Heard this story on NPR this past sunday. You can click to listen to it if you click “full episode” below the pic. It is ‘act one’ about 2 minutes into the episode.
The
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dang, what a can of worms.(no pun intended)
New Chicago condo with stainless appliances, granite slabs... yada yada, built on dirt without a concrete pad. Sewer probs and they open the floor to find no concrete but the sewer sticking up out of the dirt, complete with flies and maggots.
Amazing that the contractor now can't be contacted.
Hey, they gave a new plasma sceen TV with each sale!
edited to add if you wnat to hear this radio program it starts after the teeth grinding story at the beginning about a quarter inch in on the bar control.
Edited 4/9/2009 1:16 pm ET by rez
I caught part of that show when it was on, and seen a few of the dastardly deeds with my own two eyes. One place I could see outside below a baseboard!
About 10 years ago, an old building with a huge overhead door for parking, was converted to condos. The big door was partially made into an 8 x 12 garage door, the remainder became the exterior wall of a kitchen in one of the first floor condos. (the whole thing was designed to look like the original huge overhead door). Well, in that kitchen they literally had frost appearing in the built-in oven!
I opened up the faux part of the huge overhead door to find they simply filled it with loose formiculite and called it insulated. What a mess! It was a windy day too! I slowly pulled boards apart, using my shop vac jimmy rigged to a 40 gal garbage can to vac the stuff out before the wind did it for me, but a lot of it got away anyway. I think I filled 30 large garbage bags with the stuff.
Anyway.. I finally got to where I could see the inside of the wall with the kitchen and, low and behold, I'm looking at the back of the built-in oven.
By the way, their home inspector came highly recommended by the real estate agent who sold them the condo, as is too often the case. I usually turn down jobs in those places, because I don't need the frustration of trying to clean up someone elses mess.
I hate to see it, but I don't feel responsible for it either. The reason these fly-by-night developers get away with it is because people keep buying it.
~ Ted W ~
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hate to see it, but I don't feel responsible for it either. The reason these fly-by-night developers get away with it is because people keep buying it.~ Ted W ~Thats also why pepole like us and 'Holmes on homes' will always have work.
From the story: >> since the housing market crash, the developer who renovated and sold them their units—Haso Meseljevic—has all but disappeared. He’s in foreclosure on half of their building’s units. << OK, so - I guess the developer is supposed to S*** the money out to finish the project??? Sounds like the bank owns the property now. I guess they need to finish it???
This sort of thing has almost become routine - it's nothing new, and it will surely get worse before it gets better.
Why? Lawsuits.
Simply put, the epidemic of far reaching 'class action' lawsuits against anyone and everyone invloved in new developments has had the effect of chasing good contractors away. What reamins are 'gypsy' outfits, corproate Frankensteins, that dissolve as soon as the job is over. Lots of luck suing a non-existant firm.
Naturally, the same principals pop up on the next project down the road - but as different entities.
It's not just the product that suffers - the employees suffer as well. Often using the weakest employees they can find, the maze of partnerships, etc., creates a situation where the guy simply isn't insured by workman's comp - laws notwithstanding. I've seen lawyers and judges scratch their heads, wondering who should be sued.
Did I mention lawsuits? Oddly enough, these 'successful' lawsuits typically result in nothing being fixed, and very few folks ever see any money .... the millions awarded all vanish into sundry 'legal fees.'