Ray Ellison home lawsuit (San Antonio, Boerne: crime rate, attorneys, house)

[metalfish]

Where are these slums you guys are talking about?

[HillCountryHotRodMan]

While we are on the topic of Ray Ellison, I'm going to gripe. Many of the doors in my house are not standard, so guess what? When replacing them, you have to do a custom order. I remember back when we built, a closet door had been damaged after a few years in the house and we had to order it through a company owned by him, it was the millwork business that built all of the doors, etc. for RAYCO. I am PISSED hehehe...

[Snowglobe]

Originally Posted by Rapscallion

I've heard numerous accounts of altering things after the inspectors left and other tales. I knew someone who was in charge of warranty repairs. He told me about going into homes where the framing had come unattached from the foundation and was hanging mid-air. One of the most idiotic moves was building over the old dump off Nacogdoches. Even in the 80s you would see sidewalks buckled and shifted to high degrees from the settling underneath. I can't imagine what foundation problems there are. Not to mention the release of methane gas.

Where, exactly, was the old dump off Nacogdoches located?

[huckster]

I did not know that, I used to own an Ellison home.

Originally Posted by Spock's Beard

Ray Ellison went out of business years ago for producing junk houses, re-formed under the name Kauffman-Broad, went out of business for producing junk houses, and is now KB Homes, and still prodces junk houses.



Gotta love bankruptcy laws and the formal definition of a corporation. They blame the company, seen as a separate legal entity from the corrupt people who run it, while the people who actually did the BS are free to re-form, start over, and continue the same old scam.

[RGJ]

Originally Posted by Spock's Beard

Ray Ellison went out of business years ago for producing junk houses, re-formed under the name Kauffman-Broad, went out of business for producing junk houses, and is now KB Homes, and still prodces junk houses.



Gotta love bankruptcy laws and the formal definition of a corporation. They blame the company, seen as a separate legal entity from the corrupt people who run it, while the people who actually did the BS are free to re-form, start over, and continue the same old scam.

Ray Ellison did not go out of business for producing junk houses. He sold his company to Kaufman-Broad when he was ready to retire. Post WW II, Ray Ellison built some decent homes and neighborhoods for the thousands of returning military. What happened in the years just prior to selling to KB was probably not much to do with Ray Ellison himself, but the bean counters that were running the company at the time.

I don't believe that Ray Ellison, or RAYCO, ever declared bankruptcy.

[Royb]

When I was a kid, My father got hurt and could not work. We lived in a house owned by Ray Ellison. He told my mother not to worry about the rent and never collected anymore from us. He left the house there only for us to live in and tore it down when we moved out. Whatever anyone has to say about this man he had a big heart. Thanks Ray.

[Kenoscope]

Originally Posted by 2DMaxx

I'm glad you guys cleared that up.

It is exactly as you describe, you can poke your finger through it easily once it is exposed to moisture. If not repaired quickly it will allow moisture in places you do not want it. It would have been nice if they had at least used a vapor barrier behind it but I'm no expert.

Vapor Barrier goes in the inside of an exterior wall, thus would have done nothing to help save this garbage product. Years and years ago I had to rip out the bottom layer of this junk from my mothers home, replacing it with material taken from a hidden section of her house. She lives in THE GREAT NORTHWEST where you can only replace something exactly as the builder originally made it, even if the product is crap and no longer made.

As you said, this material has to be the cheapest non-Chinese garbage I have seen on a homes exterior since the 60's.

[TrapperL]

Not sure why we would want to resurrect this old thread but vapor barriers in the south are not installed on the interior. They are up north but down here they are installed on the exterior of the house. They are NOT good for a house especially those of the plastic variety as they themselves condense moisture during a temperature transition causing more rot than they cure. The exterior of the house should have the proper drain plane materials installed. In the case of the materials used by Rayco the siding was the drain plane. Properly installed and home owner maintained, it will last much longer than the 25 year warranty it came with. Problem was mostly due to folks thinking until the paint falls off, it doesn't need painting or caulking-wrong. Home owners are their own worst enemies in most cases of damages to their houses. It should be a mandatory thing that in order to own a house you must pass a maintenance test on how to care for your home. Everything from soil conditions and how water effects the foundation to caulk and paint. But then, the attorneys would go broke. Bottom feeders have to eat too.

[Willsatx]

I had a neighbor who worked for Ellison and supposedly he would look for cheap materials and labor to try and make as much money as he could. Now i have never lived in an Ellison house but have heard that quite a bit.

[dpantle]

Originally Posted by TrapperL

Not sure why we would want to resurrect this old thread but vapor barriers in the south are not installed on the interior. They are up north but down here they are installed on the exterior of the house. They are NOT good for a house especially those of the plastic variety as they themselves condense moisture during a temperature transition causing more rot than they cure. The exterior of the house should have the proper drain plane materials installed. In the case of the materials used by Rayco the siding was the drain plane. Properly installed and home owner maintained, it will last much longer than the 25 year warranty it came with. Problem was mostly due to folks thinking until the paint falls off, it doesn't need painting or caulking-wrong. Home owners are their own worst enemies in most cases of damages to their houses. It should be a mandatory thing that in order to own a house you must pass a maintenance test on how to care for your home. Everything from soil conditions and how water effects the foundation to caulk and paint. But then, the attorneys would go broke. Bottom feeders have to eat too.

I don't know how it is these days, but when applying for a mortgage, it was customary for the lender to include $$ for proper home maintenance budget when figuring out the income to mortgage ratios.

I agree that some homeowners are their own worst enemy when it comes to proper home maintenance. My Dad used to say that home ownership is not a right. Not everyone is equipped to own a home. It was a sad thing when congress and Fannie Mae took the stance that everyone in this country should be able to own a home. That policy failed in so many ways. It bred a population of homeowners who not only didn't have a clue on how to take care of such an investment, they also didn't understand the complexities of the creative financing they needed to qualify in the first place. Now many of those folks have been foreclosed on, and are renting again. Unfortunately, that whole mess has devalued the market for the rest of us.