Homeowners bill of rights law dying

BY BRAD SHANNON | THE OLYMPIAN • Published March 08, 2008

The bill giving new-home buyers a warranty against construction defects is near death in the House today, apparent victim of House Speaker Frank Chopp’s opposition for the second year in a row.

Chopp’s aides said Thursday evening the bill wasn’t dead and that he had questions he wanted to discuss with bill sponsors. But House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler said today the measure giving consumer protections of four to 10 years is doomed.

“Frankly, he doesn’t think it’s cooked. So I don’t think it’s coming out,” Kessler, a Hoquiam Democrat, said of the speaker.

Kessler said a dozen other bills including one to allow beer and wine tasting in 30 grocery stores are expected to move instead today. Proponents of Substitute Senate Bill 6385’s homeowner protections have not given up, including Democratic Sen. Brian Weinstein of Mercer Island, who said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, is going to keep discussing it with the speaker.

Gov. Chris Gregoire also supports SSB 6385, despite its strong opposition by the Building Industry Association of Washington and its allies in the insurance industry.

Weinstein speculated that some House bills could be hung up in the Senate if his measure doesn’t move before today’s 5 p.m. cutoff. Although it’s hard to revive a bill that dies at cutoff, it can be done — and he suggested some lawmakers could ask Gregoire to keep lawmakers in town until the measure is passed.

The session is scheduled to end Thursday.

Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia, is pushing for the bill and took out a full-page ad in The Olympian this week to advocate for it.

Williams has cited the plight of several homeowners in the 140-home Cooper Crest subdivision on Olympia’s west side, where water is pooling in crawl spaces of some homes, allegedly causing structural and other problems. Play areas outside some homes are covered in tarps to repel rain.

One Cooper Crest homeowner, Karen Veldheer, is in arbitration trying to get the builder to deal with water in her home’s crawl space. She fears it will damage the foundation.

Neighbor Scott Thalhamer has up to 2inches of water in his crawl space in a home he bought last spring.

“We have been through a living nightmare the last 11 months we’ve been living here. We’re scared to death about the toxic mold that could be growing in our crawl spaces …” Thalhamer said recently, arguing that SSB 6385 is needed to protect consumers. “We don’t want others to suffer our hardship and our horrible pain.’’

Thalhamer said he can’t sue his builder because his purchase agreement included language that limited options.

Williams said the difficulties of SSB 6385 mirror the fate of four home-construction bills that died in previous years because of opposition from builders, including one in 2000 that grew out of a task force’s recommendations.

Williams said Cooper Crest shows in one neighborhood alone there is evidence of a problem that needs to be fixed.

“It’s just one example of the many problems that exist out there,’’ Williams said. ________________________________