Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings (HADD), a consumer protection organization, released a report titled “Leveling the Texas Residential Construction Commission” detailing the changes needed to the TRCC to provide adequate protection to homebuyers with construction defects.
“The Texas Residential Construction Commission (TRCC pronounced trick) created in 2003 is a complete disaster and provides little if any consumer protection for the largest purchase of a lifetime, a new home.” states John Cobarruvias President of HADD Texas. “It is time for our elected officials to turn to the consumers of the state to understand the problems they are facing when dealing with new home construction defects and provide solutions based upon that input.” continued Cobarruvias.
The report, provided to all State Representatives and Senators offers specific suggestions to provide balance to the Commission including:
- Redefine the limitations on new home warranty standards
- Rewrite the warranty standards adopted by the state to address common defects found in new home construction.
- Stop the abuse of mandatory binding arbitration in new home contracts
- Reduce the complexity of the TRCC services
- Write legislation based upon the recommendations of the Texas Comptrollers Office in their report issued Jan 23, 2006
- Encourage participation by consumer organizations
- Redesign the TRCC website to provide useful information for the consumer.
According to Cobarruvias, the TRCC has limited new home warranties to only 1 year. In comparison, a new Korean built car has at least 3 years of coverage. The TRCC and the Legislature has done little, besides initiating 4 studies, to curb the abuse of arbitration which is grossly unfair and extremely expensive. The TRCC’s main service, the State Sponsored Inspection and Resolution Process (SIRP) is chockfull of legal loopholes that few if any can navigate the process without the need for legal assistance. And the TRCC’s website, although improved, provides little if any useful information for consumers.
“In 2003 the homebuilding industry sold our elected officials a commission to protect new homebuyers, but it was built upon a flawed foundation of misleading promises. It is time our elected officials look to the consumers of the state to fix the consumer’s problems.” stated Cobarruvias.The report can be found at HADD’s website at http://www.hadd.com/documents/leveling.pdf
For more information, contact John R. Cobarruvias President HADD, Texas at 281-486-5203 H 2981-536-2457 C
These folks have been active in Texas for many years. Given the surge in new construction over the last five to seven years, I'm surprised that there hasn't been more associations similar to this. Sometimes this group is a little strident, but then being nice and proceeding quietly doesn't get national attention.
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