Unnecessary home repairs for seniors, Las Vegas
Las Vegas Builders
Frivolous Lawsuits and Class Action Lawsuits
Monday, September 10, 2007
Most recent one picked up off the web...
Unnecessary home repairs for seniors?
A few years ago the Nevada Legislature changed the construction defect laws to give homeowners a little extra muscle toget defective homes fixed. It's called a Chapter 40.
Now a company is offering free home inspectionto check if your home is considered defective under that law. They claim to have filed over 500 claims. But are all of those claims legit? News 3'sJesse Corona takes a closer look.
"Seemed like a real nice guy. Knew what he was talking about," said Sun City Anthem resident June Lowry. Lowry came acrossMC Mojave Inspection Service like most of her neighbors in Sun City Anthem, by way ofa business card passed out by a friend.
"I said, 'how bad is it?' he said, 'Well, could be worse but it's pretty bad,'"Lowryexplains."He says, 'you have 8 out of 10 things wrong with your house." Lowry, who until then had no complaints with her home, was told she might have a cracked foundation and a bad roof.
The house is only six years old, still under a 10-year manufacturer warranty.Lowrytried contacting Pulte Homes about the problem. "They won't talk to me because I've signed the letter with the attorney," Lowry said.
What June Lowrysays she didn't realize she was doing when she signed the papers withMC Mojave, was filing a Chapter 40 notice against Pulte Homes, saying her home had builder defects. That notice ties a home up in a legal process and prevents the builder from servicing a home warranty.
"They do a disservice to the homeowner by putting them into the Chapter 40 process on items in the home that are not really issues at all or could easily be repaired," Lowry said.
"We have a right to knock on anybody's door and tell them they have problems," John Wilson with MC Mojave counters. Wilson says what they are doing is providing a service. "We do more for these people to take them through Chapter 40's and get their houses fixed than anybody else in the community right now."
But are Chapter 40's really necessary for every situation? Pulte Homes, who says all a homeowner has to do is contact them if there's a problem, says no. "These groups exist to make money for themselves and the law firms that they're associated with,"Sasha Jackowichwith Pulte Homes told News 3.
MCMojave and Angius and Terry, the law firm they're associated with, say they do not target senior citizens. But they admit that 350 of the approximately 500 Chapter 40 claims they've filed are in age-restricted communities.
WhenNews 3called the Nevada Contractors Board to check onMC Mojave's license, they toldus the number that's on their business card is a ClassB Contractor's License. That allows contractors to build homes.It does it qualify them to inspect homes.
Whenwe described what they were doing, the boardtold usthat was illegal.
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