Buying a house from KB Home has caused problems for thousands of people in Florida, state officials said.
The home builder has spent $77 million to fix shoddy and defective construction repairs at 1,688 houses the Florida Attorney General's Office said were built wrong in the first place. Now a settlement KB Home reached with the Florida Attorney General's Office shows it owes more money to fix the mess.
“This was my first home," Crystal Adamson said. "I am a first time home buyer, a young professional. it is supposed to be the American Dream…right? And, it has been a nightmare over the past five years.”
Adamson bought a home in the Willowbrook community in Lakewood Ranch in 2009. A few months after her purchase, Adamson said the house starting falling apart, literally.
“I noticed carpet in the upstairs bedroom was wet. It looked like there was pollen on the carpet,” Adamson said. “Over a few days it progressively got much larger, and I lifted up the carpet and I found all of this mold underneath.
"We found out that all of the wood, all of the structure was wet and moldy. There was a hole in my master bedroom. Literally, if you walked on top of it at the right spot you could fall through to my dining room.”
Adamson said only recently did KB Home fix all of the damage.
ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska asked Adamson if she could remember all of the defective construction that needed to be replaced.
“My entire house, my entire house,” Adamson said. “I am not angry… I am disgusted. I had to pay rent somewhere else to live and they told me they would reimburse me, so I ended up paying out of pocket for that on top of having to pay for my mortgage and HOA even though I wasn't staying here.”
According to the state Attorney General's Office, KB Home owes the sm $6.5 million as part of the settlement. It will “pay restitution, including out-of-pocket expenses for homeowners who have incurred expenses as a result of construction defects and construction repair work, as well as to pay the costs of investigation and settlement administration.”
Adamson said she will believe it when she sees it.
“I feel like personally I have been promised so many things by KB homes and nothing has come to fruition so it almost means nothing,” Adamson said. “It would be nice if some of that money would go to the homeowners, not only to pay for the expenses while we have been displaced, but also just as restitution.”
To apply for restitution, homeowners may download and complete a claim form found at Florida-AG-KBSettlement.com or may contact the claims administrator, A.B. Data, Ltd., at 1(888) 210-5486. http://www.florida-ag-kbsettlement.com
To view the consent decree and final judgment, click http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/KMAN-A72KW7/$file/KB+Stipulated+Consent+Decree+&+Final+Judgment_Signed.pdf
To view the complaint, click http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/KMAN-A72KYA/$file/KB+Home+Complaint.pdf.
To view frequently asked questions, click http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/KMAN-A72KXN/$file/KB+FAQ.pdf.
