Comments on: It is time to abolish the ineffective Texas Residential Construction Commission

By: Wayne Caswell

Wayne Caswell — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:14:13 +0000

Homeowners of Texas (HOT) is a nonprofit working to protect people from corporate abuse in the home building industry. We weree directly responsible for convincing lawmakers to abolish the TRCC in the 2009 legislative session. During that timeframe, two consumer advocacy groups (HOBB & Texas Watch) abandoned the fight to shut down the agency and instead “negotiated with the builders” and supported a Sunset bill that would have extended the TRCC for 6 more years while making the agency much worse for homeowners. The bill was deceptively written, and we still don’t know if they were duped and too naive or incompetent to see through the deception or if they had other motives.

HOT also worked with the Texas Society of Professional Engineers to get a law passed that will help eliminate foundation problems. It requires engineered foundations for homes built on expansive soil, but it needs to be strengthened with noncompliance penalties in the next session.

By: What would Daniel Boone do? The dilemma of imposing state regulations to improve housing in Texas colonias « Texas housers

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:10:22 +0000

[...] builders to construct residential units in compliance with the residential building code. For good reasons this year the Texas Legislature abolished the TRCC and with it the imposition of the statewide [...]

By: What would Daniel Boone do? The dilemma of imposing state regulations to improve housing in Texas colonias « Texas housers

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:21:16 +0000

[...] builders to construct residential units in compliance with the residential building code. For good reasons to Texas Legislature abolished the TRCC and with it the imposition of the statewide residential [...]

By: Changes to TX Residential Construction Commission do not fix the problem « Texas housers

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:05:33 +0000

[...] to TX Residential Construction Commission do not fix the problem In an earlier posting I applauded the decision of the Texas Sunset Commission staff to recommend the abolition of the [...]

By: Cindy

Cindy — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:20:17 +0000

I am a volunteer for a consumer org that gets thousands of builder complaints and inquiries a year. (Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings, hadd.com) This is a national epidemic, and many states’ builders hope for an agency like the TRCC to protect them. A few years ago Texas Comptroller Carol Strayhorn also said the TRCC should go, that it was a builder protection agency.

I have gone to my own state’s capitol to speak at committee meetings and was an invited panel member on a legislative task force. From what I’ve seen, the builders’ lobbyists bring no proof of their claims but frequently get what they want from our elected officials. Are they just paying for it, or is it more complex? I’ve seen the rare homeowner show up, usually with documentary evidence proving what they’re saying, to show that builders are getting away with shoddy construction. MORE homeowners need to make time to do that. As long as only a rare person occasionally goes, the builders can keep saying all these cases are “isolated incidents.”