Absolutely. Please send me your phone number to farringtonhoa.com and I'll call you.
The article that I posted was reference Regina and Richard Wills. They were fighting with their homebuilder, Caviness and Cates, (builder of the homes in my subdivision) and pursuing all possible courses of action to include filing complaints with the BBB, getting them listed on Ft. Bragg's off limits list and a lawsuit. They eventually won a lawsuit against Caviness and Cates for the amount of $165,000. The link to the newsarticle from Fayobserver.com is no longer valid, but I have saved a copy and pasted it below. I had many problems with my house. I got a lot of it fixed, but not without persistence. What was very frustrating is simple building code violations that Caviness and Cates violated, but even worse the city building inspector missed. The most simple violation is that a hot water heater must be elevated off of the garage floor. I bet that every hot water heater in the neighborhood buy mine is sitting on the concrete floor.
I hired a superb home inspector (he is unfortunately retired) who inspected my home in great detail. Not only did he identify building code violations, but cited the reference from the state's building codes. I will never purchase a Caviness and Cates home again. When they built my home, their motto was "builders of excellence." They were far from it. Below is a copy of the article from the lawsuit.
By Francis X. Gilpin
Staff writer
A Cumberland County Superior Court jury has awarded $165,971 to a couple who sued a Fayetteville builder over alleged defects in their 4-year-old house in the Baywood South subdivision.
Caviness Land Development Inc. sold the house at 1013 Bobby Jones Drive to Richard K. Wilson and Regina E. Wills in 2006 for $290,000, according to county records.
Wilson and Wills alleged in their lawsuit that Watson G. Caviness and his company refused to acknowledge that the house's concrete slab foundation shouldn't have been poured at ground level. County assessors had classified the lot as swampland before the house was built, according to court records.
Moisture will remain in the slab, the couple's experts maintain, so no interior flooring will function properly on the foundation.
The experts said adhesives applied on the slab to keep flooring in place won't work because of the wetness.
Code violations
The experts found more than a dozen code violations in the rest of the house, according to court records.
Claude T. Canipe, a private inspector hired by the couple, said he found no covering between the shingles and wood sheathing on the roof, at least around the eaves where he could pull up the corners of shingles. Without the underlayment, which is required by the state building code, Canipe said, roof leaks are more likely during wind-driven rain. The leaks could lead to mold in the attic and wall cavities, Canipe said.
Canipe said he found that the stairs in the two-story house weren't erected at uniform heights, a potentially dangerous code violation.
Caviness could not be reached for comment Monday.
In closing arguments to the 12-member jury last week, Caviness' lawyer, David S. Coats of Raleigh, portrayed Wilson and Wills as paranoid nitpickers who would have found fault with the construction of Noah's Ark.
"Watson, throughout this entire process, is taking the high road," Coats said of his client. "That lot is a perfectly, perfectly fine lot."
Coats told the jury that the couple didn't give Caviness a fair opportunity to repair the house.
Smithfield lawyer Ron L. Trimyer Jr., representing the couple, told the jury that Caviness was slow to take responsibility and initially referred Wills to subcontractors if she was dissatisfied.
Given the scope of the problems, Trimyer said, Caviness was willing only to replace the flooring.
Another lawyer for the couple, Bradley N. Schulz of Morehead City, said Caviness was never interested in fixing the problem.
"He wanted to fix a symptom," Schulz told the jury.
Trimyer said the couple wanted Caviness to buy back what they had hoped would be their retirement home for $360,000, which included the cost of improvements they had made before the alleged defects became evident.
Caviness insisted that moisture was inadvertently captured in the slab during concrete pouring, Trimyer said, but it was now gone. Trimyer said Caviness' own subcontractors contradicted that.
"My clients want to deal with facts, not his opinion," Trimyer told the jury.
Coats said the couple exaggerated the problems and moved out of the house two years ago to bolster their lawsuit, which they filed in 2009.
"Nobody says you had to move out of Bobby Jones Drive," Coats said.
Breach of contract
The jury found Friday that there was a breach in the Caviness contract to sell the house to the couple, as well as a breach of an implied warranty that the house would be built with quality workmanship, Trimyer said.
The builder's lawyers, Coats and J.T. Crook, weren't available Monday to comment on whether they will appeal the verdict.
By Francis X. Gilpin
Staff writer
A Cumberland County Superior Court jury has awarded $165,971 to a couple who sued a Fayetteville builder over alleged defects in their 4-year-old house in the Baywood South subdivision.
Caviness Land Development Inc. sold the house at 1013 Bobby Jones Drive to Richard K. Wilson and Regina E. Wills in 2006 for $290,000, according to county records.
Wilson and Wills alleged in their lawsuit that Watson G. Caviness and his company refused to acknowledge that the house's concrete slab foundation shouldn't have been poured at ground level. County assessors had classified the lot as swampland before the house was built, according to court records.
Moisture will remain in the slab, the couple's experts maintain, so no interior flooring will function properly on the foundation.
The experts said adhesives applied on the slab to keep flooring in place won't work because of the wetness.
Code violations
The experts found more than a dozen code violations in the rest of the house, according to court records.
Claude T. Canipe, a private inspector hired by the couple, said he found no covering between the shingles and wood sheathing on the roof, at least around the eaves where he could pull up the corners of shingles. Without the underlayment, which is required by the state building code, Canipe said, roof leaks are more likely during wind-driven rain. The leaks could lead to mold in the attic and wall cavities, Canipe said.
Canipe said he found that the stairs in the two-story house weren't erected at uniform heights, a potentially dangerous code violation.
Caviness could not be reached for comment Monday.
In closing arguments to the 12-member jury last week, Caviness' lawyer, David S. Coats of Raleigh, portrayed Wilson and Wills as paranoid nitpickers who would have found fault with the construction of Noah's Ark.
"Watson, throughout this entire process, is taking the high road," Coats said of his client. "That lot is a perfectly, perfectly fine lot."
Coats told the jury that the couple didn't give Caviness a fair opportunity to repair the house.
Smithfield lawyer Ron L. Trimyer Jr., representing the couple, told the jury that Caviness was slow to take responsibility and initially referred Wills to subcontractors if she was dissatisfied.
Given the scope of the problems, Trimyer said, Caviness was willing only to replace the flooring.
Another lawyer for the couple, Bradley N. Schulz of Morehead City, said Caviness was never interested in fixing the problem.
"He wanted to fix a symptom," Schulz told the jury.
Trimyer said the couple wanted Caviness to buy back what they had hoped would be their retirement home for $360,000, which included the cost of improvements they had made before the alleged defects became evident.
Caviness insisted that moisture was inadvertently captured in the slab during concrete pouring, Trimyer said, but it was now gone. Trimyer said Caviness' own subcontractors contradicted that.
"My clients want to deal with facts, not his opinion," Trimyer told the jury.
Coats said the couple exaggerated the problems and moved out of the house two years ago to bolster their lawsuit, which they filed in 2009.
"Nobody says you had to move out of Bobby Jones Drive," Coats said.
Breach of contract
The jury found Friday that there was a breach in the Caviness contract to sell the house to the couple, as well as a breach of an implied warranty that the house would be built with quality workmanship, Trimyer said.
The builder's lawyers, Coats and J.T. Crook, weren't available Monday to comment on whether they will appeal the verdict.
