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Tough talk today at hearing on homebuyer rights

• Published February 04, 2009

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Home builders got a scolding from Democratic Rep. Dennis Flannigan this morning in a two-hour House hearing on bills that would give home buyers more rights when they discover defective construction in their houses.

"Mr. Chair, I’m offended," Flannigan, a Tacoma Democrat, said with obvious agitation in comments actually directed at Olympia builder Daimon Doyle and Timothy Harris, general counsel for the Building Industry Association of Washington.

The two building industry representatives had just testified before the House Judiciary Committee that most housing problems are caused by less than 1.5 percent of contractors, and that lawmakers should set up a complaints office to better understand the nature of problems before moving into the area of home warranties.

Both bills before the committee — HB 1393 and HB 1045 — give home buyers warranties of up to four years against defects in construction, and they allow lawsuits if builders do not fix shoddy work that impairs the ability to use a home. Several people testified about their challenges in getting made whole, and one woman spoke of racking up $500,000 in lawyer costs just to win a jury verdict of roughly the same value over a renovation gone bad.

"I don’t hear you telling anything to these people who’ve been, probably at least one of them, screwed. If lawyers only have 1 ½ percent of them that are crooks, we have laws about that. If physicians manage to kill your parents, you’d probably going to be pissed. People are pissed. I’m pissed," Flannigan said. "I’ve watched this law come up every year and one way or another, the industry — the master builders, I would say master is the wrong word to use here. I understand that you two are brilliant and kind and just. I didn’t hear a single remedy from you about what the needs are of people who can’t afford their lawyers. … If 1 ½ percent of the time you went to a physician you died, what would you be trying to do right now? One and a half percent is those who can afford to see a lawyer."

Doyle warned against adopting the "extreme warranties" created by the bills, but indicated builders support tougher regulation of contractors, creation of an ombudsman to collect contractor complaints at the Attorney General’s Office, and to do more consumer education.