Home Sour Home - Great Article about McMansion Nightmare

[bleedingheart]

This article talks about one woman's problems with a McMansion she purchased in Texas. Turns out Texas is a state that has so many laws protecting shoddy builders that in many cases the homeowners find themselves wrapped in legal tape.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/07/home_sour_home.html


When people blather about tort reform...it is cases like this that should be brought to light....note the article isn't about tort reform but it is about what happens when people knowingly give up their rights to sue....read the entire article to see what a mess this woman made for herself...


"In one of the country’s most business-friendly states, construction is one of the most influential businesses. The largest individual contributor to Texas politicians is Bob Perry—a builder who gained national fame during last year’s presidential campaign when he funded the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The organization dispensing the most political money in the state, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, is also headed by a builder, and builders have been the main beneficiaries of a decade’s worth of Texas tort reform laws—laws that, for homeowners, amount to little more than a maze of obstacles designed to obstruct the filing of lawsuits.

Most builders in Texas (and elsewhere) require homebuyers to agree to settle disputes out of court, in binding arbitration. Should a consumer, by some miracle, make it past that clause, the legislature recently passed a law that abolishes standards that a home display “workmanlike construction,” confines damage awards to the cost of repairs, and establishes a commission—dominated by builders—consumers must go to before filing a claim either in court or in arbitration. This law was in large part written by the chairman of a Texas Association of Builders task force, John Krugh, whom the governor later named to sit on that very commission.

"

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. HA HA! Stupid fucks deserve every moment of pain and suffering

they receive from buying shittily made crap.

Fuck 'em. Let the builders get away with it.

Maybe it will be a lesson to America.

[bleedingheart]

3. and the woman fighting this is a Republican...

hmmm...Isn't it the Repubs that hate laws that protect the consumer from "trustworthy" business people...

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Even sweeter justice!!

Any republican who spouts "tort reform" and then sues is a fucking hypocrite.

Because we all know that laws that say they "protect the consumer" or actually cleverly designed laws that actually "punish and unfairly tax legitimate businesses".

[ComerPerro]

13. Exactly. They regularly vote for this. So fuck them

I dont feel any sympathy.

[amazona]

2. what has it to do with tort reform?

They should have paid to have the house inspected by professionals BEFORE they made a $300,000 plus investment and they should not have signed a contract agreeing to binding arbitration rather than a court of law to settle their dispute.

If you are investing this kind of money, spend a week or two longer and get the paperwork done properly.

Everybody knows that Houston is the world center for mold contaminated houses. Yes, the contractor is a criminal but the home buyer also screwed up and big-time, since toward the end of the article it is revealed the mold was in the house when they bought it!

[bleedingheart]

6. tort reform is a way to limit people's rights...and this woman

knowingly limited her rights signing a contract...Tort Reform is yet another way for the populace as a whole to limit its rights.

[johncoby2]

10. You are incorrect in your observation

Here in Texas, the arbitration clause is mandatory by the fact that most every builder has it. It is non negotiable and is promoted as faster, cheaper, better than our court system.

This is far from the truth as the article states.

Look at http://wwwtrccwatch.com for some articles and op-eds on the subject.

And yes, the home tursn out to have been "repaired" before they sold it, but it wasn't disclosed to the buyer. Sounds like fraud, right? But no attorney would take the case even though the neighbors had pictures of the repairs before the owners bought!

BTW. They got out of the arbitration clause and will be going to court. Now they have attorneys willing to help.

[demnan]

4. I'd say that is the worst case of buyers' remorse I ever heard

But I have heard plenty of horror stories about people moving to the outer suburbs where the building standards are lackluster. The jukuzzi water falling through the dining room was just too much!

[mom cat]

5. Wasn't it a Texas builder from Houston who funded the Swift Boat Liars?

[yardwork]

7. Yep. Bob Perry. He's mentioned in this article.

[bleedingheart]

8. the article mentions this...

[MostlyLurks]

11. Related Archival Thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4021631#4027315

[johncoby2]

12. To read the complete article use this access code

MJQUR3

[chalky]

14. Thanks! I was just coming back here to whine about

not being able to read the rest just when the story was getting good! :)

[chalky]

15. "Her home is one of 44 jammed onto two acres..."

Holy crap! For $368,564?
And here I thought Austin's housing market sucked.

And with that kind of investment the silly woman didn't have the place inspected BEFORE buying?
What were they thinking?