An excerpt on the Seahaus condo development in La Jolla, a Barratt American project:
Instead of sawn wood or steel beams, Seahaus’s skeleton is made of “parallel strand lumber” beams — long strands of wood from small trees glued together to make beams. The homeowners’ lawsuits allege that the developers knew the rainy winter of 2005 was exposing the buildings’ frames to rain, that they knew the beams could become an unglued mushy mess.
“They told me everything was going to be top-of-the-line, it was going to be nice, it was going to be great,” Alkasabi said. “But this place is full of nightmares.”
Alkasabi said he was told before he bought that the structure would be framed with steel beams, not the strand lumber. The condos would be soundproof and top-of-the-line, he said.
Alkasabi said he’s seen mushrooms grow out of stucco because of moisture inside. He refuses to walk under certain corridors. Inspectors found three colors of mold growing in his living room wall, he said. When he complained about a construction issue in one of his units, he said, the developers quickly planted a palm tree squarely in front of his view.
After reviewing a few beams in 2005, an engineer found some of the beams had expanded due to the rain and were “delaminated” — bending and splintering. The engineer recommended a few beams be replaced in a March 2005 memo, according to documents filed in court.
But the homeowners want to know: What about the rest of the beams the engineer didn’t look at?
“They came out, reviewed a few, but they did not look and inspect the hundreds that were out there,” said Mia Severson, attorney with Aguirre, Morris and Severson, which is representing the homeowners on the more recent suit. “The question becomes now, how structurally intact are the beams now?”
Read Kelly Bennett’s entire article here:
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/housing/article_8a26ee30-7da9-11df-9cd4-001cc4c03286.html
Jeez, does this article bring back memories. Back in 1994, my mom bought a $500K condo in a huge complex in Hawaii. It was suppose to be top-of-the line but wasn’t. The construction defects discovered were so massive that it became front-page news as the developer was one of the biggest in the state. The case never went to court.
At one point, all the residents of this huge complex had to move out because of safety issues, and the developer had to pay all the resident’s rents while the defects were fixed. It was even discovered that the fire inspector had received kickbacks during construction.
Since my mom had a stroke, she had to be near a hospital because of her health concerns. I found her a $3 million house in the most exclusive subdivision, and I remember the rent was $5,000/month. The developers’ lawyers yelled and yelled about the cost, but I was relentless in fighting for my mom and they eventually paid that rent for months including all utilities. It was one of the happiest moments in my life when the lawyers backed down.
Eventually, another construction company came in to fix the massive # of issues ($30 million budget) and my mom was able to move back into her condo. She was able to sell it for what she paid for it four years later and moved back to the Mainland to be closer to us.
All in all, it was an absolute nightmare. But what I really remember from the whole adventure is my mom’s eyes lighting up when she first walked into the 5,000 sf rental house with her caregiver that I fought for and saying: Oh, Susie, I always wanted to live in a place like this!
Sometimes life just brings you special moments in the midst of chaos…
This is why I question the logic in buying a brand new house (or condo). Moving into one that is at least five to ten years old makes more sense to me, as that is enough time for problems related to most construction defects to surface.