Residents sue builder over defects in homes
Latest in series of claims against Pulte
Six Santa Fe homeowners claim their southside houses are falling apart, so they filed suit against Centex Homes, the company that built them, in an attempt to be compensated for what they say are structural defects.
The filing comes on the heels of the state attorney general sending a letter to the company’s president to inform him that it was under investigation for deceptive trade practices. Willie Venegas, Abenicio Baldonado, Lawrence Lucero, Susan Taylor and married couple Brian Gallegos and Charlotte Martinez filed a lawsuit in Santa Fe District Court earlier this month against Centex Homes, its parent corporation and several unnamed people and companies. Centex is a brand of Pulte Group, which has been the subject of several lawsuits nationwide over faulty construction work in recent years.
The Santa Fe plaintiffs, who own houses in the Colores del Sol subdivision near Airport Road and South Meadows Road, claim their homes were built with poor constructional standards.
The lawsuit says the houses have stucco that is prone to crack, inadequate foundations, cracking to concrete and interior flooring, baseboards separating from walls and floors, cabinets and countertops that are separating from walls and other surfaces, defective doors that are difficult to use and windows and roofs that are prone to leaks, among several other complaints.
Because of these defects, “Plaintiffs have been damaged in that they have been, and will be, required to incur expenses to investigate, correct, replace, and reconstruct defects to their homes, as well as the damage to property resulting therefrom, and related to costs such as relocation, loss of use, substitute housing and mitigation expenses, in amounts to be proven at trial,” the lawsuit states.
The suit adds that Centex was negligent by hiring incompetent workers to build
the houses and that the defendants violated building codes during the planning and construction phases, but it doesn’t specify which rules were violated. No one in Santa Fe’s Land Use Department could be reached to confirm if the office is aware of any building code violations at Colores del Sol.
The homeowners want compensatory and punitive damages as well as money to cover the cost of filing the suit.
The Santa Feans aren’t alone in their complaints against Pulte.
Attorney General Hector Balderas sent a letter to Pulte Group, Inc., President and CEO Patrick R. Marshall on Oct. 19 informing him that several homeowners have contacted his office saying the company failed to honor warranties for home repairs and complaining about the general quality of the construction of the homes Pulte is selling. He wrote that he was investigating the company for potential violations of the state’s Unfair Practices Act.
“I am deeply concerned that the safety and economic wellbeing of these homeowners and their families may be compromised as a direct result of Pulte’s failure to address emergent issues reported,” Balderas wrote. “On their face, the allegations against Pulte Homes point to a series of troubling business practices that harm New Mexico consumers and may be in violation of the law.”
Attorney General spokesman James Hallinan said the investigation is ongoing.
There have been a few class-action lawsuits filed against Pulte and Centex in recent years.
In September 2016, a federal judge in Florida dismissed a class action lawsuit accusing Pulte of using defective stucco by ruling that the lawsuit was barred by the economic loss doctrine, which allows parties who suffered economic harm to recover damages.
In 2015, a California jury decided that Centex owed 56 southern California homeowners $3,700 each for repairs after the residents sued the company for building code violations and construction defects.
And Pulte finalized a $5.6 million settlement in 2013 for a 2008 lawsuit filed over numerous construction defects in a Delaware townhouse development.
A spokesman at Pulte’s corporate office could not be reached this week.