Actor Tom Hanks has lost his dispute based on construction defects in a house that he had purchased. An arbitration panel has turned down a bid by Hanks and his wife for financial compensation.
According to Hanks, he and his wife had purchased a $10 million home in Sun Valley, Idaho. Soon after, they found that the home contained a number of construction flaws of the kind that Encino construction defect attorneys often see. These included a heavily leaking roof, and severe drainage problems. The damage was so bad that the roof nearly collapsed after the house was completed in 2002. The couple claimed $3 million in damages for these construction defects.
An arbitration panel has now cleared the contractor of liability. The construction defects in the house were acknowledged by the panel which found leaking roofs, drainage problems, poor venting in the fireplaces as well as a shoddy ventilation system. The panel found enough evidence to indicate that most of the problems were caused because the architecture and structural plans were badly designed and poorly implemented.
According to the panel, however, the contractor, Storey Construction, was not responsible for the flaws. The construction defects were the result of inferior design, poor construction and engineering advice by the architects of the home. The Hanks have already settled with the architects, Lake|Flato Architects Inc. in Texas for more than $900,000.
However, the construction panel sided with Hanks in rejecting a counterclaim filed by Storey Construction. According to that claim, the star couple acted with malice in their lawsuit against Storey Construction.
In California, construction defect attorneys often come across cases where homeowners find defects because lots have not been properly compacted, leading to drainage problems. This problem is especially severe in Southern California which tends to have expansive soil. Apart from this, common construction defects include roofing leakages, bad implementation of architecture and structural plans, poor quality building materials, poor workmanship and finish, and electrical wiring problems.
