Builder skipped town...

[Thomas360]

What is the name of your state? Washington State

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a new construction house from the builder. There have been some minor repairs that I have been trying to have him address. Well, it looks like he flaked out of town--number disconnected, not responding to emails, sold a property down the street he is working on to another builder. I was told by one of the subcontractors at that site that he moved out of state. His wife was the real estate agent (I know, bad combination) and her broker confirmed she moved out of state.

My question..what are my rights in enforcing the one year warranty on the house? Am I out of luck or do I have any other recourse?

Thanks for your help.

Thomas

[nextwife]

Is the warranty from him, or a home warranty company?

[Thomas360]

The warranty is from the builder, although the builder did also purchase a separate 1 yr warranty from a private company just for the appliances.

Please let me know if there is any other information that may be helpful.

Thanks.

Thomas

[Buk1000]

Every state has different laws about what a builder is supposed to honor as far as a warranty, (and it is different from the statute of limitations, the time which you have to file a lawsuit). Typical state laws say the builder has to warranty a new house for a year, and SOL can run from a few years to more than 10. Report this to your state agencies asap, and put your complaint in writing to the agencies and the builder. Agencies such as builder licensing, as well as the state attorney general or any consumer protection offices.

More builders seem to be going bankrupt lately, and this may be what happened to yours. Beware of liens possibly filed on your house from him not paying for materials or labor, too. IMO because they were not very good business people, when there was the slightest glitch in the market they tanked. I think we'll see more of this, and it was never uncommon. Some of these builders are still around, even building. Just under another name! You will need to find out about your state laws before critical deadlines pass you by, and perhaps get on the net and do some research to see if you can find this guy. For one thing, maybe he has other corporations under his name with the WA secretary of state. There are links to a lot of state agencies, etc, as well as info on this exact problem, on hadd.com and hobb.org, two such organizations I can remember offhand.

[Thomas360]

Thanks for the information. I called the WA Dept of Labor and Industries and they basically said there is nothing they can do about this. The laws are definitely not on the consumer's side. Not surprisingly, they also didn't have any more current contact information. I can request a summons and complaint form and file a lawsuit in superior court to go after the builder's $12,000 in bond. There will be several hundred dollars in filing fees. Does anyone have any opinions on whether this is worth doing or not? Is it a very involved process?

The websites you mentioned were very interesting. I will look through them in more detail. Most of my friends have one builder disaster story after another so I realize this is a common problem. As I mentioned, I haven't found any major problems with the house yet and my home inspection seemed to indicate the same. I guess I'm wondering how far to take it...

Thomas

[Buk1000]

I have read that in some states you have to have a court judgment to be able to collect on the builder's bond. Builders in my state don't have to have a bond, so I'm unfamiliar with what's involved to collect on one. Also your state might have a 'right to repair law' that forces you to go thru a set of steps. IMO these laws, which were created by builders, just give the 'skip town' types more time to get away.

Since you're in WA you might find this blog interesting: [url]http://www.waconstructionlaw.com/[/url]

Here is an article on right to repair law: [url]http://www.professionalroofing.net/article.aspx?A_ID=730[/url] I see they call it 'right to cure' in this article. It has gone by various names.