Family's experience with Custom Dream Builders has been a nightmare
The Forbergs said they paid Orland Park resident Thomas Frenkel and his company, Custom Dream Builders, more than $120,000 to remodel part of their house and build a 1,200-square-foot addition. They said they've also shelled out more than $10,000 to hire other people to fix problems Frenkel left behind, including replacing a new roof that leaked.

New Home Inspections Part 2
Troubleshooter Diane Wilson shares the story of one homeowner who was supposed to move into her dream home, instead it's been years of heartache and financial loss. And to this day, she still can't move into her new home. If you look at Lisa Daniel's house from the outside you can see the problems. Cracks through the brick and mortar, cracks throughout the concrete. Inside it's just as bad, as there's cracks in the ceilings, walls, and floor.

Grounds for litigation
Zornes feels like he got a defective product, and he wants builders Danny and Pam McKee to refund money. To that end, he filed a lawsuit last week in Boone County Circuit Court naming the McKees, developer Martin Builders and the city of Ashland. The lawsuit claims that Ashland building inspectors went to the site and requested a soil study before the house went up. Documents and photographs Zornes obtained indicate one inspector, standing where the foundation was to be poured, pushed a reinforced steel bar more than 4 feet into soggy ground with his bare hands. But the lawsuit claims the builder never did the soil study, and today the soggy ground depicted in Zornes' photographs is what holds his house in place.

The house that Carmela built
Now think of the poor schmuck who buys the place and has to deal with the consequences of inferior materials and the contractor's general ineptness. Washington residents in that boat shared a litany of dream-turned-to-nightmare stories in a recent Senate hearing on a bill to protect consumers better. In Washington state, a consumer who pays top dollar for what is likely their single-largest purchase but gets low quality has little recourse, especially for defects, such as water damage, that show up years later. Sen. Brian Weinstein, chairman of the Senate Committee on Consumer Protection and Housing, is sponsoring bills that give buyers more guarantee of quality and impose some minimum standards for training and licensing of contractors.

SAHA chief to take hot seat after council hears complaintsSan Antonio Housing Authority CEO Henry Alvarez has agreed to appear before a City Council committee to discuss complaints about shoddy construction and poor management at SAHA's Villas de Fortuna subdivision on the West Side. "City staff asked us to participate in the Feb. 13 Urban Affairs Committee and we intend to do so," SAHA spokeswoman Melanie Villalobos said Tuesday. Councilwomen Delicia Herrera of District 6 and Patti Radle of District 5 raised the possibility of questioning Alvarez at a stormy citizens-to-be-heard session at last Thursday's council meeting. Fortuna residents in attendance recited a litany of problems with the houses they are buying from SAHA and the way the lease-to-purchase program is being managed.

Empire Ranch homes defective, lawsuit alleges
Owners of eight single-family homes in Folsom's Empire Ranch Development have filed a construction defects lawsuit against mega-developer D.R. Horton.  Represented by the Sacramento law firm of Anderson & Kriger, the suit was filed in El Dorado County Superior Court in late January. The homeowners' complaints are numerous: extensive cracked stucco, leaky windows, leaky roofs, and negative drainage, among other things.  Matthew Schoech, an attorney at Anderson & Kriger, said:  "The sheer number of stucco cracks in these homes shocked me."

Buying a Brand New Home Dos and Don'ts
Troubleshooter Diane Wilson hears from frustrated new homeowners every day. The complaints include everything from cosmetic issues, drainage problems to even structural concerns.The first home John McClancy looked at was the Wake Forest home of Ana Ruiz. She says she has aired her concerns to her builder several times and just wanted to know for sure what's going on with her home. John looked at her home and says he found several poor workmanship issues, but what alarmed John even more was what he says is a code violation.

Legislator confronts builders on homeowner rights
As chairman of the Legislature's new Consumer Protection and Housing Committee, the Mercer Island Democrat has introduced a package of bills that would create a "homeowners' bill of rights."...Weinstein's legislation would create a new home warranty, which would require a builder to follow building codes, permits and regulations and would define violations as a defect. Contractors would have to warrant new homes for two years for defects in materials or workmanship; three years for electrical, plumbing and heating systems; five years for water penetration and 10 years for structural defects. It also would allow owners to recover costs of repairing defects from the builder, and extend the time a homeowner could sue a builder from six to 10 years. Another bill would require that contractors be tested, licensed and undergo continuing education.

AARP Texas Update: 80th Legislative Session: AARP Takes Stands on Rates, Health, Other Issues
Preventing 'home-improvement fraud' targeting older homeowners: AARP supports the enactment of state laws that require home-improvement contractors to be licensed and insured, establish the need for written contracts specifying the terms of a given agreement and create recovery funds to protect the financial resources of the consumer.  Moreover, contractor who provides fraudulent home repair work should be subject to criminal penalties.  See: Texas Update on issues

Mortgage Bankers On The Defensive
Now mortgage brokers are facing congressional investigation. The Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, chaired by Christopher Dodd, D-Ct., held a hearing entitled "Preserving the American Dream: Predatory Lending Practices and Home Foreclosures," to look at sub-prime and predatory lending as the reasons foreclosures have risen so fast recently nationwide. Senator Dodd's stated purpose for the hearing was to "create, sustain, preserve, and protect the American dream of home ownership, and to stop abusive practices in the housing market."

Builder's test finds high levels of arsenic at Wellington project
In preliminary testing Centex Homes has found high levels of arsenic contamination in the groundwater and some arsenic contamination in the soil of its Oakmont Estates project, according to a report released by state environmental officials on Friday.Testing done by Earth Tech in Orlando found arsenic in the groundwater at up to 16 times the state's safe level, said Stephen Webster, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The state's safe level is 10 parts per billion. Centex found readings as high as 160 parts per billion in the groundwater of its unfinished neighborhood off U.S. 441.

Tarrant home builders, others fined
Three Tarrant County-based builders have been fined by a state agency that oversees home builders. The Texas Residential Construction Commission fined 17 builders in all. Larry Travis, a partner with his brother in Travis Construction, said everything is cleared up now. The company forgot to re-register on time. "It's a new policy, and I know it's caught a lot of builders off guard," he said. Representatives from La Ventana Homes and Austin Design/Build did not return phone calls Friday seeking comment.

CONSUMER INVESTIGATION: In A Bind
Got a beef with your builder? Your credit card company? Your cell phone provider? Chances are, going to court is not an option. When you signed your contract, you signed up for binding arbitration -- and you may wish you hadn't after hearing from Consumer Investigator Jim Strickland.   See News2 Investigative report

Builders cancel contracts at their peril
Tettensor's comments were guided by a landmark 1975 Supreme Court of Canada judgment - Atlantic Stock Paper Limited and Elliot Krever & Associates (Maritimes) Ltd. vs St. Anne-Nackawic Pulp and Paper Company Limited - that held the pulp and paper company responsible for honouring its end of a contract that it wanted to cancel. St. Anne signed a contract, then told its two waste paper suppliers that declining markets were forcing it to invoke! the force majeure clause. But the high court did not accept the compa ny's arguments.