built on lowest point of property

[lrcaulfi]

What is the name of your state?Indiana
I am looking for much needed help. My husband and I had a ranch home w/ a basement built by a local builder on 3 acres of family land that his parents gave to us in December of 2000. They built us on the lowest point of our land. We have had water issues now since we moved in. Our basement always floods with a heavy rain. The builder says they will fix this but nothing is working. They installed an additional sump pump (now we have 2) but that doesn't help with the fact that my pumps will be burning out rather quickly. They also want to redirect the drainage line outside to a drainage tile but that didn't work because the tile was higher then our house. The county told me that they never contacted them when the house was built to see if it was a good area to build. Is that illegal? We also were built in Brookstone soil which is not a well-drained soil and a basement really shouldn't be built in this soil. Since this problem isn't going to be fixable, my homes resale value is going to be shot. We really don't have much money for a lawyer. I am a stay at home mom with three little ones. I need any good advice you can give me. Should I ask for the money back for the basement, rebuild the house....what? Thank you!

 

[John Se]

What permits did you/builder get?

what permits did you need?

 

[lrcaulfi]

I contacted the county and they did say the builder obtained all the permits but the builder didn't take into consideration the topology of my land. The county said they just assume that the builder is smart enough to place the house correctly. My land is flat and the surronding land slopes into my land. The builder even said that "We were built in the middle of a bowel". How in the heck did they get the permits if they didn't have the correct topology???? I am very frustrated and feel robbed. Any ideas?

 

[HomeGuru]

I contacted the county and they did say the builder obtained all the permits but the builder didn't take into consideration the topology of my land. The county said they just assume that the builder is smart enough to place the house correctly. My land is flat and the surronding land slopes into my land. The builder even said that "We were built in the middle of a bowel". How in the heck did they get the permits if they didn't have the correct topology???? I am very frustrated and feel robbed. Any ideas?

**A: if you have no money for an attorney then I can't advise you much.
Constructon defect litigation is costly and expensive.

 

[lrcaulfi]

Thanks for trying to help. I thought maybe there may be a lawyer that would get paid only if we did. I was going to look for someone who would do that.

 

[HomeGuru]

Thanks for trying to help. I thought maybe there may be a lawyer that would get paid only if we did. I was going to look for someone who would do that.

**A: your type of case is not a contingency fee type of case.

 

[lrcaulfi]

I see. I may not be able to hire a lawyer for this case but you better believe that I will be getting them back for all the problems we have had. I will picket on the sidewalk in front of their home model if I have to. Don't be suprised if you see a crazy women w/ picket signs on the Indianapolis news channel. Thanks for your help.

 

[John Se]

Did you tell the builder

We want the house Here:
What level is the groundwater?

 

[lrcaulfi]

No, we didn't tell the builder where to put the house. There is many different places that they could have positioned our house at on our 3 acre property and they picked the lowest point. I guess they had to put it there because we are on septic and a septic system cannot be put into Brookstone soil. The septic was placed in a different type of soil a little further up and the house was placed in the brookstone soil. So....basically, they knew they were building me a basement in a very hard to drain soil. From what I have heard, it is not a good idea to build a basement in this soil. If they would have just told us this, we would have built a bigger house w/out a basement so they still would have got there money. Also, did you mean how low is the water table? I called on that also and I can't remember how low at this time but I know it was satisfactory. Basically, the sump pump runs all the time even when we have no rain due to bad soil and our house getting all the run off water. That or they hit a field tile and they are POSITIVE that isn't the case. The county reccomended that the builder have a lift station installed for us to drain the water. I am not sure what that is but I know it is very costly.

 

[HomeGuru]

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