Dive Brief:
- A Duval County, FL, jury found that homebuilder D.R. Horton acted with negligence when it built a 240-unit Jacksonville condominium development, and the Circuit Court has ordered the company to pay $9.6 million to repair defects, WTLV First Coast News reported.
- Residents of Herons' Landing said they have been dealing with cracked stucco, leaking roofs, and faulty windows and sliding glass doors for almost four years.
- D.R. Horton said there were no construction defects and that the problems were a result of the condominium owner association's failure to maintain the buildings properly.
Dive Insight:
The payment from D.R. Horton, the nation's largest homebuilder, will cover replacement of the community's stucco, roofs and windows, but attorneys for the condominium association told WTLV they were confident D.R. Horton would appeal the verdict. In an interesting twist, the attorneys for Herons' Landing are also suing the homebuilding giant for similar defects in an almost identical D.R. Horton community, also in Jacksonville.
Herons' Landing resident Paul Vetter told WTLV that he hopes this case encourages other homeowners to pursue defect cases. In this situation, however, the condominium association sued D.R. Horton because, according to WTLV, defect claims by individual homeowners must normally be handled in secret arbitration proceedings.
KB Home ran into similar problems in Florida courts earlier this year. The country's sixth-largest homebuilder reached a $23.5 million settlement deal with the Florida attorney general’s office over claims of shoddy construction and deceptive business practices. The state alleged that KB Home did not let buyers know about building violations in the homes it was selling or that the homes were not built according to the original plans and specifications.
