Rivermist homeowners discuss buybacks
A letter-writing campaign and media blitz to convince the firm to negotiate were proposed at the Brandeis High School gathering of about 200 residents from the subdivision located nearby on the city's Northwest Side. They were urged to stay energized and united during what may be a protracted battle to protect their investments in The Hills of Rivermist, where a soil shift Jan. 24 collapsed part of a hillside retaining wall and left several homes in immediate peril."We must march together as an army to win," resident Chuck Cervantes told those at the meeting.  Centex representatives weren't invited to the meeting, where City Councilman Reed Williams called for quick action to fix the problems that have forced about 30 families into hotels and affected many others.

San Antonio rain adds to soil sliding woes
Associated Press: Additional rain in San Antonio has led to closer monitoring of a neighborhood where sliding soil left more than two dozen houses still evacuated. The National Weather Service says drizzle continued Thursday in San Antonio, where a Jan. 24 retaining wall failed at The Hills of Rivermist. More than 90 homeowners initially evacuated. Centex Homes on Wednesday updated residents of the 27 still-evacuated homes, deemed unsafe by the city, about their living situation beyond staying in hotels. Centex has installed silt fencing and foundation piers. Spokeswoman Valerie Dolenga says the builder expects "that some of the slope will continue to erode" and additional cracking is expected, but the retaining wall is stable. An aide to City Councilman Reed Williams says a meeting will be held Saturday at a nearby school to discuss the situation.

Rivermist residents want builder to buy back their homes
A week after a retaining wall collapse imperiled homes on the northwest side, residents in that neighborhood say the best case scenario is for the builder to buy their homes back.  "I do not want to stay there." said homeowner Mary Bell Del Rio. "I do not feel it is safe."

Homes evacuated in San Antonio as hill crumbles
Construction crews moved dirt to shore up a group of houses precariously perched on a crumbling hill in San Antonio on Monday as engineers tried to determine why the land below was shifting, causing dozens of homes to evacuate. Gaping crevices, some 15 feet deep, cut across several yards as dirt cascaded into a towering stone retaining wall that nearly split in half. Fences crumpled like accordions as crews packed dirt under one home and around its exterior after part of its foundation was exposed.

San Antonio Ground Shift
As many as 80 homes are said to be in danger of structural failure in Northwest San Antonio due to a huge shift in the supporting soil.  City officials say they initially evacuated 80 homes in the hills of the Rivermist subdivision due to what appears to be a landslide caused by a faulty retaining wall.  No injuries were reported and about 25 of the 80 families were allowed to return to their homes on Monday. Fire Department district chief Nim Kidd who is also the emergency management coordinator said that at least seven streets had to be closed and that the soil was moving about 4 inches and hour. There are several 15 foot fishers that opened up when a retaining wall gave way and the soil and debris poured through. These fishers threaten the structural stability of any homes that are close to them and can be a serious hazard to anyone around them.

Why Would Anyone Buy a Pulte Home in Texas?
In San Antonio over 25 homeowners have felt the devastation from buying a new home in Texas, this time from Pulte Homes. Pulte merged with Centex in 2008 taking on the liability of these homes that are literally sliding down a hill. This major screw up has received national attention. From the Washington Post.

Express-News Cartoon:  Rest Assured, We are on Top of This

Poorly Built by Pulte Home:
Homebuyers: Please Beware of Pulte Brand Homes
I understand these are not custom homes but there are far too many short cuts for the price. Especially in insulation and unseen areas. -Sun City - Shadow Hills, Indio, CA.  This has been a horrible experience. Between all the problems, the non-responsive customer service, the poor "fixes", we are very saddened that our "dream home" has become a nightmare. It is unfortunate that so many problems have occurred, but even more disappointing that we are left to deal with them, no recourse at all. We had thought about getting a lawyer, but just wouldn't know where to start. The water damage to the house was because of negligence and was a problem that we noticed on our walk through. This house was built very fast, and it is showing over the years. I would NOT recommend a Pulte home to anyone, and I am embarrassed to say that I own one. -Heritage at Tartesso, buckeye, AZ    Read more...

Collateral damage: Innocent victims of the mortgage crisis
They cut the lawns, change the locks, clean and maintain the vacant, foreclosed homes that litter Texas neighborhoods. Like many small businesses, they operate on a shoestring. And dozens of them have been driven to financial ruin because they've never been paid. Banks have no way of maintaining all the homes they now own. They contract so-called "property preservation" firms to manage the work... But News 8 has found that from coast-to-coast, the mom-and-pops are suffering because the contractors who promised to pay them never have.

Pulte problems: Lessons to be learned from company's history 
Koenig did what he thought was right: he went to the builder, Pulte Homes, to tell them about the problem in Sun City Hilton Head, the retiment community in Bluffton, S.C., where Koenig lives.  What happened next is at the root of what's driven Koenig for the last three years. He says it also will be at the heart of the matter for residents of the Hills of Rivermist neighborhood in northwest San Antonio, where a ruptured retaining wall caused a slope failure that imperiled many hillside homes and launched several lawsuits alleging that Pulte is responsible.

City: Fallen wall wasn't built as planned
The retaining wall that collapsed last week and jeopardized a neighborhood built by Centex Homes was built with less mortar than what engineering plans called for, according to city officials who inspected the wall Friday.  "Staff determined that the retaining wall was not built in accordance with the design provided by (the) design engineer," Assistant City Manager T.C. Broadnax wrote in an e-mail to his boss, Sheryl Sculley, Mayor Julián Castro and the City Council.  "For example, the building plans for the wall show limestone mortared throughout the wall. Based on field observations of the failed portion of the wall, mortar was not installed according to the building plans."

Retaining wall collapse at The Hills of Rivermist subdivision
Read Express-News latest updates on the Rivermist hillside collapse.  The great problems homeowners face… Homeowners take their case to the Texas Capitol to testify before House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence on inequities of Binding Arbitration  Rivermist learned they gave up their constitutional right of access to the courts for a privatized system that is beholding to the building industry for their livelihood.
See all the Express-News coverage, latest photos and post comments...

Texas Politics - Homeowner: Too late to start over
Homeowners from San Antonio's Northwest Side neighborhood that underwent a landslide had a few minutes apiece before a House committee today. The committee is considering the issue of consumers being required to agree that they'll take any claims to arbitration in deals such as home-purchase contracts. Janet Ahmad of HomeOwners for Better Building said the San Antonio homeowners' contracts had such clauses for all disputes. "I live in the Hills of Rivermist... The sliding Hills of Rivermist," said Charles Cervantes, saying when he bought his home, he thought he'd be protected by a warranty if anything went wrong.

Express-News: Homeowners speak against binding arbitration
Homeowners distraught about their safety and property values after a retaining wall collapsed in their San Antonio neighborhood told state lawmakers Wednesday they feel hit again by a binding-arbitration clause in their purchase contracts.T he clause, common in home contracts, requires purchasers to go through an arbitration process with the developer and builder to settle complaints. "A homeowner has practically no rights (from) what I've heard here today," Terry Lisherness, 62, a resident of the Hills of Rivermist, told the state House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee. "I'm very upset and I'm very scared."

Subdivision watches and waits as rain falls