Sister in Laws New House.

Sister-in-laws New House

 

So unfortunately when it comes to building homes.Not to many people take pride in their work. It has become a game of building for as cheap as possible and selling for as much as possible. There is no construction defect law in Utah which leaves a lot of these scabby builders an out. The only law in Utah is that they have to warranty there work for a year after the completion of the home. 

Unfortunately with most construction defects they don't show up until years later. This means the builder is off the hook and the homeowner is left to pay for what ever damage is caused by the deficient work.  Usually that deficient work results in water intrusion. If left undiscovered it becomes a festering pile of organic growth and results in Dry rot. If the dry rot affects an structural member of the building the repairs can get very costly. 

I write a lot about this stuff lately for two reasons. One I see it every day. I repair homes daily that have had these issues. The sad part about that is that these homes are seriously decaying and they are not very old at all. Second is because my sister-in-law is building a home with a builder and after walking through the home with them and showing them potential problems they insist that if it was a problem that the building inspected would have called it at the four way. 

When we persist on the issues that are not remedied, we were told by the realtor representing the builder" well we warranty it for a year."  When we told the realtor representing the builder that the whole point of building a new home is that we want it to last and not have issues with it because we finance for 30 years that we don't want to have issues after that first year. he said "Well that's not my problem."  

What is wrong with these people when a simple fix or a simple piece of 15 cent flashing could prevent years of damage to just have an attitude of "Its not my problem." Why is that once you are in that contract for something that you are investing your world into that they have no compassion to help appease your worries. 

One of the items which I mentioned in a previous post was about non treated lumber being in contact with concrete. We produced the International building code and regulation to this realtor. He said he couldn't use that as reference because they go off of local codes from the city they are building. He also informed us that the city code superceeds any international building code. 

This is funny because the realtor who claims to have 20 years experience building homes has only experience in selling homes. The only way a city building code would superceed an international building code is if is more restrictive than the current code. at no time can a city decide that a national standard is over the top and delete from the book. 

So I guess if your going to blatantly lie to your clients you had better do your homework so you don't sound uneducated. Once you tell a lie thats all your known for. How can we trust you tell us anything other than lie during the rest of the construction of the home?

The reason for going with this builder was that it was the only builder with a home in her price range. Otherwise they would not have been her choice. We had heard that they were hard to deal with. So I guess you get what you pay for so.  

That being said when going into a new construction neighborhood. The realtor in those model homes do not represent you. Here I will capitalize that. THEY DO NOT REPRESENT YOU!!!! They represent the builder. This means their fiduciary duty is to the builder not you.  Most builders figure in a realtor fee in case you bring one to represent you. If you go unrepresented they make 3% more money on your home. Always find someone you trust that knows the product and can stand up for you. Some one who will represent your interests to the fullest. 

I think the most deceitful thing is that before you sign a contract they act like they are your best friend and that they will do anything for you, but the moment that you have a concern they just make excuses. 

One of their excuses, and this comes from the Project Superintendent, we have been building homes for over 40 years. My response " so your telling me that you have been building homes wrong for over 40 years."

 Please comment with questions or advice or similar experiences. I think it would be wise to raise awareness to shoddy building practices and start to stand up for the consumer.