I just listened to a story on WBEZ 91.5 (Chicago Public Radio) about numerous Chicago homeowners facing huge repair bills for their homes constructed with decorative split-face concrete block that wasn’t installed correctly.
Even through City of Chicago inspectors had approved the construction, the homeowners are on the hook for repairs since they now own the buildings, not the developers. Many of the homes with incorrectly installed split-face concrete block are leaking. Mold is developing in some of the homes.
To listen to the story or read the text, visit “Moldy Metropolis: Homeowners Struggle with Leaky Concrete“.
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Does anyone know of a class action lawsuite initiative? Chicago approved the use of this porous material, while other municipalities like Oak Park banned its use.
Unfortunately, there is no easy or inexpensive solution to make owners of these buildings whole. I am a state licensed home inspector and thermographer and have seen hundreds of these uildings in the last 8 years. The facts area:
1) These type of buildings should never have been built in the Chicago area. Building a single wythe masonry wall in this area is just plain nuts.
2) The City has been under funded and the building dept undermanned for years. Illinois Appealate court rulings (based upon the back porch collapses) state that municipal code inspectors have absolutely not liability. As Mayor Daley stated, the responsibility to build in accordance with the code is the general contractors, not the city’s.
3) Calling the building dept of the Alderman will only result in a code violation citation, with the building owners named, not the General Contractor. You own it, now, and you are responsible. If you live in a condo with multiple members, do not look for the other condo owners to want to pay for water problems that only one or two members are having. That conflict, in itself, is a legal mess.
4) The general contractors rarely stick around long enough to actually be sued. They, usually, form LLCs for the construction and dissolve them as soon as transition has taken place. Many move out of town (or out of the country) when they start to see problems coming.
5) Unfortunately, the Architect who designed the building will wind up getting the biggest hit. Many times, the builder just used the Architect to get a stamp on the plans to get the city to appeve the permit, but the Architect is still on the hook because the code requires him to supervise the construction (which most never do). But, the law is the law, and the Architect will be left holding the bag.
6) In any case, the owners will have to shell out a great deal of money, whether for repairs or legal fees.
Just the truth.
See more about this problem here: http://deckerhomeservices.com/Construction_white_papers.htm
Hope this helps;