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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 to get defective homes fixed. It's called a Chapter 40.
Now a company is offering free home inspection to 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's Jesse 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 across MC Mojave Inspection Service like most of her neighbors in Sun City Anthem, by way of a business card passed out by a friend.
"I said, 'how bad is it?' he said, 'Well, could be worse but it's pretty bad,'" Lowry explains. "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. Lowry tried 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 Lowry says she didn't realize she was doing when she signed the papers with MC 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 Jackowich with Pulte Homes told News 3.
MC Mojave 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.
When News 3 called the Nevada Contractors Board to check on MC Mojave's license, they told us the number that's on their business card is a Class B Contractor's License. That allows contractors to build homes. It does it qualify them to inspect homes.
When we described what they were doing, the board told us that was illegal.
