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March 1, 2002
NeighborhoodNet has been receiving emails about shoddy home construction and questionable financing practices from home buyers in both Kansas and Missouri, along with letters describing the situation in other states. I have published some letters, but have been asked not to publish others or to withhold the author's name and/or address specifically because of fear by the writer of retribution by the builder.
However, some authors have taken the opposite tact. They will not be silenced and they are proud to be standing up to both builders and government agencies, some of which they believe are corrupt. Based on what I have heard and read, I believe some builders threaten or file lawsuits that have no merit as a device to silence critics. I also believe our government agencies, including legislators, should be going out of their way to protect citizens who do not have the financial clout of these builders. This is not happening in Kansas and Missouri.
[If you wish to voice your opinions, these email addresses go to Kansas legislators (badhome@nbrhd.net) and Missouri legislators (badhomemo@nbrhd.net). The email addresses were established by NeighborhoodNet and HADD to ease communications between citizens and public officials. NeighborhoodNet also receives the letters, but will not publish them without the author's permission].
Builder Miller Enterprise's Legal Threats
The first example of using the threat of a lawsuit to silence a homebuyer harmed by a builder comes from Nancy Seats. Attacking Nancy was one of the worst moves the builder Jeff Miller and his company Miller Enterprises, Inc. could have done: there are now bills in both the Missouri and Kansas legislatures to begin to put a rein on shoddy building practices such as those Miller Enterprises has been forced by the Missouri Attorney General - and adverse publicity - to correct. Nancy had a hand in both bills. Nancy is now President of Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings (HADD), an organization which Nancy has helped turn from a local Missouri interest group into a nationwide lobby.
In my opinion, threatening Nancy with a lawsuit was about as stupid a move as one could imagine. Sadly, so far, the builders are having more luck at the legislative level - both bills are bottled up in Committee with the Chairs refusing to release them. These legislators have been aware of the problems and done nothing for years. One Senator in Missouri was at least frank, telling Nancy the Missouri legislature would never act. Perhaps he knows something the rest of us don't. The evidence so far is on his side.
Here is a copy of the threat by Miller's attorney against Nancy, formatted by NeighborhoodNet for display on the Internet. Note the threat states that she must respond in 5 days or face the consequences. Here is the response from Nancy's attorney, sent a couple of weeks later, pointing out the threatened lawsuit was without merit and Nancy would continue exercising her freedom of speech rights. And has she ever.
I urge you to visit the HADD website. You could spend hours there reading the links about builders' shoddy practices, homeowners who have been devastated, and government corruption. I particularly suggest the links to an investigative series done in Pennsylvania by Matt Berbeck of the Pocono Record that gives a clear description of financing fraud, why local agencies are simply incapable of handling problems of this magnitude, and the FBI's investigation of it.
Terminix Loses Two Freedom Of Speech Suits
This story is a bit different. It takes place in California and involves not the builder, but a pest inspection company, Terminix, which inspected the seller's home before the buyer, Carla Virga, bought it. Based on the case Horsch v. Terminix International referenced in the Washburn Law Journal and other court cases found on Lexis-Nexis, Terminix also operates in Kansas:
"In the third Comment, Eric Heath examines the Kansas case Horsch v. Terminix International Co., in which the Kansas Court of Appeals holds that an inspector can be liable for negligently inspecting a house for termite damage. The Terminix court finds that damages can include the cost of repairing the house and the reduction in value caused by the stigma of having suffered termite damage."
Oddly, in spite of her asking, Kansas state agencies have not told Carla about Terminix complaints in Kansas. Missouri and other states were more forthcoming.
After receiving Carla's email to Kansas legislators, I visited her website. She describes on her website how she was bankrupted because of a false report originally submitted by Terminix. It is an amazing and heartbreaking story of attorneys, state agencies, the attorney general, and the legislature refusing to protect the consumer. Carla lost her first attempt to collect damages. This is what bankrupted her. However, she published her story with tremendous detail on the Internet. After reading it, I am convinced there was a miscarriage of justice.
Terminix did not like having its conduct exposed in public on Carla's site. First they sued her in California. Terminix lost. Here is my own favorite passage from Carla's website:
The arguments by Terminix’s attorney were actually rather pathetically funny.
The judge told him he had not submitted any proof that anything contained on
the website is false. The dialogue then went something like, “But your honor,
she made defamatory comments about us.” The judge replied, That may be
true, but are they false?” “But your honor, they are defamatory!"
Carla then quotes a local paper:
The following morning, the Appeal-Democrat ran two stories: “Judge refuses to
shut down web site” and “Free speech is alive and well on the Internet.”
Unhappy with this result, Terminix sued again, this time in Tennessee. Perhaps Terminix figured that someone who was bankrupt and lived in California would not be able to defend herself thousands of miles away.
Freedom of speech is important in our country and there are non-profit organizations who devote themselves to defending it for all of us. In this case, Public Citizen rose to the occasion and took the case. Terminix lost again.
Remember there are such organizations if someone tries to shut you up by threatening this kind of lawsuit which, by the way, is called a SLAPP suit.
Before using Terminix's services, I recommend you read Terminix's advertising, compare it to what Carla experienced, and read about the complaints against Terminix across the nation as documented on Carla's website.
One particularly troubling aspect of Carla's story is the possibility that State Agencies in California may have worked against Carla in order to hide their own mistakes. One is left wondering whether it goes deeper than that. The following story raises the same issue, this time in South Carolina.
Missouri Resident Accuses South Carolina Agencies
The following letter from Chris Arenz, a resident of Kansas City, MO, describes his experiences in South Carolina when he found the home he bought had severe problems. Chris makes several accusations against various agencies which I found believable. Though I have not verified the accusations Chris makes, he has told me under separate cover he can provide documentation of each of them.
What I find particularly troubling is how similar are the responses as described by Chris from South Carolina agencies and as described by Carla from California agencies. It further worries me that I have read so many letters from residents in Kansas and Missouri who are getting little or no relief for their problems from our state agencies. They too are running into a brick wall from the agencies and from the two legislatures.
From Chris:
"There is a national epidemic in the home building industry. It is called corruption and it is ruining people's lives. We need STRONG laws to protect the consumer from builders who believe they can flagrantly violate codes and sound building practices, and then payoff local inspectors to turn their heads and ignore the situation.
I live in Missouri now after being harassed and threatened by a builder and his paid off government officials in South Carolina. This is no joke, people! These builders believe they can do anything and get away with it, and people's dreams and life savings are being wiped out.
In my case, I purchased a brand new house, only to find that the house had leaks in the plumbing in the slab foundation, drinking water contaminated by THREE times the EPA limit of copper and lead from the use of non-code and inferior grade copper plumbing, leaking gas lines that poisoned us for months and came close to causing an explosion that would likely have killed us, setback and encroachment violations that made the house unsellable. County building inspectors had knowingly approved the violations and when I complained to the state Residential Builders Commission, the report they filed carefully omitted any mention of the above problems, or the builder's refusal to honor any warranties, or the builders assault on my wife and myself, or the three break-ins at the house, or the obscene and threatening phone calls, and the list goes on. Do you think the builder paid them off? The answer is obvious, isn't it? And where was local law enforce! ment? They couldn't be bothered to investigate. They were paid off by the builder too. What about state law enforcement? They don't investigate white collar crimes. What about the DOJ and FBI? Its not a federal matter. What about consumer and fraud organizations? They don't recognize this as one of the crimes they deal with. What about legal advocacy groups? Well, I'm not gay, elderly, Black or disabled, so they aren't interested. What about the civil courts? State law prohibits lawsuits against the state or county... for ANY reason... and builders have a reputation of hiding their assets or disappearing into some kind of Chapter 13 bankruptcy, only to resurface financially intact. Lawyers won't touch these cases, and especially when I can't pay them because all my financial resources have been wiped out.
I am simply a person who was trying to build a dream, a dream that turned into a living nightmare because a builder wanted to make extra money by violating codes that are established to protect the public, and because of the corrupt government officials who allow this. My life savings were wiped out. At an age when most people are thinking of retirement, I am starting over. My credit has been destroyed because the only way for me to get out from under that house was to declare bankruptcy. There was no one to help. No one who cared. I have exhausted every conceivable means to get justice in this matter, and I have been ignored. The governor of South Carolina said to me through his representative, "We realize that there is a very serious issue, but we can't help." When the governor of a state claims he can do nothing when faced with conspiracy to commit fraud by state and county representatives, then there is a problem that ru! ns far deeper than anyone has imagined.
My question to you is how many others lives have to be ruined... how many innocent victims have to have their lives destroyed... how many crimes against the public have to be committed before action is taken. The builders who are not building homes according to code need to be fined heavily and have their licenses revoked. The local and state officials who are accepting payoffs to turn their heads need to be tried as the criminals they are.
I am living in Missouri now, but every time I turn around, I am seeing the very same conditions that were so prevalent in South Carolina. Its not quite as bad here... yet, but if something is not done now, it will be that bad.
My life has been ruined, but others don't have to be ruined if we act now, and act decisively. Honest builders have nothing to fear. Those builders building in accordance with code and sound building practices are a valuable asset to the community. It is the others that we need to go after in no uncertain terms.
Thank you for taking the time to read this."
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