Does Texas Do Enough To Hold Home Builders Accountable For Construction Defects?

When you buy a brand new house in a development or hire a construction company to erect your dream home, you expect the finished products to meet your standards. Unfortunately, for a small percentage of prospective owners, there will be a construction defect diminishing the value of their property and their comfort or safety while living there.

It is common for people to assume that they can immediately pursue legal action against the home builder for issues with their property, but that is not always the case. Some homeowners will find that Texas does not do enough to protect their rights.

Those claiming defects may have an uphill battle

To secure compensation for a property defect, you will either need to convince an insurance company or a civil law judge that the company is responsible for the defect in the property. For example, you may need to gather information about the materials that they used for construction and then compare them with the current industry standards to show that they were cutting corners at the expense of their customers.

There are certain situations in which you may not be able to bring a claim against the construction company at all. Texas recently changed its laws on the matter to prevent homeowners from making a claim against the home builder when the owner designed the property. Individuals designing their dream homes frequently give their own designs to the company, but they depend on those businesses to honestly evaluate their plans and review them for possible issues.

Historically, if the contract didn’t explicitly exempt the home builder from liability, the client could sue if their design had a defect that affected the home later. Now that Texas has changed the law, such lawsuits may no longer be an option for homeowners who wanted to design a dream house and then turn that design into a reality with the help of a home builder.

While it can be a challenge to take action after a construction company turns out a substandard product, fighting that is often crucial for the homeowners who have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in a problematic property. Learning more about the laws for Texas construction projects and real estate law will help you push for an appropriate resolution when a new home or construction project has defects that impact the value or usefulness of the finished product.