Return to Today's Anthem View

Construction Defect Information

President’s Update, May 5, 2008  [distributed by RMI's email Bulletin]

As some of you know, NRS-40 is a Nevada law that deals with latent construction defects, that is construction problems that do not appear during a normal warranty period.  This law of course, covers our homes, but it also covers all of the infrastructure, walls, buildings, etc., built during development of Sun City Anthem.

Over the last few months, Edward Song of Leach, Johnson, Song & Gruchow reviewed all of our common properties and prepared a white paper detailing their “placed in service” dates.  (This is the date the clock starts for warranties.)  After presenting his report for Board review, Ed suggested that the Board follow up on his report by meeting with an attorney who specializes in construction defect law for homeowner’s associations.

During our Executive Session at the April meeting, the Board met with Roger Grant, a construction defect attorney, to discuss what we should do to prepare for the end of Nevada’s construction defect warranty period.  This statute allows for repair of latent construction defects for up to ten years after a structure is placed in service.  Because some of our common properties including retaining walls and villas are approaching their tenth anniversaries, we have asked an architect and civil engineer to do an initial review of some of our properties.  We are now contacting Villa owners to ask if any of them are willing to become test cases for an architect’s evaluation.

In addition to common properties, many of our first homes are approaching their tenth anniversary.  All of us who own these first homes are aware of the KITEC situation, and some have also discovered some tile and concrete pad problems.  As a matter of fact, I recently pulled back my great-room carpet to discover some troubling cracks in my concrete pad.  Our attorney, Ed Song of Leach Johnson Song and Gruchow, has suggested that those who may be experiencing unrepaired concrete pad problems should contact Harrison, Kemp, Jones, and Coulthard or Lynch, Hopper, and Salzano to discuss these problems.  There are also other attorneys who handle construction defects that you may want to contact.  I have prepared a Board President’s email report which is available on our website and which has contact information for these attorneys.

Many of you are familiar with Randall Jones and Bill Coulthard from the KITEC meeting last December.   In the interest of full disclosure, I contacted Mr. Jones to assure that my problems are adequately addressed.  The important thing is that everyone addresses potential construction problems before the statute of limitations expires.  Once ten years have elapsed, homeowners are no longer protected.

The contact information for these attorneys is:

[Unsigned]