Source: http://www.nbc-2.com, August 12, 2016
By: David Hodges
Robert Wagner wishes someone had told him that his home was likely riddled with defects and that his walls were rotting away from the inside.
And told him that the builder, Beazer Homes, wasn’t going to do the work unless he told them to.
“By the time I called Beazer, they said I was three months too late,” Wagner said.
Dozens of homes in his community of Heatherwood Lakes are being fixed because of a defect that allows water to seep underneath the windows and walls and rot away the wood frame of his second story. Scaffolding is all over the neighborhood, but Wagner didn’t know the reason.
“I figured that some people were having their houses painted or something,” Wagner said.
There’s no Florida law requiring home builders to notify homeowners of a defect.
But NBC2 found that Beazer Homes did notify some of its customers about the defect: it’s stockholders.
Securities and investments attorney Chris Vernon said publicly traded companies like Beazer Homes are required to detail the ups and downs of their business in reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Vernon said Beazer’s filings were unusual because of the level of detail the company went into describing the Florida stucco defect issue.
“It’s a pretty big deal if it’s disclosed to the extent that I saw,” Vernon said.
Beazer listed the stucco issue as one of its “risks and uncertainties.” It also went into detail about how the problem was impacting them financially in Florida.
“It was atypical in the sense that it rose to the level of a very detailed explanation setting aside reserves to cover this,” Vernon said.
Beazer reports spending $70.2 million in issues related to the Florida defect. In total, they have identified 724 homes needing repairs with 352 fixed so far.
Beazer also claimed that because of the ongoing defect issues, the company would “expand the scope of our inspections, including to homes and communities from which no warranty calls had been received. This enhanced review resulted in us determining that more homes and communities in Florida were likely to be adversely affected, leading to higher repair costs.”
However, NBC2 has not found anyone living in a Beazer community or any homeowner associations in Beazer communities claiming that the company contacted them about the defect.
“They should have sent every homeowner a certified letter telling them that you might have a problem, to get your home inspected,” Wagner said.
We asked Beazer which neighborhoods they inspected and whether they notified any homeowners but they did not answer our questions.
In a statement, a spokesperson wrote: “In all instances where a Beazer homeowner has contacted us in a timely fashion, and any repair or remediation was needed, we have made all necessary repairs.”
Wagner and others in Heatherwood Lakes filed claims with Beazer but were denied because they had passed their 10-year warranty.
“They made a cognizant decision not to disclose to the homeowners that there was a potential problem, and they strung it out just long enough for the warranty to expire and then when word got out that there was a problem they’re nowhere to be found,” Wagner said.
Vernon said Beazer’s financial filings might open up a lawsuit possibility, even if it’s not the strongest case.
“You could go after them on fraudulent concealment; you can go after them on negligent concealment. There’s all kinds of claims,” Vernon said.
Wagner said he and others are considering making that argument in court.