Fla. homeowners walk away from homes with tainted drywall

ShareThis

VERO LAKE ESTATES, Fla. - Within the first six months of buying their new Vero Lake Estates home in 2007, the air conditioning unit in Bradley and Alyse Simons home mysteriously stopped working.

Shortly after that, the couple began to experience nosebleeds, stinging in their eyes and sensed a foul odor in their single-family home. They soon started coughing up blood and noticed certain fixtures in the home were showing signs of corrosion.

"We lived without air conditioning for six months because (repair companies) would try to repair it and replace the parts, but it never got fixed," Bradley Simons said. "They replaced five different parts and the coils, twice."

Like hundreds of other homeowners on Florida's Treasure Coast, the Simons' life has been disrupted by the imported toxic wallboard. Chinese drywall has destroyed home values in some communities and others say it has caused serious health issues for those who unknowingly spent their life's savings on a house built with Chinese drywall.

According to a database obtained by Scripps Howard News Service from the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, about 166 Chinese drywall complaints have originated from the Treasure Coast including 53 from Indian River County, 90 from St. Lucie County and 23 from Martin County.

Among the most serious complaints in the documents are those of an elderly Vero Beach man attributing his double pneumonia and lung problems to Chinese drywall in his home and from the parents of a 2 1/2-year-old Vero Beach boy who claim he developed asthma and had pneumonia twice because of the toxic imported wallboard. An Indian River County woman also claims to have been diagnosed with lung cancer after discovering Chinese drywall in her home.

Scripps Howard News Service found that five deaths are listed in the documents as a result of complaints received concerning deaths of people who had connections to tainted drywall in homes in Louisiana and four in other regions of Florida. The deaths were primarily among elderly and young people with already existing medical problems.

Dreams the newly married Simons had of raising a family in the home quickly turned into a nightmare when they confirmed their new $170,000 Mercedes Homes residence was built with Chinese drywall.

"I called Mercedes Homes as soon as I found out and asked for help, but they said they were in bankruptcy and weren't liable for anything," said Bradley Simons, 28. "It was pretty upsetting because we only lived in the home for a year."

Mercedes Homes did not return calls for comment.

On Valentine's Day 2009, the Simons found out they were expecting their first child and decided it was too risky to stay in the home with no studies available on the health risks of Chinese drywall and pregnant women. They spent time with both sets of their parents but ended up staying with Alyse's parents, where the couple now live in Vero Beach.

The couple, who are in the process of moving, also filed a complaint with the CPSC, the lead agency responsible for nationwide drywall complaints.

Six months later, their home insurance company notified them their Chinese drywall claim had been denied and the family's lender, U.S. Bancorp, showed no signs of forgiving the loan despite the couple continuing to pay the $1,500 mortgage.

"Our insurance denied it because it wasn't mold," Simons said. "The bank acted like they didn't know anything about Chinese drywall and said they couldn't help us because we were current."

U.S. Bancorp did not return calls.

Simons said he expected to hear back from the CPSC, but the agency never acknowledged his complaint.

The CPSC has not responded to questions concerning how the agency is handling complaints nationwide and on the Treasure Coast.

After more than six months of a hopeless search for answers, the couple decided to sacrifice their good credit and stop paying the mortgage.

"It's like none of them cared about us," Simons said referring to the CPSC, Mercedes Homes, his lender and insurer. "If it weren't for our family, I don't know what we would have done."

That sentiment has led Treasure Coast homeowners with Chinese drywall to deal with the problem in a variety of ways.

Dozens are taking their builders and drywall manufacturers to court.

Some, like the Simons, are simply walking away from homes, risking foreclosure, while some homeowners are considering paying for expensive repair procedures that promise to fix the drywall problems and salvage the home. Some more fortunate homeowners have received assistance from their builders but others continue to live in the homes and pay the mortgage despite the possibility of health risks because they don't have the money to pay rent at an apartment and a mortgage.

Manuel Comras, an attorney with the West Palm Beach law firm of McIntosh, Sawran, Peltz & Cartaya, represents about a dozen homeowners at The Promenade in Port St. Lucie-based Tradition who have Chinese drywall and are suing their builder Centerline Homes. He said most of his clients saw litigation as a last resort to dealing with the Chinese drywall and they only turned to the law when they felt abandoned by builders and developers and couldn't get any answers from the state and federal government on how to handle the problem.

"These homes are worth next to nothing now and nobody has been given real guidance on remediation," Comras said.