Nevada Court Cancels Big Construction Defect Award
West News • December 20, 2005
A multimillion-dollar construction defects award was erased Thursday by a unanimous Nevada Supreme Court decision that held the case had been improperly given class-action status by a lower court ...
Insurance Journal is not responsible for the content of the message below.
Subject: RE: RE: NOT best for plaintiffs, just best for builder
Posted On: March 8, 2007, 3:49 am CST
Posted By: Cindy
Comment:
200 cases IS too many to be practical to handle individually. Also, if a builder routinely does things the same way, then it is logical that each house will have the same defects. Omission of materials is a common one. Many new houses lack window flashing, "kickout" flashing, roofing felt is applied wrong or not at all, brick is wrong, grading wrong, etc, etc.
Builders who build houses wrong, and won't voluntarily make things right, deserve to be sued. That is what the civil courts are for. Blaming the consumer doesn't change the fact that there are a lot of defectively built new houses out there that are rotting from the inside out because they LEAK.
I volunteer for a consumer organization and we have never seen anyone file a suit just for the heck of it. Most are terrified of litigation. Most are prevented from suing by builders' arbitration clauses. FEW can afford to sue!
By the time we hear from homeowners, they've been trying for months or years to get the builder to fix defects that should never have happened in the first place. They'be been stonewalled all that time, then the builder cries "sue happy" when someone tries to hold them accountable. BTW...Most of the homeowners we deal with have NOT filed suit, nor do they want to.
When I asked our local builders association to show me some of the cases, which should be public record, that they said were numerous and frivolous, they could not show me ONE SINGLE CASE. I on the other hand, had documentation to back up my points.
In the few years I've been involved in this I've seen major fraud cases where builders were also committing mortgage fraud. I've seen builders fined by the federal govt for predatory lending, not honoring warranties, and for violating an FTC order regarding abusive arbitration practices. I've seen families lose everything due to a bad builder. Many complaints are hidden, especially in private arbitration. Home buyers who are not online such as many seniors, cannot possibly do adequate research before buying.
I sure DON'T have sympathy for the industry when I can see hundreds of houses by the same builder in one small area that all DO have the same defects. Builders who do that should be charged with consumer fraud. That their industry protects them at all costs is despicable.
West News 
Subject: RE: RE: NOT best for plaintiffs, just best for builder
Builders who build houses wrong, and won't voluntarily make things right, deserve to be sued. That is what the civil courts are for. Blaming the consumer doesn't change the fact that there are a lot of defectively built new houses out there that are rotting from the inside out because they LEAK.
I volunteer for a consumer organization and we have never seen anyone file a suit just for the heck of it. Most are terrified of litigation. Most are prevented from suing by builders' arbitration clauses. FEW can afford to sue!
By the time we hear from homeowners, they've been trying for months or years to get the builder to fix defects that should never have happened in the first place. They'be been stonewalled all that time, then the builder cries "sue happy" when someone tries to hold them accountable. BTW...Most of the homeowners we deal with have NOT filed suit, nor do they want to.
When I asked our local builders association to show me some of the cases, which should be public record, that they said were numerous and frivolous, they could not show me ONE SINGLE CASE. I on the other hand, had documentation to back up my points.
In the few years I've been involved in this I've seen major fraud cases where builders were also committing mortgage fraud. I've seen builders fined by the federal govt for predatory lending, not honoring warranties, and for violating an FTC order regarding abusive arbitration practices. I've seen families lose everything due to a bad builder. Many complaints are hidden, especially in private arbitration. Home buyers who are not online such as many seniors, cannot possibly do adequate research before buying.
I sure DON'T have sympathy for the industry when I can see hundreds of houses by the same builder in one small area that all DO have the same defects. Builders who do that should be charged with consumer fraud. That their industry protects them at all costs is despicable.