Builder not honoring one-year warranty

Q. We bought our home nearly a year ago, while the subdivision was still being built. The superintendent and the Realtor kept telling us the company motto, which is "customer service is our main concern." Well, that has not turned out to be the case, and we are frustrated by their continued failure to make repairs.

We've had problems with buckled wood flooring, cracked floor tiles, popped nails in the drywall and more. We've made phone calls and sent letters with photos of defects. After weeks of waiting, they would send someone over to do half-measure repairs or make excuses about this or that being normal.

Now we are two weeks away from the expiration of our warranty. Then the builders can ignore us. What can we do to make them honor their commitment to customer service?

A. Complaints of this kind are too common. Unfortunately, there are many builders who play unscrupulous games when they should be honoring their warranties.

The good news is your warranty will not expire on defects you have already called to the builders' attention. The fact that they were notified during the warranty period obligates them to make repairs, sooner or later. Delaying till the warranty expires does not get them off the hook.

Here are three recommendations for dealing with your situation:

• Find the most experienced home inspector in your area, someone with a reputation for thoroughness. You can get some referrals by calling local Realtors and asking which home inspectors are known as "deal breakers." A competent home inspector will document all of the defects in your home and will find ones you haven't already discovered.

• Get some legal advice from an attorney who specializes in construction defect law. Have the attorney send a warning letter to the builders, along with a copy of the home inspection report. That should probably get the builders' attention more effectively than your letters and phone calls.

• Finally, you can lodge a complaint with the state agency that licenses building contractors.

Let's see if the builders can ignore that.

Q. I've been a home inspector for five years. Last month I inspected an apartment building that was in rundown condition. Two days later, the owner called with a complaint. One of the tenants got home and noticed that a door was rubbing. When she tried to fix it, and the door fell off the hinges. I had noticed the door problem during my inspection and had included it in my report, but the seller insisted that I repair the damage.

As a gesture of goodwill, I replaced the door, but I wasn't happy about it. I don't believe I was liable for the damage. In fact, I think the tenant owes me for the cost of a new door and for my time.

A. If you disclosed the door problem in your inspection report, you were not obligated to repair the damage. Most likely, all you did was open and close the door to test its condition. Regardless of what you may or may not have done during your inspection, the fact that you did the repairs implies an admission of having been at fault. At this point, you should simply chalk this up to experience. There's no way the tenant is going to reimburse you for costs.

• To write to Barry Stone, visit him on the web at www.housedetective.com, or write AMG, 1776 Jami Lee Court, Suite 218, San Luis Obispo, CA 94301.

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