The Sky Above, the Mud Below

La Conchita, California 2005

After fielding call after call at our firm during the recent winter storms, it reminded us of the title of an old documentary, "The Sky Above, The Mud Below". Things in San Diego weren't as bad as the jungles of New Guinea where the film was shot, but too many homeowners faced with water streaming through their roofs, windows, walls, and mud sliding from slopes and through their doors, it may have seemed that way. Things were so bad in some developments that owners were seeing leaks where they never had seen them before. Water was actually moving horizontally under roofing material before soaking through in areas several feet from the actual defect.

Unfortunately, we don't think the situation will get any better in the near future. The building boom of the 80's and 90's severely overtaxed the ability of cities and counties to properly inspect the explosive growth in home construction. A combination of understaffed and unscrupulous contractors as well as the use of unskilled and sometimes undocumented workers, has created a construction defect crisis. The Los Angeles Business Journal once reported that almost 40% of all new construction in Southern California suffers from significant construction defects. Moreover, the leaks from the rain are just the beginning. The corner cutting and poor workmanship could lead to much larger problems in the future. The residents of Homestead Florida learned during the post-storm analysis of Hurricane Andrew that 80% of the damaged homes had hidden construction defects. Here's something to keep in mind considering the shaky nature of our geology -- none of the homes built to code were significantly damaged in the Florida hurricane.

Homeowners cannot afford to sit on their hands when confronted with a construction defect. There is no such thing as a small defect in a home -- the actual damage is occurring inside the walls where you can't see it. We recently investigated what looked like a minor leak around a window tile, but which upon closer examination turned out to have caused massive dry rot in less than 3 years. If you have a single family residence with defects, you should take immediate steps to rectify any problems. Condominium owners should immediately report any problems to their association.

There are legal reasons to take immediate action as well. The legislature and the courts have granted increasing protection to developers in the form of statutes of limitations for the amount of time in which you have to bring a lawsuit to recover damages. For instance, if your home was built in 1996 and you have a latent defect, you are facing the 10 year statute of limitations. Another statute of limitations is the 3 year statute. You have three years from the date you discover the defect (but never longer than ten years) to file a suit if the problem hasn't been repaired.

Finally, if you are a director of a homeowner association and suspect that construction defects exist, the law is clear: you must investigate and take reasonable steps to correct the defects or risk a lawsuit against the homeowner association by disgruntled members of the association.

BREAKING NEWS: Court rules in favor of La Jolla homeowners to prevent a landslide in a suit against the City of San Diego involving a hazardous storm drain. Click here to read more.