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Litigation Waves from Insurance & Builders Hit
Homeowners
In the 1990s the Texas Supreme Court
changed insurance law making bad faith cases extremely
difficult to pursue. In response, insurance companies
changed the way they did business and began to delay and
deny legitimate claims. By denying and delaying claims
that they would have paid and taken care of in the past,
insurance companies could keep money longer and pay out less
money. These delays and denials were not only
frustrating to home owners, but created problems especially
in the area of plumbing and other water intrusion claims.
In short the delays and denials created mold problems in
many homes across Texas. Thus, it was not surprising
that a few years after this shift in the law, widespread
mold problems hit the state of Texas.
Instead of dealing with the problems or
changing the insurance law back to allow bad faith cases,
insurance companies started a misinformation campaign that
all mold even toxic mold cannot hurt you. They also
were able to change the Texas Homeowners Policy to exclude
mold, thus shifting any liability for mold from themselves
on to the Texas homeowner. Thus, Texas homeowners have
been given the misinformation that toxic mold is not
dangerous. Additionally, the liability for repairing
any water or mold damage was transferred from insurance to
the homeowner. Needless to say this again made
insurance companies more wealthy, but it created a growing
wave of liability of homes with mold problems.
After seeing the success of big insurance
companies making millions by protecting themselves from
water and mold claims, Texas builders decided to protect
themselves from liability from construction defects causing
water and mold claims. First by insisting all
construction defect claims go through arbitration and then
by setting up the Texas Residential Construction Commission
or as many people call it the Builder Protection Act.
This Act allows builders to delay or block homebuyers
seeking redress from builder mistakes and construction
defects from getting into court. Thus, a wave of
homeowners with water and mold problems that cannot seek
redress from the people that caused the problem.
Now a home is typically the biggest asset
a person will ever have. What happens when this asset
has a defect that will cost tens of thousands or hundreds of
thousands to repair? Most people do not have that kind
of money. Unfortunately, some of those people instead
of taking a big loss will cover up the defect and pass it on
to the next homebuyer hoping that they will not get caught.
First time home buyers are especially vulnerable to toxic or
defective homes. They typically do not know what they
are doing and have to
rely on the expertise of a real estate agent. If they
have a real estate agent that is more
interested in a commission than helping a buyer get a good
home, they can get caught by the system. Buyer beware,
there are more and more toxic and defective homes on the
market and the avenues to take care of these problems are
being closed by big business. Worse than that there is
a multimillion dollar misinformation campaign saying water
damage and toxic mold are just fine.
If you have been sold a home where the
seller has failed to disclose significant problems or even
worse has painted over or hidden significant problems with
the home, you may have a cause of action against the seller
and the real estate agents involved in the transactions.
If you need an Austin real estate lawyer or an
Austin attorney to advise you on business development,
contact Austin
real estate lawyer Jason Coomer.
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