|
Your dream home...or your worst nightmare
By Pat Poland -The Bulletin Newspaper
Seems everywhere you look in Texas, and especially Montgomery County, land is being bought, developed, and sectioned into new subdivisions. The number of new homes being built in our area is forty percent higher than what was built in 2001. Homes being built these days range from 1,200 square foot to the mega 'custom built' homes of 8,000 to 9,300 square feet. The custom dream home of people who can afford to invest in such massive residences are being built in subdivisions like The Woodlands, Bentwater, April Sound and other newly opened subdivisions. Price tags on such homes range from $550,000. to $2.5 million, and up. "If you are having a home built, it should be yours, and you should be able to get you want," states, Eric 'Bulldog' Yollick, a Montgomery County attorney. According to Yollick, Montgomery County does not have enforceable ordinances at the county level regarding construction; only pertaining to signage and locations of sexually oriented businesses. "There is a perception that if you get a builder's permit from the County Engineer's Office that it means something... that plans were received and approved. The only reason permitting at all is in this county, is so they (Montgomery County) qualify for Federal flood dollars and the federal insurance program. Basically, they are checking to make sure the home is not built in the flood plain or flood way or if it is in the flood plain, that flood insurance is issued. You could build another Anadarko tower near the freeway without getting a permit and the county couldn't stop you from doing it," referring to the skyscraper built in The Woodlands, which is the tallest building in Montgomery County. Yollick said anyone can become a builder...." just hang up a sign, say I'll build your home. It takes no degree or licensing in Texas to become a builder."Yollick can tell you what to look for and how to protect yourself from this. "Jim Jenkins had one such home built in Grogans Point in The Woodlands, which had numerous construction defects. Those defects have now been corrected after having sued The Woodlands Corporation and the builder, Wally Westbrook. The jury awarded almost two million dollars to him. Westbrook was one of the few builders The Woodlands Corporation would allow to build homes in The Woodlands area. Although the Jenkins' already had another builder selected, they had to use one of the ones that The Woodlands Corporation had approved,"Yollick explained. "The Woodlands has an aggressive inspectors program to make sure the home was built according to the plans, specifications, and building codes adopted by The Woodlands. But it wasn't for the buyers. It was really for The Woodlands Corporation to make sure it went along with the master plan of The Woodlands, but didn't do anything for the buyers. I began to get four other cases like this referred from other attorneys, " Yollick said. "There is a real pattern in this county... from not only The Woodlands, but major subdivisions like Bentwater. In the Woodlands you have to buy a lot from The Woodlands Development Standards Committee in order to build a home. In Bentwater, anyone can buy a lot from any developer and use any builder they choose," he continued. Gene and Bettie Holoquist chose to build their custom dream home in Bentwater. "We saved for years to build our dream home. We've been together for 36 years and this was where we wanted to be," said Bettie. It is a uniquely built home designed with all the extras you could think of, including an elevator, because Bettie has trouble negotiating stairs from a bad back. The 8,700 square foot custom home was packed with specially ordered trim work, cabinets and an ornately carved stair rail. "We found someone to carve the railings and picked out the wood... a beautiful maple. We clipped pictures of what we wanted in our home...making note of where we could find the items, visited home shows to look for what we wanted," Bettie explained as we toured the mansion. It was their custom built dream home. "We found our builder through recommendation of a friend who said the man taught a home building course at Montgomery College." Sandy Thompson, of Carriage Homes, agreed to build the custom home for the Holoquists for a specified agreed amount, and detailed plans, both written and drawn, were agreed upon. According to Gene and Bettie Holoquist, Thompson had told them that he was a licensed professional and had an engineering degree. "There are visible nail holes in the carved stair rails and the stain is too dark in certain areas. One third of the way down the stain matches but then it gets darker the rest of the way, " explains Gene Holoquist. The difference in stain color is a sign that someone hurried the job along, ignoring the craftsmanship that was used on the upper third of the railing. Sheetrock hangs from the ceiling lights on the balcony over the back patio, attributed to leaks from rainwater. "The balcony slopes toward the house, causing water to pool up and then drain inside the upper rooms off the balcony and to the lower underside of the balcony. Inside the home, the specially rounded corners on the walls have sheetrock chipping off as well as the float tape coming loose in almost every room. The specialty trim moulding doesn't butt against each but has gaps, which Bettie has been caulking herself; an attempt at masking the inferior workmanship. "I think I own the caulking aisle," she laughs sarcastically. Bettie had ventured to the Sherwin Williams paint store to pick up more paint to finish the paint job on her own. That was when she found out that not only had a cheaper brand of paint been used... but that it had been watered down. "That is what I was told when the salesperson said he couldn't match the colors because they had been watered down," she explained. "How do you like the marble tiles in the great room? " asks Bettie. I saw nothing visibly wrong with them. "I bought them myself and the tile man had done such a poor job... you tripped on the corners. I had to make them replace twenty-five of them." "Everytime we told Thompson where he could get the special items we wanted in our home... if it wasn't where he had an account.... we had to buy it with our own money. He still has four sets of French doors that belong in the rooms upstairs. He took them to stain them and has never returned them," they shake their heads in disappointment. Gene Holoquist points to the cracks in the bricks and the foundation. "I asked him if we didn't need a licensed professional engineer to do the design and have him watch the foundation being poured. Sandy Thompson said he was a licensed engineer. A licensed engineer is required to have a college degree, some apprenticeship hours and pass an exam. Although he stated as such on his company website, Mr. Thompson has no degree. That statement has since been removed after mediation began with the Holoquists attorney, Yollick. The Holoquists discovered that the bricklaying company used in the construction of their home had never been paid for their work, and had put a lien on their newly built home. Thompson explained that he didn't pay the bricklayers because they had caused damages to the home, which exceeded what was due to them. There was $2,000 in damages to the roof, from dropping bricks on it. They had nailed scaffolding to the roof and through the Freon lines in the air conditioning causing damage, and not covered windows causing scratches to the windows. "Why should I pay them? I had to pay for the repair out of my pocket. The Holoquists wanted me to pay the brickers.... but they did damage to the home!" he explained. Thompson explained that he had kept invoices on the damages the brickers had to repair which also listed how the damage had occurred. "We still to this day don't understand why the brick layer expects to be paid when he did these damages. It exceeds what he was due." The Holoquists agree that the brick layers caused damage, "They had shot nails into the Freon lines of the air conditioner, rendering the air conditioning almost useless from the leaks. We finally had to hire a bricklayer to remove the bricks and repair the lines." Access Brick Company, the original company used on the project, has informed us they are thinking of filing bankruptcy. The Holoquists again blamed Thompson for their woes. "Three out of the five air conditioners used to heat and cool the home didn't work. We couldn't get Thompson to tell us who had installed them, so we could get them replaced, so we called the manufacturer, Trane. We gave them the serial numbers and they told us who had installed them. Trane worked to replace them," Gene Holoquist explained. Gene and Bettie had begun construction of their home on July 2, 2000. They moved into their home, which was still unfinished in December of 2002. "He (Thompson) walked off the job in November! There was a list is forty-six items that needed to be done. When we had the driveway poured ourselves and paid for it out of our pocket, he tried to bill us for it. He had only put the brick borders down and figured the square footage on the total drive area not just the brick borders," they added. The Holoquists said they frequented the job site, rarely seeing Thompson. "We were told we had to go through a pecking order to speak to him.... first his assistant, then his wife.... and that we were interfering. At times he would come to me to try to get me to change things my wife had wanted... and talked down to her," Gene Holoquist told us. Eric Yollick and the Holoquists had to follow the intricate trail of legal arbitration involved in settling the building dilemma, to no avail. Before they had reached the arbitration from the mediation table, Thompson had filed bankruptcy, leaving the Holoquists in their unfinished and damaged home. Their dream had turned into a nightmare. "Last week we were awakened at 6:00 a.m. by a huge explosion. The main water valve in our house blew up. The plumber said it was put in under compression, " Bettie Holoquist said. Sandy Thompson, of Carriage Builders, defended himself by saying, " There are no standards in the building industry. A custom home is supposed to be unique and built to the lifestyle of the customer. I began building homes thirty-two years ago. I used to be an airline passenger service person for American Airlines when I changed professions. I took some community college courses on home building, did a few small jobs, then acted as a superintendent of builders. It was a slow process to get where I am." Thompson says, "Sooner or later you have problems with folks. You aren't going to please everyone all the time. Any home that is 5,000 square feet or more is time consuming and demanding. I don't want to rehash anything about a particular client. You learn things and move on." Thompson explained that in his classes at Montgomery College, he covers the A - Z issues of construction, what you have a right to expect, how to negotiate with the subcontractor, the best products to use in a home, and energy efficiency as possible. " I have stayed with a job overseeing it. I have to devote time to each job. It requires a lot of extra attention to the foundation construction, plumbing and electrical. You pay less attention to things like painting, drywall and insulation. No need to stand there all day to watch the painter," he explained "In the case of the Holoquists, the designer didn't spend enough time with them to make things clear. The Holoquists are nice people; they have a beautiful house. They just didn't understand construction and they had preconceived ideas of custom quality. They didn't understand what they have a right to expect. You have to look at the contract, the specs provided in the contract. They interfered with the process of work and wanted to control it, access the job, and negotiate deals with my subcontractors on their own. They needed to go to the builder. Things were done more out of ignorance. They went behind my back and instructed the bricker to fill the expansion joints in the bricks with mortar. By the time I got there it was too late. The gaps were supposed to be filled with silicone so the bricks could expand. So now they have cracks because the brick couldn't expand. " Thompson explained that there was nothing mandatory about a builder carrying insurance in case such damage is incurred. "We would just have to pass the costs on to our clients." In regards to the Holoquists' home in particular: "In the middle of the job, it became a two-headed monster. You couldn't ride it and you couldn't handle it. You just try to make the best out of it. They bought tiles at a discount for the great room. On clearance.... a store that was going out of business, so you knew if there was a problem there was no guarantee backing replacement. My tile man showed me the tiles... they were cupped (bowed in the middle). I told him to do the best that he could. When Bettie Holoquist showed her disapproval of the 'kicked up tips', I told her to put a pencil mark on the ones she wanted to remove and I'd have them replaced. Then she wanted us to grind them down and polish them. All that was extra time and money," Thompson explained." I did try to resolve things. We went to mediation. The Holoquists agreed to be paid $15,000 plus repair the 46 items needed to be done. I accepted. Then, they upped it to $30,000 plus the list. I could see they were going to bleed me dry. So I filed bankruptcy before the arbitration. I asked my attorney, if this kept up, what would it eventually cost me in legal fees and time away from the job? I had already spent $25,000 on legal fees and had still not settled. I was going to have to be off the job for three days and more fees, so I decided to end it." Erick Yollick, advised, " When you go into a contract with a builder... you sign a arbitration document which means you wave your right to sue the builder. Arbitration fees are so exorbitant that the average person can't afford the fees for this." He warned against signing such a document for the buyers' protection. "Also, there used to be a homeowners guarantee policy issued which was good for 2 - 10 years, supposedly. It was a tool to attract homeowners to buy. I have yet to see any of my clients compensated by these policies. That company has now gone bankrupt." Another builder in The Woodlands, O'Connor International, which Yollick has also had cases against, built a 9,300 square foot home for the Goratia Family. It has a price tag of $2.5 million and has similar construction damages. The house is built of steel and concrete on a point of land jutting into Lake Woodlands, and sheetrock hangs from under its balcony as well. The ornate swimming pool, complete with waterfall wall, is cracking and sinking into the lake. The areas surrounding the lake are soft dirt, which was dug out in the construction of Lake Woodlands. The contractor failed to compact the soil before beginning construction leading to all sorts of construction flaws and cracks. The Goratias refused to speak to us, referring us to their attorney, Yollick, instead. Even though iron gates surround the property, they did allow us to photo the exterior of the home, which looks like an office building instead of a residence. Yollick explained the Goratias' plight, "The builder is suppose to place the monies he is given into an individual account to pay the subcontractors from. This is a law. O'Connor didn't do this. We have the books to show where he transferred monies into the account of a new company after he filed bankruptcy. It shows $6 million in expenses in 2002 and little more than zero revenue. Repairs are still being made on this one by O'Connor. It should be noted that O'Connor's office was contacted but no call was returned. For about six weeks, Sandy Thompson was working for the Goratias to finish the home after troubles with O'Connor, and then he quit. They too had found him through his course at Montgomery College. Thompson replied, "I agreed to help them provided O'Connor was not still their builder. He (O'Connor) worked with me to introduce me to the contractors so I could take over. The Goratias couldn't agree between themselves, and the designer how to put a staircase in. They would build it, then the other one would tear it out. I backed out of that one." Yollick contends that in the Goratias case, "O'Connor was always to busy building his silver anniversary home at the same time," and, referring to the construction materials used on the home, "He had no clue as to how to build a house using anything other than wood frame. He also didn't understand that he needed to have someone supervise the subcontractors." "This was the largest arbitration on record for a residential home. We had to sue the individual, follow the transfers of the assets to the new company because he had changed names on his company. The administration fees on this arbitration alone were $65,000. This doesn't include the legal fees and filing fees on the three-week arbitration. " Yollick offered this advice: "Production homebuilders seem to be better than custom homebuilders because they are always building the same type home. There are no defects and the engineers watch every slab being poured. There are no state regulations on builders, so the buyer needs to beware. And don't sign an arbitration contract. Hire your own inspectors who are going to watch out for your best interests instead of the builders or the developer."
send your comments to
editor@thebulletin.com
|
|
