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Sometimes people want to be their own GC when building a new house. They do this for any number of reasons, and most do pretty well at it.
On the other hand… some are very lousy at it, and make HUGE mistakes that they regret later. They chalk it all up to experience, and swear “NEVER AGAIN”. They think to themsleves, at least we made it through this one…
Well, in Covington, La a couple did just that. They were their own GC on their dream house. It came out quite well, actually. The house is well built, looks wonderful, and is everything that they dreamed of. They had very little trouble with any aspect of the material handling, the subs, the lenders, etc…
In steps the Southern Natural Gas Company. Seems the couple built their new dream house smack dab right in the gas company’s right of way. The gas company notified the new homeowners that the house had to go. This literally means that the home is coming down, and the new homeowners are out all the money they spent building it. If the money was borrowed, they are still going to have to pay the bank back, and the bank may very well sue them for the total balance due since there is no longer anything of value as collateral.
According to a spokesman for the gas company, this is the third time that they have had to have a new home removed from their right of way. All three were built with the homeowner acting as the GC. Somebody flat out didn’t do their homework.
If you plan on being your own GC, be absolutely sure that you know the what, where, when, how, and why of EVERYTHING. Otherwise, you may wind up losing a new home.
near the ditch…
James “Loving Life” DuHamel
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This is real hard to believe that someone didn't catch the fact that they were building on a gas company easement. Lenders require a survey on new construction that would show such an easement. The deed or legal description would refer to such an easement. I can't believe the Building Department wouldn't know and stop construction before it began. I would think a surveyor, attorney, or someone at the Building/Zoning Department would be liable if such a disaster did occur.
*You forget, Mark, this happened in Louisiana. Louisiana is the only state in the country that practices Napoleonic law. Their laws and rules and regs are distinctly different from the rest of the country. State laws and regulations, that is. They do still have to abide by Federal laws and regulations.
*I agree with Mark. It is either an urban legend, or we are missing some serious information. (Like that McDonald's hot coffee on the lap: turns out that Mickey D had apparently gotten repeated complaints about their hot coffee, as I recall.)A lender is simply NOT going to give you money unless you can prove that you own the land, regardless of the legal system. And, to cover their (&*%(^*^ further, they will require some sort of insurance that will protect their money if there is something wrong with the title.This needs more proof before we talk about it any further.
*Hey folks this is absolutely plausible, I have experienced it to a lesser degree. Don't know whether this site is rural, but exact mapping and surveying is as recent as global positioning satelites. Small communities are still catching up- banks don't look much further than the info they need to make the loan.Things go unfiled... no stretch of the imagination here and I don't think J.D. is in the habit of perpetuating rumors...
*James,
View Image © 1999-2000"The first step towards vice is to shroud innocent actions in mystery, and whoever likes to conceal something sooner or later has reason to conceal it." Aristotle
*Hey,So why not just MOVE it.It's done all the time. Pricey, but less than another house!PB
*Boy, some of you people need to get out more. Life outside of your little corner of the world is very fascinating, and quite different than you might expect. ESPECIALLY rural America.The deep south does some mighty strange things when it comes to rural building practices, codes, and laws. It is nothing for a couple to have 25 or 30 acres of land, and build a house on it. God only knows what may be buried in the acreage. The banks here are pretty much locally owned, with very few national branches located around here. It is quite easy to get a loan to build your own home. About the only thing the banks care about is that the house actually gets built, and built correctly. Some cut checks directly to the subs, while some banks cut checks with the subs name, and the homeowners name together. My neighbor is a locator for a company that locates cables, pipes, electrical lines, etc... for whomever needs the services located before digging. He relies on the records at the county courthouse an awful lot. Problem is, most are outdated and flat out wrong. He has a hard time finding some of this stuff.Also, it is quite common around here for a home to be built on an easement. People here have a strong tendency to challenge easements. They believe that a company has a right to get to and repair their lines/equipment, but the company has no right to tell them how to use the property, so long as it doesn't interfere with the company's ability to egress and regress for repair purposes. And I agree with Joe wholeheartedly. This is a tragedy all the way around. Hopefully, the gas company will work something out with the homeowners. After all the publicity about the mess, it would be in their best interest. Southwestern Bell telephone company here just routes their lines around the home when someone builds on top of their lines. In most cases, the company picks up the tab. In rare cases, the homeowner must pay. It happens a lot.I will scan the picture of the house (from the paper) and post it tomorrow. The picture may have some lines in it, but it should be viewable. near the ditch... and probably infringing upon it a bitJames "Loving Life" DuHamel
*It doesn't sound like the problem here was that the home owner acted as GC. If it got zoning approval, if a title search was done, any GC could have missed the easement too.
*Exactly my point earlier. If the owner OR the gc arranged for a title search and zoning approval, it ain't their fault! Somebody else is liable for the money. Can you spell t-i-t-l-e i-n-s-u-r-a-n-c-e?
*OK, let's go over this one more time.We ain't in New Jersey, New York, Boston, or any other New England/upper east coast area. We are in the RURAL deep south.Ya'll keep talking about title searches, zoning, etc... In RURAL deep south, there ain't no zoning. You don't need approval from the zoning board (in most cases). You don't need a title search because most of these people have owned the land for generations. The banks loan money in a lot of cases based on credit history, not on title searches, zoning ordinances, etc... These banks are not your corporate giants, they are locally owned, small time operations. Home loans are their bread and butter. Now, it doesn't matter WHO the GC is, whether it is a homeowner or pro, the whole point was to be careful and make absolutely sure that you do all your homework, know the who, what, where, and why of EVERYTHING, and then recheck it all. A pro GC does this all the time, and they pretty much know what to check, who to check with, and why they need to check. A first time homeowner turned GC doesn't know all of this. This was the whole point. BE CAREFUL.A lot of you seemed to miss that point. You seemed too intent on proving that this couldn't have possibly have happened because of all the safety nets in place IN YOUR AREA. Unless you live in Covington, La then this ain't YOUR AREA.Now then, here is a picture of the house with a caption. I am not going to write out the whole article because it is long. If you want to know ALL the facts, even the smallest details, use telephone information and find these people in Covington, La and ask them. You could even call the gas company (name is visible on the sign) and ask THEM.near the ditch...James "Loving Life" DuHamel
*Yup, like James DuHamel said: Can't be a true story.
*I find this altogether too plausible. Builders want a fee and say we need a survey? Who needs 'em? Save $500 on a survey and umpteen $ on builder's fee? Great! Bank looks at house plans and says house should be worth the amount of loan. Credit looks OK? Write the loan. They don't require a topo or a survey. They assume the builder has enough sense to make sure the house doesn't violate setbacks or easements. Go out and stake the corners. Call foundation contractor.Building inspector(if any) comes out and looks at foundation. OK? Passes. Inspector looks for setback violations and probably never sees a plat. Not his problem. He knows what the setbacks are in the area. Zoning Commision? Permits Dep't. checks plans for minimum SF this area. OK for Zoning.It all goes downhill from here.I've built many houses very close to easements and setbacks, but never encroached 'cause I did my homework. Title insurance? BS. Title insurance covers the mortgage company in case there is a conflicting claim to ownership, not because the builder does something stupid.I don't see anyone liable here except the person who drove the first stake.
*Sad story, reminds me of a trip I took as a young lad to visit my aunt in Kenya. They had a rather nice house that had been built be the consulate for officers. Unfortunately the house was built on a game run and for a couple of weeks twice a year you'd have hoards of ungulates milling about in the yard at all hours. Worse, as civilization had made quite an encroachment in their area, a small herd of elephants decided to give up the nomadic life and had set up shop nearby. Don't ever believe that elephants are dumb, they learned to turn on the garden standpipe to get water (they also learned to wait to cross the road).
*Wow! Some stories! Personally, I'd never think of trying to be my own GC, even if I thought I was qualified (which I might be, almost). That said, I'm having a heck of a time trying to find a real GC that I trust (and can follow for a while) until I need (can afford) him (her). The "well-known respected" ones seem to tackle jobs only of about $500,000 or more; my job, should it happen, shouldn't be more than $100,000. Perhaps the prob is that they (the GCs) are so used to doing work for young dotcom millionaires :/
*I was thinking about your words here James and had to come back to it. You know, I live in an area where not only are there about as many safety nets and cross-checks as there could possibly be; we also have a very benevolent system of government and laws that generally favour the little guy in these cases. Even with all that, screw-ups large and small happen all the time when you're dealing with government (and especially unionized government workers) and once in a while a collosal error like this one comes along.