CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – As the Lowcountry remains a top area for new development nationwide, a Lowcountry-area attorney says dwindling building quality is leading to hundreds of lawsuits annually.
Past investigations have uncovered building concerns with new homes. Homeowners are frustrated and feel like they can’t get homebuilders to respond to problems they’re having — including structural problems and construction defects – unless they take them to court.
Over the past year, multiple stories have come to light about complaints against giant home building companies like Lennar, Stanley Martin and D.R. Horton.
In many instances, these homeowners claim they can’t get the company to remedy their situation and fix the problems. It’s something Mac Deford, a Mount Pleasant homeowner, knows firsthand.
“The initial issues with the home builder — they had very inconsistent responses, delayed responses,” Deford says. “They were really trying to sway just by telling us this is completely normal.”
Deford is in a Lennar-developed complex. The first summer in his new home, he says he noticed a lot of mold on his clothes and surfaces across his home. He says Lennar tried to remediate the mold issues and the HVAC contractor Fogel sent dehumidifiers. But he says neither have really done anything to mitigate the humidity issues since.
“In trying to implement fixes that they say will work that just never work and then and then radio silence when things don’t work,” Deford says. “And so that’s what led us to needing to file a lawsuit.”
Homeowners in this complex have filed lawsuits against both companies.
“It’s been a frustration,” Amanda Schroeder, who lives in that same complex and is also a part of the lawsuits, says. “This is my first home and it’s supposed to be a period of excitement and it has really just been nothing but stress and frustration. Fogel and Lennar have been very slow to respond.”
“Going to court just to fix problems in a new build home is not something that is enjoyable and so this is definitely not something that you would expect, especially from a huge company like Lennar that has the resources to do the right thing,” Deford says. “I mean, I think the most curious thing about this whole issue is that the mold, the structural issues, these were all being uncovered while they were still building the other half of this community and they didn’t do anything to change their plans or attempt to mitigate the defects.”
Unfortunately, this situation isn’t anything new to our area, some attorneys say.
John Hayes, an attorney who specializes in construction defects, says they file lawsuits against these companies representing hundreds of homeowners every year. He says he’s seeing the issues with homebuilding companies go up as our area continues to be developed. He says there are a couple of reasons for that. One, a lot more houses are being built. And two, Hayes says we’re running out of good land to build on.
“One of the things that we’re running into is what I like to call the perfect house trap,” Hayes says. “Instead of the mouse trap, it’s a house trap. We have a lot of owners who have bought houses, have put basically all their savings are the biggest purchase they’ve ever had in their life and they have houses that have structural problems or construction defects and they can’t sell them and that presents a really bad problem because they don’t have the money to fix them. It’s very expensive to fix them but they can’t sell them to other people and they have to live in them as they are until there’s some type of recourse. Often litigation.”
Hayes says he sees these larger companies trying to give homeowners the runaround.
“We see a lot of times homeowners call up and they say, ‘Well you’re outside your warranty it’s been over one year, two, three years.’ That’s not necessarily true. It might be according to the person you’re calling that built your home that doesn’t want to fix it. But it’s not, according to the South Carolina law,” he says. “We have what’s called building codes and building codes are the bare minimum of what you need to do. If you violate that, if you don’t do what our building codes are in South Carolina, it’s called evidence of negligence per se, which means the builder can be liable in tort to have it fixed. Now, to go through that you have to go find a lawyer.”
Hayes says while some of the newer builds will show problems early on, there are a lot that have latent defects — meaning it takes time for the home to settle and years for these issues to present themselves. But he says homeowners have rights.
“It’s called the discovery rule,” Hayes says. “From the time you noticed you have a problem, or an average person should have known you have a problem, you have three years to bring a lawsuit. Now that doesn’t mean three years after you buy it. That means four years after you buy it, you could notice there is a problem with the home and then you have three years from there.”
Hayes could only speculate as to why these homebuilding companies do not respond to problems but he says it’s not uncommon.
“It happens more often than not,” Hayes says. “What I would tell any homeowner, if you call up and they say, ‘Well, that’s not covered and you’re past your warranty or whatever they say at that particular time.’ Number one, you’re not crazy. Number two, don’t take it as the gospel. Number three, you can call an attorney, and most attorneys, I’m not just talking about myself, but most attorneys will talk to you for free. They’ll tell you, usually, the pros and cons of what you have before you.”
Hayes also says to be wary of signing any papers from homebuilding companies if they do come and fix something because you could be releasing them from fixing anything else.
All in all, the only thing homeowners want is to have a home built to standard and problems they’re having addressed.
“Please take accountability,” Schroeder says. “There needs to be some sort of accountability. None of us should be having to go through this. It’s been a lot of stress. It’s been a lot of frustration.”
Deford adds he has no trust in his homebuilder.
“Not only did they build these units in a way that there are massive construction defects and structural issues, it’s so bad that when it comes after our lawsuits they’re going to have to tear some of these units down to the studs and effectively rebuild them,” Deford says.
Hayes says there’s a number of reasons building code officials may not catch all of the issues.
“One, blaming a building code official for not catching all the violations of the building code — it’s a bit like trying to blame a highway patrolman for not catching every speeder on I-26,” he says. “They just can’t, there’s not enough of them.”
The other reason goes back to those latent defects.
“They’re a bit like, and I don’t use this term lightly, but they’re like cancer,” Hayes says. “You don’t see them when they’re first there. It takes a long time before they present themselves.”
“D.R. Horton is committed to superior customer service and building quality homes and neighborhoods throughout the Carolinas and across the United States,” John Jashinsky, D.R. Horton’s Charleston Division President,” says. “We take homeowner concerns seriously and encourage any D.R. Horton homeowner with concerns about their home to contact us at [email protected] or (843) 284-5000.
Lennar responded by saying:
“Lennar stands behind our homes and we are committed to addressing customer concerns promptly in line with our core values of quality, value, and integrity. For any questions or warranty requests, we encourage our homeowners to contact our Customer Care team or by completing a service request on our website.”
Stanley Martin has not responded to requests for comment.
If you’re having problems with your homebuilder you can also file a complaint with the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
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