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The state agency responsible for protecting consumers from faulty home construction and remodeling is in the process of shutting its doors, leaving home buyers to fend for themselves in disputes with builders.
The Texas Residential Construction Commission began winding down last month. The Legislature did not renew it this year after the Sunset Advisory Commission’s strongly worded report to abolish the agency.The agency stopped taking homeowner cases and registering builders last month but will finish its current caseload up until its closing in September."We were a work in progress," said Patrick Fortner, the agency’s communications and legislative affairs director. "We were hoping to get more authority this session, but time ran out."The agency was bogged down in resolution procedures, Forster said, but it did levy more than $2 million in fines against builders in 758 cases after it gained new powers in the 2007 legislative session. In addition, the agency spent three months in Southeast Texas after Hurricane Ike last year working to shut down "storm chasers" who were taking advantage of distressed homeowners, said Duane Waddill, agency deputy director."The commission was seeking additional enforcement from the Legislature this year, especially cease-and-desist authority," Waddill said. "What we found in the Hurricane Ike strike zone area was we had a tough time shutting companies down because of due-process issues." Key to closing the commission was Homeowners of Texas, a nonprofit group in Austin that lobbied hard to end the agency, said its president, Tom Archer."The TRCC was really a builders protection agency that was an obstacle in getting construction disputes resolved," he said. "There were 260 parties who testified before the Legislature on the TRCC, and 246 wanted to abolish it."Long delays in required inspections and auditors who favored the builders were two of the main criticisms launched at the agency, Archer said. Lack of power to oversee poor construction practices was another issue."The commission had no authority to enforce anything," Archer said. "Homeowners who got favorable rulings would still have to go to court or arbitration because the builder would appeal. The homeowner would spend all that time and money and still get no relief."Ned Munoz, vice president of regulatory affairs and general counsel for the Texas Association of Builders, said, however, that of the nearly 600,000 houses built and registered with the agency since its inception, only a small fraction ended up in the resolution process."We stand by that record," he said. "Home builders were required to provide information to homeowners on the TRCC, including how to contact the agency, in their contracts. All a homeowner had to do to find the TRCC was read their contract."Still, the agency’s perceived bias in favor of builders made the public not trust it compared with other regulatory agencies, according to the Sunset Commission report.
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