e-mailed T.C. Broadnax, an assistant city manager who oversees development issues, and Roderick Sanchez, the director of the city’s Planning and Development Services Department.
“Rod, T.C.: is there an official determination about safety that DSD (Development Services Department) will make?” Walsh asked in the e-mail. He wrote that Centex had made a “bold” claim, and he pointed out the company had hired off-duty firefighters.
A spokeswoman for Centex later told the Express-News the firefighters were hired on Jan. 26, a day after the meeting. But according to an e-mail written on Jan. 25 by Assistant Fire Chief David Coatney, Centex had asked members of the Fire Department’s Technical Response Team to stay “on-site during the stabilization work because of the high risk nature of the work.”
Homes still vacated
Walsh, Broadnax and Sanchez said the comments by Centex Homes didn’t burn bridges between the home builder and the city. But it did create a situation in which the city had to meet with Centex and residents to clear up confusion about who exactly was responsible for declaring the neighborhood safe.
“If anybody was going to deem the area or the homes safe, that would be the city, not the builder,” Walsh said in an interview.
Williams, who first visited the site with other city officials when the land started moving Jan. 24, said the site may have been stabilized by the time Centex met with homeowners, but the threat was far from resolved. “We had police on-site. We had emergency people still watching it,” Williams said.
On Jan. 26, a day after Centex claimed the danger had passed, Development Services yanked the certificates of occupancy for 25 homes near the retaining wall. The city later declared that two more homes were uninhabitable — a status that has not changed.
If you own a home in AZ or NV and believe you've been affected you can contact attorneys through the Web site at http://www.hbsslaw.com/pulte
Inspectors order repairs to hundreds of roofs This story is about Sun City Hilton Head homes, high end houses built by Pulte.
P.E., retired This blog is about the Pulte houses in Sun City Hilton Head and the issues with the roof trusses.
Shoddy construction destroying Arizona dream homes (Del Webb - a Pulte subsidary)
Couple site moldy home, fraud in suit vs. developer DiVosta (a Pulte subsidiary)
Some Sun City homes were approved for occupancy despite flaws, records show (Pulte Homes)
Consumers for Quality Houses Complaints from Michigan
Pulte pulling out of two Kansas subdivisions
This is an older story, but the stripes have not changed. Do home warranties offer protection for buyers? (featured - a defective Pulte home)
Pulte Homes appears to have stopped work on huge project
Workers rally to ‘build justice’ at Pulte
Workers on Pulte job sites regularly report dangerous working conditions, pressure to work too quickly and to bypass recognized safety precautions, substandard wages, lack of vacation and sick days, and lack of affordable family health care. In 2006, Pulte’s chairman/CEO got a pay boost of nearly 12 percent. That year the total compensation for the company’s top five officers was $46.9 million.
House Arrest (Arizona) Del Webb owned by Pulte (August 24, 2006)
Soiled Hands (Arizona) Del Webb owned by Pulte.
"It's no surprise that builders take shortcuts to make money. What might shock you: Government officials -- from regulators to legislators -- do little to stop them"
Del Webb, owned by Pulte settles class action lawsuit . "To resolve the class action suit, Del Webb repaired more than 600 homes and paid $21.5 million to the more than 6,500 class members, including those whose homes were not repaired."
Cracked Houses "Homes all over Arizona are falling apart. Blame the bad soil -- and the lousy construction."
This is a long article and other houses besides Del Webb are mentioned. Bottom line is: big builders are building defective houses and they do not care! Why? Because they can
hide behind the binding arbitration clause.
Ban the binding arbitration clause.
Corruption and Pulte Homes Blog
Two Lawsuits Filed Against Pulte (August 2007)
Builder Pulte Homes Schedules Massive Mold Cleanup in Apple Valley, California ( June 2007) Scroll down to the middle of the page.
Homeowners Deal With Faulty Plumbing In Pulte Homes
Click here to read the class action lawsuit regarding water intrusion in homes. Stucco problems in Sun City, SC. Class action suit against Pulte/Del Webb
Stucco problems in the Reserve, the Villas, Lenexa, KS
The Sow's Ear - Heaving, cracks and the builder [Pulte Homes]
RIJ The Inspector's Journal Online
interesting questions about stucco, and Pulte
Lawsuit against homebuilder expands (Pulte) This is from May 11, 2005, but it appears the same problems occur time and time again.
"Pulte has a history of putting the township between a rock and a hard place" with such requests. Laslo mentioned that the houses that fell on top of the wetland border and that are most afflicted by the required fence were sold at a premium since they back up to protected open space. She also said that since a lot of those homes have been sold already, that Pulte has probably not informed their new buyers that before they can move in a fence must be erected, once again causing the township to enforce a law that new residents won't appreciate, when Pulte should have informed them from the beginning."
Small group of protesters rallies against Pulte An interesting article dated December 13, 2007 on how Pulte treats its workers.
Pulte takes back control of Sun City board While Pulte officials said the majority takeover will help protect their investment in Sun City, residents say the move is a “smokescreen” for problems that aren’t being disclosed....One resident, a retired builder, said Pulte needs to convince residents that taking majority control of the board — without a vote — is a good idea. “It needs to pass the fairness test and the smell test,” he said, concluding Pulte didn’t pass either one. this story is no longer available on the web
Sun City crowd skeptical after Pulte takes majority control This is the Sun City board meeting and what happened after. The newspaper went out of it's way especially since the reporter was almost thrown out of the meeting by Pulte' security guards. A person that attended the meeting told me about the reporter.
Sun City residents need full incorporation debate More information on Sun City. Since Pulte took back their board positions in the HOA, issues raised previously are being ignored. Since the articles go to archive sooner than I would like, I have also included a copy of the article for future reading.
Troubled Waters: Are Sun City's Lagoons Polluted?
Homeowners Survey Reports Construction Defects In Pulte And Del Webb Built Homes
Poorly built by Pulte Homes This is a site where you can post your comments about your house, Scroll down toward the bottom of the page.
Huge Development Carolina Ridge in Jeopardy Over County's Doubled Sewer Fees
Class Action suit against Pulte/Del Webb. Pulte Home Corp. and Del Webb Homes illegally require homebuyers to use their affiliated mortgage companies, Pulte Mortgage and Dell Webb Mortgage Corp., to buy a home, a class-action complaint claims in Placer County Court, Calif.
Pulte Homes warned to fix sewer problems This is an over 55 community.
Pulte Homes New mexico problems Another homeowner with defect issues with his house.
1,000 homeowners sue developer Del Webb
Pulte Home Builder ripoff construction defects drainage grading foundation problems house splitting Scottsdale Arizona There are other ripoff reports on this builder. Just make a search. I was also told that I didn't have to disclose any repairs made on the house. In Kansas, this too, is against the law.
Pulte ripoff unwilling to do warranty work Bloomfield Hills Michigan
NEW Another Del Webb (owned by Pulte) subdivision filing a class action suit for defective housing. Is a pattern being established? NV, AZ, SC, and now CA. Cloverdale homeowners sue
West Side Buyers Sue Pulte (2nd article)
Supreme Court ruling goes against large homebuilders 729 Del Webb homeowners can sue builder note: Four of the Nation's Largest Home Builders Settle Storm Water Violations Pulte, one of the four builders was fined $877,000 to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced. Pulte Homes has also agreed to complete a supplemental environmental project at a minimum cost of $608,000. The project will reduce the amount of sediment going into a northern California watershed and improve the habitat for aquatic life. (June 2008)
This document was written by the EPA and is a follow-up to the article above. It outlines the violations the EPA discovered when conducting inspections at Pulte Homes construction sites located throughout the country. Pulte Homes, Inc. Clean Water Information Sheet
Excerpts verbatim :
The types and severity of alleged violations vary for each site but generally include:
Pulte Homes has agreed to a settlement with the United States and the States of Maryland, Tennessee, Colorado, and Nevada, and the Commonwealth of Virginia to resolve these alleged violations.
Mortgage fees get broader disclosure Last year, HUD reached settlements with six large builders -- Pulte Homes KB Home, Beazer Homes USA, Ryland Group, Meritage Homes and Technical Olympic USA -- for participating in captive reinsurance schemes
Small victory for Sun City Summerlin residents: Builder fined for no-shows Score One for the little guys!!
Homeowners saw carrot, get delay
Citizens Revolt Against Pulte This is a blog where people who own Pulte homes and have experienced shoddy construction can post.
John and Cindy Daughtery another homeowner in the Reserve subdivision were highlighted in the following article. Their house was also assessed a property value of ZERO for the year 2008. How to Prevent New Home Defects
Some of the articles are no longer available on the web because they are archived, HOWEVER it does not make any of the issues go away.