Dive Brief:
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Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy has again called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help regarding a spate of crumbling home foundations there, this time to add a field office in the northeastern part of the state in order to provide assistance, The Hartford Courant reported.
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Malloy had reached out to FEMA in April to request funding, but the agency responded saying that the issue wasn’t a natural disaster but instead a consumer protection concern and therefore it couldn’t help.
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More than 300 homes across 18 towns have said their foundations are failing, but Malloy says more than 34,000 properties are at risk. Insurers are denying homeowners’ claims, requiring them to pay up to $200,000 to repair the damage.
Dive Insight:
Experts say the erosion occurring in home foundations is due to the presence of pyrrhotite in the concrete aggregate, which degrades over time when exposed to oxygen and water. Reports have highlighted one concrete supplier as providing the allegedly faulty concrete.
Construction defects aren’t uncommon. In May, the country’s largest homebuilder, D.R. Horton, was ordered to pay $9.6 million to repair defects at a 240-unit Jacksonville, FL, condominium building after residents reported cracked stucco, leaky roofs and faulty windows and doors four years earlier. The company said the damages were due to poor maintenance, and thus was reluctant to fix the issues.
Meanwhile, in Colorado, lawmakers are pushing to relax the state’s stringent defects law to add an arbitration provision that would make it harder to sue builders and contractors. Builders and developers in cities like Denver, which are struggling to maintain enough affordable housing inventory, say the current version of the law makes it more expensive to build, with the risk of a lawsuit adding $15,000 to construction costs.
Contractors can protect themselves from litigation — and ensure they are not producing shoddy work to begin with — by keeping a few things in mind. Staying in touch with the architects throughout the project is key to making sure that the original drawings and plans can evolve to meet the real-world site conditions. Additionally, getting a water of consequential damages can help a contractor avoid being held responsible for the costs associated with project delays. Documenting all stages of the project, including inside the wall cavity, is essential in settling disputes.
And understanding the language of contract documents — especially these commonly misunderstood terms — is key to avoiding legal action.