GOP Bill Would Limit A Texas Homeowner's Ability To Sue Over Construction Defects

[TexasTowelie]

A new bill moving through the Texas House of Representatives would cut in half the amount of time homeowners have to sue developers or builders over construction defects.

House Bill 3595 would amend the Residential Construction Liability Act, cutting the statute of repose — the amount of time homeowners have to sue — from 10 years to five.

"The statute of repose for residential construction has not been addressed in over 30 years," said the bill’s author state Rep. Jim Leach, R-Plano, as he introduced the measure at a hearing of the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee. "Other states that have recently revisited the issues have reduced their statute of repose to somewhere between four and seven years."

Scott Norman of the Texas Association of Builders noted that statutes of repose vary across the nation, ranging from 10 years in some states down to four in others.

Norman told lawmakers the change would make it cheaper to buy a home.

Read more: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2021/04/12/395466/republicans-seek-to-limit-homeowners-ability-to-sue-over-construction-defects/

This will have negligible effect on home prices; however, it will remove the ability for homeowners to have their grievances addressed.

[Fullduplexxx]

1. Well stop buying new homes buy older homes that have been weathered

[TexasTowelie]

3. That simply is not possible in a number of areas.

There is not enough existing housing stock in some areas such as around some cities such as north Dallas and north Austin where the population has exploded. The houses that are available are either too expensive or too old that they include amenities that people desire such as HVAC and garages. The schools are also old so parents prefer to live in newer neighborhoods so that their children have modern facilities.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Quelle surprise! Mr. Leach/Author of said bill is a RE/CONSTRUCTION ATTY.

Fucker.

currently practices at the law firm of Gray Reed & McGraw LLP in Dallas. Named a “Rising Star” by Texas Super Lawyer, Jeff specializes in complex commercial and civil litigation, construction law and real estate.

[TexasTowelie]

4. They made similar promises about lowering the price of insurance when tort reform was the

important topic of the legislative sessions. When I was employed as the liability claims statistician at the Department of Insurance one of the insurance claims manager and I were discussing tort reform off the record and she admitted that their internal data only showed an impact of 2%-4% on premiums and that was with an insurance company that handled a lot of large dollar medical malpractice claims.

You are correct in your assumption that this is a give-away to the real estate industry.

[NCjack]

5. "Norman told lawmakers the change would make it cheaper to buy a home."

Republicans are going to make houses cheaper to own by decreasing the purchase price by shortening by 50% the time the owner has to sue over construction defects. I think that will increase the costs of home ownership, due to shitty craftsmanship becoming evident after 10 years.

Will there actually be a price reduction for something the untrained eye can't see? Not likely.

More trickery in Texas.

[TexasTowelie]

6. One of my friends (now deceased) ran into some of the issues mentioned in this article

when he bought a new home in Georgetown. I was happy for him and his family when they bought the house about 20 years ago, but within a year they started noticing problems with the house including black mold in the ventilation system. He had to move out for nearly a year while the contractors did remediation, but he fought with the real estate agent during most of that time. While my friend wasn't a genius, he wasn't a fool either. It was a situation where the real estate agent took advantage of him because he was black.