7/4/2008
11:09:04 PM 

I copied and pasted the Homeowners Bill of Rights from a
site,,,interesting,,,,

Preamble

When consumers buy a new home or contract for additions
and/or remodeling of an existing home: They have the right to
safe and sound, quality construction.

They have the right to expect that their new home and/or any
home improvements are built in compliance with all existing
local, state, and federal building codes and ordinances.

They have the right to expect that only quality, performance-
proven building products are used in their homes and that all
such products are installed in accordance with manufacturers’
specifications.

They have the right to expect that the architect's and engineer's
designs are completely and accurately followed.

They have the right to expect that the home will not leak or
breed toxic mold(s), is structurally sound, and that all
mechanical systems and structural components will perform
properly.

They have the right to receive, in a timely manner prior to
signing a sales contract and/or closing documents, complete
information regarding their purchase contracts, warranties,
disclosures of agencies, and any and all relationships and/or
partnerships their real estate broker and/or builder may have
with all agencies involved with the home buying process. This
includes, but is not limited to: home inspectors, lenders, title
companies, builders’/subcontractors’ insurance carriers,
products’ manufacturers, realtors, and home warranty
companies.

They have the right to access records, public and private,
regarding performance and complaints pertaining to their
builder, subcontractors, home warranty companies, lenders,
manufacturers, realtors, title companies, insurance carriers, and
any other entity associated with the home building/home buying
process.

They have the right to full disclosures in regard to new housing.

They have the right to a trial conducted by their peers, rather
than to be forced into contractual binding arbitration.

They have the right to peace of mind concerning the safety of
their family.

Despite the availability of high quality housing within all
communities throughout the United States, a need exists,
nevertheless, to protect home buyers against the potentially
ruinous effects of defective new home construction/home
improvement (remodeling) caused by negligent or unscrupulous
building and/or business practices.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting homeowners
realize their new homes are deficient. These problems include,
but are not limited to: faulty design, code violations, cracked
foundations, moisture problems that lead to toxic molds,
substandard workmanship, and generally unsafe structures.
Multitudes of homeowners have suffered great losses: their life's
savings, their physical and emotional health, and home value
depreciation.

Homeowners are unprotected because local governments and
their representatives are immune from lawsuits concerning
defective construction. Local government is legally protected by
the doctrine of "sovereign immunity". Lawsuits are routinely
"thrown out of court". Today, the building industry is one of the
most unregulated industries in the nation.

Therefore an urgent need for homeowners’/homebuyers’
protection exists.

Whereas there are enormous dangers and pitfalls of
confidentiality settlement agreements in construction defect
litigation, and

Whereas our tax-dollar-funded government agencies designed
to protect the home buying consumer are rendered useless by
confidentiality agreements, and

Whereas time and again, consumers are victimized by industries
and individuals who host a hidden history of unscrupulous
business practices, a history often agreed upon by both parties
in a legal dispute which further buries and makes such
information unobtainable to the public sector, and

Whereas most victims do not desire to settle with confidentiality,
it is often forced upon them after years of stressful litigation
and a desire for closure. This results in further injuries to a
trusting and ill-informed home-buying public. Therefore,

The Homeowners’ Bill of Rights shall encompass:

The Prohibition of Confidentiality Settlements in Construction
Defect Litigation. The Homeowners’ Bill of Rights shall allow
injured/distressed homeowners to disclose fraudulent business
ethics, code violations, and other substandard building practices
to federal, state, and local agencies designed to protect the
consumer. That does not mean you can publicly criticize your
builder as you please, but there would be absolute, accurate,
and accessible records for public scrutiny and homebuyer
protection. All legal judgments and/or out-of-court settlements
shall be made obtainable to the public sector. This bill shall
include remodeling/home improvement contractors.

Whereas builders/developers are often aware of code violations,
problems with compactions, and other defects to a home during
the building process. Therefore,

The Homeowners’ Bill of Rights shall encompass:

New Home Disclosure Act. Regardless of local government
inspections, finals, and/or certificates of occupancy,
builders/developers must disclose any and all known problems
in new home construction. Laws that govern disclosure on resale
homes shall be applied to new homes. Any and all code
violations of state and/or municipal building regulations must
be disclosed. Within the same subdivision, builders/sellers of
new construction must disclose to the home buyer any past
and/or pending litigation for defects.

Whereas there are no punitive and/or emotional distress awards,
and after attorney fees and costs, homeowners are usually left
with less than half the monies awarded to make repairs.
Therefore,

The Homeowners’ Bill of Rights shall encompass:

The Right to Wholeness. Reimbursements of attorney fees and
expert costs involving both in-court and out-of-court
settlements. Such reimbursements will include emotional
distress awards for homeowners who have had to suffer the
mental anguish of living in substandard housing and/or
illness(es) contracted due to substandard housing. This bill shall
encompass new construction and remodeling/home
improvement.

Whereas homebuyers often receive "bandage" repairs for serious
defects and code violations, as opposed to appropriate repairs,
they are often forced to live in homes that are uninhabitable
and/or dangerous to occupants’ health (i.e., unsafe structures or
toxic molds such as mycotoxins due to defective construction).
Therefore,

The Homeowners’ Bill of Rights shall encompass:

Obligation to Repair/"The Home Lemon Act". Obligation to
repair. Homeowners have the legal obligation to allow
homebuilders the opportunity to repair. All repairs shall be at
the homeowner’s discretion, be verified by a qualified third party
(of the homeowner’s choosing). Homeowners will be reimbursed
for any costs of inspection. Should the qualified third party feel
that there is no adequate remedy for repair, builders/developers
must purchase the home and reimburse the homeowner for all
costs pertaining to purchase, resolution, legal fees, inspections,
etc. This reimbursement will also include the costs of any
upgrades, plus increased market value. This bill shall encompass
new home construction and/or remodeling/home improvement.

Whereas binding arbitration and/or mediation is
unconstitutional and takes away the homeowners’ right to a trial
of their peers, there are often no options for appeal. The
arbitrator's decision is final, and

Whereas plaintiffs are often denied discoveries and/or
witnesses, and

Whereas homebuyers are typically unaware of the perplexity of
arbitration, along with hidden costs, many homeowners find the
expense of arbitration to far exceed court costs, and

Whereas arbitration translates to "No jury of your peers to weigh
the facts, reports, photos, and other documentation, or relate to
the hardships". These hardships often include living with illness
due to toxic molds, fear for family safety, excessive stress, and
financial losses. All need and deserve to be heard by one’s
peers, and

Whereas there are too many known cases of bias due to the fact
that certain arbitrators are often chosen by builders and others
in the building industry and develop an "industry rapport".
Therefore,

The Homeowners’ Bill of Rights shall encompass:

The Prohibition of Arbitration. The prohibition of any and all
binding arbitration and mediation clauses in homeowner
purchase contracts and/or warranties. All arbitration and/or
alternative dispute resolutions shall be optional. Homeowners
will have the right to decide if they would prefer a form of
mediation outside of the courts and shall never be, in any
binding manner, forced to give up their rights to a trial of their
peers regarding home purchase contracts, home defects of any
type, and/or home warranties. This bill shall encompass new
home construction and/or remodeling/home improvement.

Whereas home blueprints, vital tools for litigation purposes and
a necessity to complete repairs to homes, are often found to be
"missing" and/or "destroyed" by builders and/or city building
departments. Therefore,

The Homeowners’ Bill of Rights shall encompass:

Preservation of Documents. All builders and/or cities’ building
departments are mandated by law to maintain, archive, and
make available to homeowners, copies of all residential
blueprints for a period of ten years from completion or face
penalties and fines up to $5,000 for noncompliance. This bill
shall encompass new home construction and/or
remodeling/home improvement. Cities that do not enforce this
article shall forfeit any sovereign immunity for construction
defects and may be held liable for required repairs.

Whereas deficient building materials are often used in new
construction. Therefore,

The Homeowners’ Bill of Rights shall encompass:

Proven Materials. That no building materials that are proven to
fail and/or that have been subject to class actions shall be used
in the process of new home building and/or in home
improvement/remodeling.

Whereas in some states (i.e.. California Supreme Court Aas
Decision) builders are no longer held liable for building code
violations, codes (laws) that are the bare minimum in health and
safety standards, and

Whereas homeowners/buyers have the right to expect that their
home is built in accordance with all applicable local, state, and
federal building codes and ordinances, and

Whereas homeowners pay for builders' negligence and must by
law disclose these code violations to potential homebuyers, and

Whereas, for example, a home whose electrical system or
structural integrity is not to code, and is thus a potential safety
hazard, is deemed suitable for habitation until occupants and/or
said structure is injured, and

Whereas other states have and are now initiating legislation to
relieve builders from pending liabilities of defective building
and/or meeting local, state, and federal building codes and
ordinances. Therefore,

The Homeowners’ Bill of Rights shall encompass:

Safe and Sound Housing. Holding all builders/developers
responsible and liable for any and all building code violations.
All builders must abide by and build in accordance with
applicable federal, state, and local building laws and regulations.
Builders are responsible for the proper application of all building
materials, according to manufacturer specifications.

The Homeowners’ Bill of Rights shall encompass:

Building Industry Regulation. The licensing, bonding, proof of
liability insurance, and finger printing of all contractors and/or
subcontractors in each state. Fingerprinting shall be mandatory
for all corporate officers filed under licensee.

The Homeowners’ Bill of Rights shall encompass:

The Right to Inspect. All homebuyers have the legal right to have
their homes inspected by an independent inspector of their
choice, prior to purchase, regardless of the status of the home-
-new, older, manufactured, remodeled, and/or from the ground
up.

TAKE ACTION! Letter Campaign for the Homeowners' Bill of
Rights---members, affiliates, please cut and paste the
Homeowners' Bill of Rights and forward to your Representatives,
both state and federal. . . We have provided a letter below to
assist you in writing your legislators... Should you desire to, you
may simply cut and paste the letter below, or write your own to
accompany the Bill of Rights. Thank You

The Honorable ___________________________

Address

Date

RE: An urgent need exists for homeowner/buyer protection.

Dear _____________________________,

I am a member of Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings, Inc.
I have for your consideration enclosed a copy of the
Homeowners' Bill of Rights. I am asking that you will consider
sponsoring legislation based on the heartache and knowledge
gained from those families who have suffered the devastating
losses of negligent, deficient home construction.

When I bought my home, I thought it would be safe for my
family to live in. I was wrong. Mere words cannot express what
my family and others have gone through in respect to defective
housing. To make matter worse, existing laws are stacked
against the homebuyer/owner. Today, auto buyers have more
protection than homeowners do. Therefore, now more than ever,
we need our legislators looking out for home consumers' best
interests.

The Building Industry would like you to believe that consumer
groups such as ours are trying to sensationalize the issue and
serve only to needlessly alarm prospective home buying
consumers. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have
firsthand knowledge of the crises in defective housing, which
include deficient building materials being used nationwide, new
homes that are either not inspected or under-inspected by the
responsible yet "immune" municipalities, families suffering the
ill of effects of toxic mold, losses of life savings, destruction of
marriages, and a host of other problems too numerous to
mention.

We are not attorneys, realtors, nor builders. But rather the very
individuals who are living and working out of our own deficient
homes. Our homeowners are doctors, teachers, ministers, war
veterans, steelworkers--all of whom are taxpayers and families
who have lost everything, often including their health. We have
witnessed far too many families fall apart from the devastation
defective housing imposes, including my very own.

Homeowners are completely tired and dissatisfied with an elitist
system of white-collar crime and "justice". If anyone else (i.e.,
auto dealers) inflicted these types of costs--fraudulent business
practices and devastation-on someone, they would face
imprisonment. How can we as an advanced society still afford
the rich such privileges? Builders' insurance companies just
continue to clean up after them. To make matters worse,
insurance companies and homebuilders have lobbied
successfully to pass legislation that excludes builder defects,
code violations, and molds from homeowners' policies. Builders
never feel repercussions for building defective housing. Both the
building industry and insurance industry continually support
legislation to lower builders' liabilities and take away
homeowners' rights to resolution. This industry simply wants--
and gets--"off the hook" for violating laws and destroying lives.

Too, we feel that simply seeking monetary awards for repairs is
often not enough. Builders of defective housing need to be held
accountable for their actions. Homeowners deserve justice, a
sense of wholeness. Set back a speedometer, do the time.
Destroy one's single largest investment, the home, and sit at the
next community redevelopment meeting with your feet up,
blissfully spending taxpayer money.

Justice defined is the merit for both rewards and punishment---
it is intended for the purpose of correctness. In construction
defect law there are no punitive and/or emotional distress
awards for us to send a message to enforce correctness. We have
no large jury awards from our peers to send a message that we
have “hadd” enough and that poor building practices and the
violations of building codes and laws will not be tolerated.
Construction defect laws are contractual and make no provisions
for the victims' emotional duress, duress that often can and
does lead to physical ailments. Construction litigation lawsuits
are expensive and lengthy, and after attorney fees and expert
costs, homeowners typically have less than half of their award to
make necessary repairs. Justice eludes homeowners.

Please support us in our mission for safe and sound residential
construction. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely, include your name, address, phone number.... Titles
and memberships

lets have fun!