The Chinese Drywall phenomenon continues….and it seems that as each day passes, builders are drawn closer and closer to the crisis.
Last week, we asked whether builders were getting a “free pass” on the Chinese Drywall issue.
However, just a few days later Lennar Co. was named as a party to a class action suit, and this week a local North Carolina construction outfit – Stafford Custom Homes, Inc. – was sued for installing Chinese Drywall.
So how are builders handling Chinese Drywall claims and complaints?
This morning, the Herald Tribune has posted an interesting article on this topic. Comparing Lennar Co.’s Chinese Drywall methodology with other national builders, the article says this:
Within just a few square miles sit four developments with clusters of affected homes, built by at least three different builders: Lennar Corp., Taylor Morrison and WCI Communities.
The East Manatee homeowners who have been touched by tainted wallboard — tied to corrosion of metals and the subject of an investigation by state and federal health officials to determine whether it poses health risks — find themselves caught up in a situation largely beyond their control.
For many, their experiences have been shaped by the behavior of their builders — whose responses have run the gamut from tearing out the bad drywall in Lennar’s case to taking no action at all.
More important than the question of how builders are handling claims, however, may be the question of how they should be handling claims.
