Arizona Homeowners’ Bill of Rights Qualifies for Ballot

Terry and Mary Landa, homeowners from Goodyear, Ariz., speaking in support of the Homeowners’ Bill of Rights.

Robert Masciola, deputy director of the AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Research, describes how an initiative that qualified for the November ballot would benefit Arizona homeowners. 

In December 2007, the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) Local 359 filed paperwork with the Arizona Secretary of State to form the Arizona Homeowners’ Bill of Rights Committee. The goals were clear:  Provide homeowners with improved rights to deal with construction defects and shady home sales practices. 

Yesterday, at a press conference at the Arizona Secretary of State’s office, the committee presented petitions with more than 260,000 signatures to the state to allow Arizona voters to determine the outcome of this issue in the fall.

Dion Abril, committee chairman, said:

Current Arizona law, passed in 2002, radically changed the rights of buyers in favor of builders and simply does not give buyers any reasonable degree of protection against deceptive sales practices and construction defects. There is a real problem and this is a real solution put forward by homeowners, not politicians.   

If passed, the new initiative will place Arizona homeowners in a much better position to hold builders accountable for the quality of their work. 

The initiative, which received the strong support of the Arizona AFL-CIO, would create a Bill of Rights for Arizona homeowners, providing a 10-year warranty on new homes. In addition, homeowners would have the right to demand either the builder correct construction defects or compensate the homeowner. Homeowners also could participate in the selection of contractors to perform the repair work. 

The initiative provides that homeowners can sue if the builder does not offer sufficient remedies and removes the threat of being liable for the builder’s attorney and expert fees while allowing the homeowner to recover these costs. Homeowners whom builders have subjected to emotional distress or great inconvenience can recover for these areas as well. The initiative also adds new protections in the home-buying process.

What made the 2002 law particularly onerous to new homeowners is that if a case went to court, the prevailing side was awarded fees for attorneys, experts and other reasonable expenses. Because of this aspect of the law, any new homeowner would almost need to be 100 percent certain of victory. Otherwise, filing suit could potentially be quite costly.

Builders pressured the Arizona Legislature to pass this law. They claimed to be seeking relief from class-action suits filed against them. But many argued the real problem was not the lawsuits but the shoddy construction promoting those suits, and that legislators should have been cautious about limiting what is too often the only way for homeowners to get problems fixed.

Given their vested interest in the 2002 law, the building industry is fighting this pro-consumer Homeowners’ Bill of Rights. On June 23, the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona formed a committee to defeat the proposal claiming it would increase costly litigation.

One easy way for builders to stay out of court is to build high-quality homes and either correct construction defects or compensate homeowners. According to Don Lathem, treasurer of the committee:

This initiative will give buyers better rights to deal with construction defects and for a longer time after buying their homes. We knew that this would be popular with ordinary, hard-working Arizonans. The success of the signature-gathering has proved that.  It will be proved again at the polls.

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