7:12
- ABC News
- November 16, 2016
Dream Homes Become Nightmares After Allegedly Shoddy Construction
Investigation: New home heartbreak.
7:12
It's not so ordinary for the homeowners like Jackie Walker, a freelance makeup artist who works for ABC News and other media outlets in Washington, D.C. After D. R. Horton built her home, she said the house experienced \"nail popping,\" where nails literally pushed back out of the walls. She marked hundreds of them with blue tape.
\"My house looks like it has the measles,\" Walker said. \"I mean, it's literally every nail. And every beam, there's a seam. Every crack, every molding around the stair, the trim around the walls, everything is cracked... It was very upsetting because it's the most expensive purchase any of us are going to make.\"
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/abc_houses_jackie_lf_161115_4x3t_384.jpg\")
Bill Loden, a former president of the American Society of Home Inspectors, said the problems with Walker's home were \"excessive by any standard\" and that it's a \"real problem.\"
Walker said she had to go to war with D.R. Horton to get it all fixed, and it still is not, well after her warranty expired.
\"It's been a nightmare,\" she said. \"In just the first year, I had 23 appointments and they missed 17 of those.\"
A spokesperson for D.R. Horton said they have reached out to address the problems that homeowners in Jackie's subdivision say exist. Some homeowners have claimed the company seems to have waited them out until their warranties expired.
Jerry Howard, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders, said he's never heard of that happening and generally defended home builders.
\"I think American consumers expect a perfect home,\" he said. \"There's no such thing as a perfect home, and so I think that there are often disputes that arise out of that.\"
Howard said he expects the home building industry to put up just under 1 million homes this year and said in an interview that \"the number that are delivered with happy customers, happy outcomes, far exceed the number that end up in the kind of situations [ABC News] is describing.\" Howard said he did not have statistics on hand to reinforce his point.
Video: Home Builder CEO: 'No Such Thing As a Perfect Home'
Many times such disputes are settled not in courts, but instead require what's called mandatory arbitration, in which disputes are settled by outside parties known as arbitrators. This arbitration can't be appealed and is often kept in secret.
\"They [home builders] like arbitration because it favors them,\" Vickie Pynchon, an attorney who served for years as an arbitrator in construction defect cases, told ABC News. \"Even though it's supposed to be neutral and unbiased.\"
Pynchon said arbitrators know they won't be hired again if they come down too hard on builders, which means, as she said, \"the secret deck is stacked against the homeowner.\"
The home building industry and the American Arbitration Association (AAA) disagree and argue that arbitration is a fair and efficient way for home builders and homeowners to settle disputes without bogging down an overburdened court system.
The AAA said in a statement to ABC News that its roster of arbitrators is \"composed of independent arbitrators who have a range of subject matter expertise and experience and include lawyers familiar with construction disputes as well as industry professionals such as architects and engineers.\"
It said that less than half of arbitration cases proceed to an award before they're otherwise settled, and when they do, the homeowners are identified as the \"prevailing party\" a little more than half the time.
Howard said his organization does not make any recommendations about arbitration to home builders, and told ABC News he did not know how many cases go into arbitration.
\"Frankly, I don't see this issue as being the crucial issue for housing in our country,\" he said.
But it is a crucial issue for Americans who want their homes fixed, and its an issue that's likely to persist as more homes go up, faster than ever.
\"People look at a house and they start imagining their family get-togethers,\" home inspector Loden told ABC News. \"They start thinking of all the fun we're going to have here. And if you look at it entirely from that direction, then you could leave yourself open to some things that you weren't expecting.\"
For the \"Nightline\" investigation, ABC News teamed up with our affiliates across the country. Check out the map below, or if you're on mobile TAP HERE, to see the reports in your region.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/abc_HC_deep_title_lf_161115_4x3t_384.jpg\")
ABC News' Kalyn Wilson and Lizzie Yang contributed to this report. Location assistance for an interview was provided by Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.
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