If your Tampa Bay home has Chinese drywall .... (Apollo Beach, Wesley Chapel: sales, insurance)

[Dallas Kitty]

.... $55M settlement! The trick will be getting in touch with the right people and actually receiving $$ before dead and gone.

Florida homeowners with tainted drywall get $55 million - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110614/us_nm/us_chinesedrywall_florida_settlement - broken link)

[HughMcs]

I think this settlement will only help those that signed up as plaintiffs in the class action.

[bentlebee]

55 Million is not enough to help all people. Only first come will be helped and many of the victims have walked away from their homes and lost all rights to the money.

[ntfeldman]

KB built quite a few homes with CD and of course didn't know it would have adverse effects. But they made it right AND did not require residents to relinquish future rights to health claims should they arise in the future from the side affects of living in it.

I was impressed when I learned this.

In one neighborhood I know of in Wesley Chapel KB built about 180 homes and there were about 35 homes that had it. They sent a letter to every homeowner, tested to see if it was there and if it was, they paid to move them out, house them AND cover their mortgage payment during the remediation, gave them new flooring, new lighting, new A/C, new electrical, new plumbing - took the house down to the studs and then put it back together for the homeowners. Fresh paint, fresh carpet, new appliances (except TV's and Stereos but homeowner's insurance may have covered this part) and then paid to move them back in when the work was done (it did take every day of 6 mos.) but they got a new fresh home - years after they originally bought.

It's a product liability issue not a warranty issue.

But if a small builder that had no real assets built with CD, then chances are their margins were too thin to handle a claim in this market. Most that I've heard of filed bankruptcy and homeowner's get nothing but a nightmare.

Cost to remediate is about 60% of the cost to just build new and struggling HO insurance is an issue.

If your builder won't fix it, get an attorney that specializes in this and do your best to get some of the class action claim before it's gone. $55M won't put a dent in the problem on a national scale.

If you're buying a home built between 2004 and 2011, have it tested before you close and write your contract subject to a clean result or you can walk with your deposits.

[wiltznucs]

KB was better than many builders, I'm one year post CDW remediation in a KB community. Let me tell you first hand that the monies exchanged do not in any way make up for the monumental inconvenience of CDW. It is not a profitable endeavour, but what were your alternatives. KB rebuilt the homes but the original studs, etc. were left. Who knows how the corrosion affected them.

Imagine having all your possessions moved twice and of course some will be damaged or lost. Imagine living out of a storage unit for nearly a year. It was a fight with KB all the way through the rebuild. They wanted to pinch pennies and rebuild to a much lower standard than what you had.

What we do know is that rebuilt CDW homes appear to have a sales stigma and sell for less than comparable homes never affected by CDW.

[bentlebee]

Originally Posted by wiltznucs

KB was better than many builders, I'm one year post CDW remediation in a KB community. Let me tell you first hand that the monies exchanged do not in any way make up for the monumental inconvenience of CDW. It is not a profitable endeavour, but what were your alternatives. KB rebuilt the homes but the original studs, etc. were left. Who knows how the corrosion affected them.

Imagine having all your possessions moved twice and of course some will be damaged or lost. Imagine living out of a storage unit for nearly a year. It was a fight with KB all the way through the rebuild. They wanted to pinch pennies and rebuild to a much lower standard than what you had.

What we do know is that rebuilt CDW homes appear to have a sales stigma and sell for less than comparable homes never affected by CDW.

Which community was this?

[wiltznucs]

Harbour Isles - Apollo Beach