Thread: Another builder linked to Chinese drywall

Another builder linked to Chinese drywall

By Aaron Kessler


Published: Wednesday, April 8, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 7:35 p.m.
FORT MYERS - The list of national builders whose homes contain defective Chinese drywall already includes national players like Lennar Corp., Taylor Morrison and WCI Communities.

Now, Atlanta-based Beazer Homes may also have used the tainted material in at least one of its Fort Myers developments.

George Ciaffone, who lives in a Beazer home in the Magnolia Lakes development in Fort Myers, first realized something was amiss only days after moving in at the end of January. The air-conditioner was not blowing cool air.

"It just wasn't working correctly," Ciaffone said. "When we opened up the unit, we saw it. The coils were completely black."

The copper coils were not the only corroded metal. Copper ground wires in the home's electrical outlets were blackened, and in subsequent weeks three lights began failing. The house had an odor that would not go away. Ciaffone developed strange headaches.

The potential for Chinese drywall in Beazer's homes came as federal officials are taking increasing notice of the drywall problem. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, was in Lakewood Ranch on Tuesday, meeting with affected homeowners. He has called for a recall of the material.

Ciaffone and his family paid to repair the air-conditioner last month, but kept the coils so they could be tested.

The family does not have many good options. They cannot walk away. Ciaffone's parents bought the house in December as a foreclosure sale -- before defective Chinese drywall became publicly known -- as a way of protecting their savings from a declining stock market while providing a home for their son and rental income from two other tenants. They paid in cash taken from liquidating much of their stock holdings.

The family have joined in a federal lawsuit seeking class-action status filed in Miami against drywall manufacturers. They want Beazer to fix their home or offer to buy it back.

Jeff Ciaffone, George's father, said the attorneys' investigator recently came to take samples of drywall. Beazer also came to take its own samples. The results are expected shortly.

Jerry Smith, warranty manager for Beazer's Fort Myers region, referred calls Tuesday to a company spokeswoman. Smith said the builder was researching the situation in Magnolia Lakes but had not confirmed Chinese drywall. "We don't have a confirmed case yet," Smith said. Calls to the company's spokeswoman were not returned.

The Ciaffones said they were told by Beazer officials that at least four other homes in Magnolia Lakes are being investigated.

According to the company's materials, Beazer builds homes in more than 40 markets in 18 states. In Florida, Beazer's markets include Fort Myers, Tampa and Orlando.

Nelson visited two Taylor Morrison-built homes in the Greenbrook neighborhood of Lakewood Ranch on Tuesday, part of a three-day swing through the state. He was in Cape Coral on Monday, and is in West Palm Beach today.

He met with the owners of three homes built by Taylor Morrison on Skip Jack Loop in Greenbrook, and toured two. He also spoke at the event with at least one Lennar homeowner from nearby Heritage Harbour.

"We have a major problem," said Nelson, who contends that the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have not been aggressive enough in tackling the issue.

One of the Lakewood Ranch homes Nelson toured was that of Kristin Culliton, whose home was the first in Florida inspected by a Washington, D.C., team of commission investigators.

Culliton first began noticing problems in fall 2007, and pregnant at the time, she moved out to live with her mother. She has yet to return. She told Nelson that she is still paying about $1,200 a month for a mortgage.

Nelson examined Culliton's damaged air-conditioning coils, using a screwdriver to scrape off black corrosion. In Culliton's driveway, he discussed the potential scope of the problem using a poster-size version of a graphic published by the Herald-Tribune. The report analyzed shipping records and found that enough drywall came into the U.S. from China since 2006 to build 60,000 homes. Enough material entered through Florida to build at least 36,000 homes.


http://www.heraldtribune.com/article...hinese-drywall

The potential for Chinese drywall in Beazer's homes came as federal officials are taking increasing notice of the drywall problem. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, was in Lakewood Ranch on Tuesday, meeting with affected homeowners. He has called for a recall of the material.

Wooo boy! Lakewood Ranch is a high dollar neighborhood right outside of Bradenton. It will be extremely interesting to follow this story, as this is where the movers and shakers live!

This will hit the building sector hard. I was down there in February, most if not ALL the construction crews looked to be made up of Hispanics. If the Builders are using illegals AND poor materials the backlash could be huge.

Here is another article about Beazer's troubles:
October 11, 2007 | Posted By Scott Riddle | 1 Comments |
Atlanta-Based Beazer Homes Reports Violations In Its Mortgage Business, Dating Back Several Years
Atlanta-based homebuilder Beazer Homes, facing trouble on several fronts, has self-reported violations going back several years in its mortgage business. The release from the company can be found by clicking to their website. Here is a portion of the release -

The internal investigation found evidence that employees of the Company's Beazer Mortgage Corporation subsidiary violated certain U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD") regulations, particularly in relation to Down Payment Assistance programs, in certain Federal Housing Administration ("FHA") insured loans originated by Beazer Mortgage Corporation dating back to at least 2000. As discussed below, due to several uncertainties regarding the Company's ultimate liability from these matters, at this time it is not possible for the Company to determine the total financial statement impact related to the mortgage issues identified in the internal investigation.

The Company's potential future liability relates, in part, to the impact of providing reimbursement of losses arising from mortgage defaults in circumstances in which the Company's FHA-insured mortgage origination activities would have violated standard representations made to mortgage purchasers. In the event of fraud or certain misrepresentations at the time of the sale of such FHA-insured loans, the Company may be liable for losses suffered either by the mortgage purchaser, or HUD if any payment was made pursuant to an FHA loan guarantee. The factors influencing the extent of such potential future liability include, among other things, the number of FHA-insured loans originated by Beazer Mortgage Corporation, the percentage of such loans in which misrepresentations or fraud may have occurred, and the default rate, principal amount and losses associated with such loans.


More information from the Atlanta Journal -

Beazer Homes USA, the troubled Atlanta-based homebuilder, said Thursday that a five-month internal investigation found evidence that employees violated federal regulations governing its mortgage loan business "dating back to at least 2000."

The company also said it will have to restate financial earnings results for much of the past decade. Those restatements will likely boost net earnings cumulatively, but will cut profit for its fiscal 2006 year, Beazer said. ...


http://www.georgiabankruptcyblog.com...-comments.html

Why is my air conditioning not working on my central heat and air?
My heat works and my air conditioning does not. Would anyone know why. Do these units need freon to work? Thanks for your time. Oh, wanted to ask also. Is there a switch or something that I might have to switch on / off?
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Originally Posted by brendya

Why is my air conditioning not working on my central heat and air?
My heat works and my air conditioning does not. Would anyone know why. Do these units need freon to work? Thanks for your time. Oh, wanted to ask also. Is there a switch or something that I might have to switch on / off?

Welcome to ALIPAC brendya! Your a/c could be several things. You might want to clean the coils with a water hose. Also, I just had to replace the compressor on mine. You really need a professional to look at it. If you do decide to do anything, be sure to turn your power off at the breaker. You might have a breaker right by your a/c. If you do that, depending on the unit, you can unscrew the panel on the corner and look at the compressor. Some are shaped like a soda can, some are more oval in shape. If the compressor is bubbled at the top where the wiring is attached, then it is fried. But again, I would suggest a professional. If I lived in your town, I would come by and do it myself.

jshhmr: What a sweet Man

brendya : WELCOME, welcome to ALIPAC.

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Oh no the rich got some smelly odors coming from their walls due to China imports, and illegal labor. Maybe they will not hire illegals anymore