Homeowners Associations and Planned Communities and Construction Defects

Tract Housing Defects

Tract housing is usually constructed in phases, therefore, there is a potential that someone's house and their neighbor, and their other neighbor, and so on, will experience the same construction defects also known as tract housing defects. What may differ is the degree of the severity of the construction defect and the timeline of the occurrences. It does not mean that every phase of the development will experience the same tract housing defects if any. But what it does mean is the houses built within the same phase will have similar issues, with some exceptions. These can be, but not limited to issues with soil, structure integrity, mechanical, plumbing, or electrical issues.

Soil and Landfill Problems

A landfill is known as a dump, a location for disposable waste management. Landfills can also be used for temporary storage, consolidation, or processing of waste material. A landfill can also be filled with soil and rocks so it can be used for building houses. Unless this land is properly prepared, these areas can experience dramatic shifting or erosion in a large earthquake. Soil and landfill problems can become severe to its neighboring areas. Theses soil and landfill problems can cause infrastructure damage from the heavy vehicles that go to and from the landfill and fatal accidents to birds that are buried in the piles of waste. Even more damaging is the contamination of groundwater as well as the soil that surrounds it. In general, a well-run landfill can be a hygienic environment.

Geological Failures

There are a wide variety of defects that fall under the category of geological failures. Examples of such geological failures can be the clay that forms from weathered limestone, overly steep slopes made of clay that can cause the destruction of a house, or a leaking lake that was built on limestone. No one can predict if a geological failure will occur let alone where it will occur and how severe it will be. However, since the technology exists today, builders and developers should have the knowledge and skills to at least prepare for any potential geological failure.

Community Planning Errors

Many local governments are looking into implementation of long-term community planning. The goal is to decrease the potential of growth problems, environmental problems and land use problems. Community planning includes a lot of land analysis that will make developers aware of natural resource issues early on. With this insight, they can devise and require appropriate construction strategies that take into consideration what type of land they are dealing with, i.e. soil type. Not all communities create such plans and even those that do have community planning errors. This planning stage can be rushed or poorly managed resulting in such community planning errors and in turn, developers do not have the accurate knowledge of the land they are about to build on.

Concerns impacting homeowners associations and planned communities can be quite overwhelming. Whether you are dealing with tract housing defects, soil and landfill problems, geological failures, or community planning errors, contact an attorney that can help make these concerns easier to manage.