Builder transition problems (New Jersey)

Hi Everyone,

I am a new board member of our community in New Jersey. For last many years our development is under Builder transition and things have become so complicated that no one has energy to complete the transition. Mean time Builder is seating relaxed and our lawyer charges us every month fees. At the end homeowners are losing lot of money. This is just to give an idea of frustration.

Now facts – There is 10 years warranty after new development but our builder stopped looking into problems after 3 or 4 years…we keep asking him, he never took care or issues. Now after 11 years our builder transition has not been completed. Mean time we (association) has been paying for all important fix.

We did engineering report on the issues.

We are in mediation process. So our lawyer and builder’s lawyer talk so in last meeting we gave our engineering report plus cost of cure to builder’s lawyer.

Now things are not moving. Builder doesn’t respond according to our lawyer and our lawyer is asking may be we should lawsuit the builder.

We have already spent so much money in all fix, engineer report, mediation, lawyer fees and this lawsuit will cost us more.
We like to know your suggestions and I have few questions..

a) Is there any legal time limit for builder to complete the transition because if there, then we can wait until he has no choice to talk to us?
b) Should we go for lawsuit so that we know at least it will be done one day?

This builder has done many code violations and he is builder new development right one mile from our development.

Thanks for your help,
AK

You can file a "Mechanics lien" against the builder. Which is a bit stronger legal instrument than just a lawsuit. Ask your lawyer about filing that mechanic's lien and see his reaction... You may not be as dependent on that lawyer as you were...