TRCC seems to have no authority to help homeowners, but has plenty of authority to help builders. The agency set a new standard for â€Åâ€Ŕgood enough for the public,†meaning substandard minimums. Behind these standards is a scandal involving Texas A&M and the Construction Science Department that got a $40,000 TRCC grant to draft a State Limited Warranty and Performance Standards. The co-principals heading the project are two attorneys who are not construction experts, but in fact Business Risk Management experts.
The standards fall short of protecting homebuyers, allowing foundations to crack and tilt significantly. Unlimited interior and exterior cracks throughout homes are now the acceptable standard.
What gives Texas builders an incentive to build a home that will last the life of the mortgage if the consumers are the ones being regulated? For now, Texas homebuyers are stuck with TRCC and the Limited Warranty that serves the industry as a builder disclaimer to shirk responsibility, offering the least buyer protection in the nation.
Janet Ahmad, President
HomeOwners for Better Building
(210)402-6800
An OP-ED on the new home warranties which take effect June 1, 2005.
Texas new home warranties. A trick on the public.
by John R. Cobarruvias
Mr. Cobarruvias is President of Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings, Texas and a long time consumer activist in new home construction, insurance and tort reform. He has testified in many hearings during the legislation session with an emphasis on the Texas Residential Construction Commission.
Two years after the creation of the Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC), a Commission to regulate homebuilders in Texas, the Commission has released warranty standards for all new home construction in Texas. This standard, which comes into effect June 1, 2005, was created on a flawed foundation of promises of consumer protection and heavy influence by the homebuilding industry. For new homebuyers, there are only two words of encouragement available: Good Luck.
The first version of the warranty standard created by Texas A&M University was nearly identical to the numerous 10-year warranties provided by the homebuilding industry in the past, and it contained just as many flaws, exceptions, excuses, and extremely limited protection. The final set of standards isn’t much better.
By law, the standards cover 1 year for workmanship, 2 years for air and electrical, and 10 years for structural damage. Common sense defects such, as hardwood floors buckling after 1 year is not covered. Neither is ceramic tile cracking and lifting off the floor. Leaking roofs, paint fading or cracking, siding coming apart, carpets buckling, driveway cracking and literally coming apart, bricks cracking, mortar prematurely deteriorating all are examples of what is not covered once the 1-year warranty expires.
Even within the 1-year limitation defects such as cracks in the walls wide enough to insert a credit card is within the warranty standards, as well as hundreds of cracks in the wall, cracks in the exterior bricks, and cracks in exterior stucco.
Prior to the creation of the TRCC, homeowners were protected by the “implied warranty of good workmanship” granted in 1968 which covered defects based simply on the common sense of a home inspector, or a jury. This common sense warranty has now been waived, replaced with the explicit litmus test warranty standards now with a rock solid 1-year limitation on workmanship.
The homebuilding industry, claiming to be acting on behalf of the consumer, convinced the Texas House and Senate that the implied warranty was “vague” and created confusion between builders and owners on what defects should be covered. This resulted in the waiving of the implied warranty, a great loss to the consumer and a huge boom for the homebuilders.
The standards also expressly limit air conditioning, heating, and electrical problems to only 2 years. Defects such as an air conditioner failing on a hot summer day after 2 years is not covered. A new air conditioner installed in an existing home usually is warranted for up to 10 years, but on a new home it is now limited to 2 years.
Structural damage is warranted for 10 years, although the loopholes and exceptions in the standard will make it difficult to qualify. The homeowner is also required, by the warranty, to maintain the water content of the ground around the foundation, in short, homeowners are required to “water” their foundation in order to preserve their foundation warranty. This is unreasonable especially since the TRCC cannot determine how to achieve this water content. This is just one of many exclusions and unnecessary requirements that are throughout the standard.
With the release of this extremely limited warranty standard and waiving of the implied warranty of common sense, the TRCC, appropriately pronounced, “trick”, an agency created by the homebuilding industry for the homebuilding industry, has played its final trick on the homebuyers of Texas.
John R. Cobarruvias
—
John R. Cobarruvias
Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings john.cobarruvias@hadd.com
14646 Cardinal Creek Ct
Houston, TX 77062
281-486-5203 H
281-483-9357 W
I agree with Mr. Cobarruvias. These laws were written by and for the building industry just as “right to repair” laws are written by and for builders. The fact these laws are marketed as good for consumers is outrageous.
You guys forgot to mention the mandatory arbitration provision in most builders’ contracts, which, for most people stuck with a bad house, a financial burden that is so high as to make pursuing unresolved complaints against the builder just a dream for the average homeowner.
well lets get back to the insurance issue. with trick now in place is that going to make insurance companies come back into the Texas commerical market and issue policys. my answer to this question is maybe, in that the know liability is stated in the contract and it moves the problem out of the courts into some type of arbitration. so for insurance folks this maybe be good, we just have to wait and see.
Insurance companies never left. The insurance “leaving Texas” was nothing but a scare tactic and it worked just fine. The builders are now using it again, while record profits are being made from builders and insurers.
Heck, the builders ought to just drop their liability. They cant get sued anyway!
What is lacking here is that most remodelers are very small businesses. What’s going to guaranty that the little guy can meet this obligation to fix a problem?
This law has nothing to do with protecting the homeowner from the small contractor that has no insurance and no assets. This law is about protecting the big time builders (read: large political donors, i.e. David Weekly) that have assets, from homeowners that have been sold shoddily built houses.
If this were a true consumer protection law, it would be like the lemon law for cars. The standard for what is an acceptible level of defects would be zero. After the builders had to eat enough of these badly built houses, they’d quit sub-contracting out to contractors that get their “craftsmen” (read: day-laborers) on street corners.
As many flaws as the thirty year old used house that I just bought has, I’d stack it up to anything new being sold by the big-time guys today.
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Hell, Nationwide writes general and product liability for home builders. That’s not even surplus. There was no home builder insurance crisis in Texas.
TRCC seems to have no authority to help homeowners, but has plenty of authority to help builders. The agency set a new standard for â€Åâ€Ŕgood enough for the public,†meaning substandard minimums. Behind these standards is a scandal involving Texas A&M and the Construction Science Department that got a $40,000 TRCC grant to draft a State Limited Warranty and Performance Standards. The co-principals heading the project are two attorneys who are not construction experts, but in fact Business Risk Management experts.
The standards fall short of protecting homebuyers, allowing foundations to crack and tilt significantly. Unlimited interior and exterior cracks throughout homes are now the acceptable standard.
What gives Texas builders an incentive to build a home that will last the life of the mortgage if the consumers are the ones being regulated? For now, Texas homebuyers are stuck with TRCC and the Limited Warranty that serves the industry as a builder disclaimer to shirk responsibility, offering the least buyer protection in the nation.
Janet Ahmad, President
HomeOwners for Better Building
(210)402-6800
An OP-ED on the new home warranties which take effect June 1, 2005.
Texas new home warranties. A trick on the public.
by John R. Cobarruvias
Mr. Cobarruvias is President of Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings, Texas and a long time consumer activist in new home construction, insurance and tort reform. He has testified in many hearings during the legislation session with an emphasis on the Texas Residential Construction Commission.
Two years after the creation of the Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC), a Commission to regulate homebuilders in Texas, the Commission has released warranty standards for all new home construction in Texas. This standard, which comes into effect June 1, 2005, was created on a flawed foundation of promises of consumer protection and heavy influence by the homebuilding industry. For new homebuyers, there are only two words of encouragement available: Good Luck.
The first version of the warranty standard created by Texas A&M University was nearly identical to the numerous 10-year warranties provided by the homebuilding industry in the past, and it contained just as many flaws, exceptions, excuses, and extremely limited protection. The final set of standards isn’t much better.
By law, the standards cover 1 year for workmanship, 2 years for air and electrical, and 10 years for structural damage. Common sense defects such, as hardwood floors buckling after 1 year is not covered. Neither is ceramic tile cracking and lifting off the floor. Leaking roofs, paint fading or cracking, siding coming apart, carpets buckling, driveway cracking and literally coming apart, bricks cracking, mortar prematurely deteriorating all are examples of what is not covered once the 1-year warranty expires.
Even within the 1-year limitation defects such as cracks in the walls wide enough to insert a credit card is within the warranty standards, as well as hundreds of cracks in the wall, cracks in the exterior bricks, and cracks in exterior stucco.
Prior to the creation of the TRCC, homeowners were protected by the “implied warranty of good workmanship” granted in 1968 which covered defects based simply on the common sense of a home inspector, or a jury. This common sense warranty has now been waived, replaced with the explicit litmus test warranty standards now with a rock solid 1-year limitation on workmanship.
The homebuilding industry, claiming to be acting on behalf of the consumer, convinced the Texas House and Senate that the implied warranty was “vague” and created confusion between builders and owners on what defects should be covered. This resulted in the waiving of the implied warranty, a great loss to the consumer and a huge boom for the homebuilders.
The standards also expressly limit air conditioning, heating, and electrical problems to only 2 years. Defects such as an air conditioner failing on a hot summer day after 2 years is not covered. A new air conditioner installed in an existing home usually is warranted for up to 10 years, but on a new home it is now limited to 2 years.
Structural damage is warranted for 10 years, although the loopholes and exceptions in the standard will make it difficult to qualify. The homeowner is also required, by the warranty, to maintain the water content of the ground around the foundation, in short, homeowners are required to “water” their foundation in order to preserve their foundation warranty. This is unreasonable especially since the TRCC cannot determine how to achieve this water content. This is just one of many exclusions and unnecessary requirements that are throughout the standard.
With the release of this extremely limited warranty standard and waiving of the implied warranty of common sense, the TRCC, appropriately pronounced, “trick”, an agency created by the homebuilding industry for the homebuilding industry, has played its final trick on the homebuyers of Texas.
John R. Cobarruvias
—
John R. Cobarruvias
Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings
john.cobarruvias@hadd.com
14646 Cardinal Creek Ct
Houston, TX 77062
281-486-5203 H
281-483-9357 W
http://www.hadd.com
I agree with Mr. Cobarruvias. These laws were written by and for the building industry just as “right to repair” laws are written by and for builders. The fact these laws are marketed as good for consumers is outrageous.
You guys forgot to mention the mandatory arbitration provision in most builders’ contracts, which, for most people stuck with a bad house, a financial burden that is so high as to make pursuing unresolved complaints against the builder just a dream for the average homeowner.
well lets get back to the insurance issue. with trick now in place is that going to make insurance companies come back into the Texas commerical market and issue policys. my answer to this question is maybe, in that the know liability is stated in the contract and it moves the problem out of the courts into some type of arbitration. so for insurance folks this maybe be good, we just have to wait and see.
Insurance companies never left. The insurance “leaving Texas” was nothing but a scare tactic and it worked just fine. The builders are now using it again, while record profits are being made from builders and insurers.
Heck, the builders ought to just drop their liability. They cant get sued anyway!
What is lacking here is that most remodelers are very small businesses. What’s going to guaranty that the little guy can meet this obligation to fix a problem?
Hal, you’re joking, right?
This law has nothing to do with protecting the homeowner from the small contractor that has no insurance and no assets. This law is about protecting the big time builders (read: large political donors, i.e. David Weekly) that have assets, from homeowners that have been sold shoddily built houses.
If this were a true consumer protection law, it would be like the lemon law for cars. The standard for what is an acceptible level of defects would be zero. After the builders had to eat enough of these badly built houses, they’d quit sub-contracting out to contractors that get their “craftsmen” (read: day-laborers) on street corners.
As many flaws as the thirty year old used house that I just bought has, I’d stack it up to anything new being sold by the big-time guys today.
I’m just slow this week. Thanks for laying it out for me.