[kokoa1117]

Hello, I am new and have a terrible problem.
My husband and I decided to build our first home. It is beautiful, just don't look too close. We have LOTS wrong with the house - unsafe deck, hundreds of nail-pops, uneven settling, cracks EVERYWHERE. Lucky for us (sarcasm) - the builder is out of business just a few weeks after the house was done (leaving us with mechanics leins and lawsuits!). I can deal with everything BUT our foundation is now cracked from the top to the bottom and there is water damage. The insulation got wet and who KNOWS whats growing now. A second crack has begun to form. And on top of it all - I have a little girl. I can't have her on the deck, I am scared about the air quality with wet insulation and maybe mold?

What can i do about the crack? Is there a way for me to temp patch it somehow? I have estimates that bring tears of pain to my eyes there are so many Zero's.

Please, any advice for anything listed would be amazing. Trying to raise a family and deal with this is very draining. Building a 'dream' house has become my nightmare.

Thank you to anyone who can help.

 

[Ron6519]

The picture is a little small. Can't really see the crack.
I take it the outside of the foundation wasn't sealed?
How wide is the crack?
Is it all in the same plane(like a wall)? Or is it offset?
I don't understand," I can't have her on the deck, I am scared about the air quality with wet insulation and maybe mold?"
What does the outside deck have to do with an interior foundation crack?

 

[user1007]

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Obviously you need a good attorney at this point and I would shoot digital pics for record whenever you thought of doing so.

My parents faced a similar situation on a custom built home in Northern California. It not their dream home but a really nice home. The owners/buyers bailed on the GC at 11th hour leaving him holding construction loans and of course owing all his subs at least final payments. He ended up going under and of course the subs tried to recover liens and payments from my folks. Turns out they had no real obligation to anybody so all got what was escrowed and sitting in title. Work on the home was stellar so at least my parents did not have that to worry about.

 

[kokoa1117]

Thanks so much for the replys. I took some photos and did a thorough walk around the house only to discover 5 more cracks in the foundation down to the basement and it looks wet behind the electrical box? The concrete is a dark circle behind the corner of the box. I am having someone come to do an estimate. One company already told me I need to redig and redo around all three sides of the house. I have desperately tried to contact lawyers, ins company and the city with no luck. Construction litigation is a very gray area and all the cases I read had no good outcomes. I just can't believe in all that massive paperwork we signed there is no protection for buyers. Has anyone had luck? Who do I go to next? All the responses have been great and sincerely appreciated.

 

[user1007]

Where are you located?

No matter I guess. You might try your State Attorney General and specifically the section that deals with consumer issues related to contractors and contractor issues.

Did you use an attorney for closing on this? Would they be a starting point for you? If things were falsified for closing their may be criminal charges possible. This helps you not at all in getting things rectified of course.

If you haven't already, you should probably file against the bankruptcy in case there are any assets hiding in escrow or otherwise.

If you still have trouble finding legal counsel, you might do some digging to see who is counsel on record for the subs trying to get something out of this? Or risk undo attention and pulling the lid on Pandora's box you could ask your bank or the title company involved in this for a list of recommendations.

Sadly this is one of those situations that could turn into a legal quagmire-blackhole-of-a-money-pit where a fortune could be spent on legal crap that you need to get your house fixed.