DATE: Saturday, June 28, 1997               TAG: 9706260255

SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY      PAGE: 09   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY D.W. PAGE, ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   49 lines

BUILDERS GET BREAK ON DEFECTS

Homeowners will have two years to charge builders with shoddy workmanship and force them to return to fix defects, the state Board of Housing and Community Development has decided.

Until the recent decision, there was no limit to how long house buyers could wait before they could file misdemeanor charges against contractors of violating the building code.

The new policy will go into effect Aug. 20.

Builders had complained that it was unfair to subject them to prosecution indefinitely because state law set a two-year statute of limitations on such charges.

Home buyers, however, remain free to sue builders over substandard work with no time limit, and the board strengthened their position by voting to give consumers access to the documents they need to win in civil court.

The board voted to require that county inspectors document all building code violations, no matter how long after construction they are discovered.

``This is a powerful instrument,'' said Stephen T. Seldon of Homeowners for Better Building, a Chesterfield County group of homeowners at odds with contractors and building inspectors over code enforcement. ``This gives the homeowner a piece of paper that shows there is a problem, a piece of paper the homeowner can take to court.''

Homeowner rights groups had complained that it was difficult to get building inspectors to cite builders for code violations after two years had passed. Inspectors refused to issue citations because of the statute of limitations.

The Virginia Association of Homebuilders said it could live with the board's actions.

``Hopefully, there will be some type of finalization to building code violation for a builder,'' said Dick Covert, the association's executive vice president.

Covert said the documentation will require the building inspector to prove the defect was the fault of the builder. Often a late appearing problem is not the fault of the contractor. For example, a drainage problem may be the result of the later building on an adjoining lot and not the result of the original contractor's poor grading, he said.

``There are a number of examples of problems caused by the owner altering the house themselves. The inspector can look at the original inspection and see where the problem lies,'' Covert said.

Seldon and others say they will continue to work for a longer statute of limitations on building code violations.

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