Insurance Dispute Lawyer Blog

The lead-up to Wednesday’s summit on Chinese drywall in China has been looked forward to by many as a great chance for headway to be made on rectifying the faulty wallboard installed in people’s homes and getting these families into safe homes. While some may be optimistic, others remain doubtful any changes or productive resolutions will come out of the forum.

The Fort Myers News-Press reports

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Orlando, who has led the congressional charge to tackle the problem, isn’t expecting any answers from the summit.

Also emerging from Friday was Florida Senator Bill Nelson’s call for the federal government to help provide funds necessary to remove Chinese drywall from those homes it was installed in this decade. Moving to continue the federal government’s recent movement towards helping those with the toxic wallboard installed and build momentum against the Chinese companies who sold the product is a resounding success. Further, the move by Nelson demonstrates yet another section of the United States government working to make change.

In a letter sent late Friday to state House and Senate leaders, the Florida Democrat -[Bill Nelson] asks lawmakers to adopt a program like one in Louisiana that sets aside $5 million in Community Development Block Grants to help homeowners affected by toxic, corrosive drywall.

“Defective Chinese drywall is ruining the health and lives of countless Floridians,” Nelson says in the letter, noting that several insurers have dropped policyholders whose homes contain the defective drywall.

News coming out of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal is extremely encouraging for those families suffering with Chinese drywall:

The new chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission said she would ask China to help pay for the billions of dollars in damage to U.S. homes blamed on Chinese-made drywall.

“I will find out if any discussions are going on in China about the costs, are they prepared to participate in providing funds, and what would it take for that to occur,” CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum said in an interview ahead of a trip to China next week for a biennial U.S.-China consumer product safety summit.

A quick news bit that emerged yesterday regarding the current pre-trial matters being conducted in New Orleans regarding Chinese drywall and liability is worth a read. U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon denied a motion to shift the discovery for litigation involving the faulty wallboard to the international supervision of the Hague.

Rebecca Mowbray of the Times-Picayune reports

U.S. District Court Judge Eldon Fallon denied a motion Thursday by the German company Knauf Gips to conduct discovery in the Chinese drywall litigation under the rules of international litigation in the Hague.

With the market bottomed out on homes with Chinese drywall, some have chosen to invest in the faulty homes hoping to turn a profit. While most homeowners are running from these dwellings built with faulty wallboard, certain investors believe something salvageable remains and are taking the risk while buying homes at 40% (or below) their market value. Approximately 30 homes disclosed to have Chinese drywall have sold in Naples alone.

The Naples News reports

William Floyd, who owns a property management company in Fort Myers, bought one drywall home in Cape Coral after vetting it for building components he thought would make the home salvageable.

The New York Times last week published an interesting piece outlining the Chinese drywall problem and the angles in which it stands as important. What more, the NYT article focuses on the health ailments emerging from those who live in the homes. Profiling one homeowner that fits the profile of many homeowners facing the toxic wallboard plight, the piece, two pages, is a solid read for people who know little, or even know a lot, about the Chinese drywall matter.

“My house is not worth the land it’s built on,” said Mr. Morgan, who could not maintain the mortgage payments on his $383,000 home in a Williamsburg subdivision called Wellington Estates and the costs of a rental property where his family decamped.

Mr. Morgan, like many other American homebuyers who tell similar tales of woe, is blaming the drywall in his new home — specifically, drywall from China, imported during the housing boom to meet heavy demand — that he says is contaminated with various sulfur compounds.

In an effort to shore up support for those who have Chinese drywall in their homes, senators from several states have called for FEMA assistance to be offered to those with the toxic wallboard installed. FEMA, an acronym for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was a bit part of the recovery effort carried out in New Orleans and responds to disasters nationwide.

The involvement of FEMA in the matter would be a huge step towards opening up funding to remove and replace Chinese drywall in homes where the owners might not have enough funds to take action. What’s more, it would be a compelling acknowledgment of the problems the wallboard causes by the government and could prove to be an important step towards changing the situation.

The Chinese drywall crisis has prompted a group of U.S. Senators to call on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help homeowners. The group wants FEMA to provide rental assistance to people who have had to leave their homes because of tainted Chinese drywall.

A couple weeks ago the Louisiana Recovery Authority set aside $5 million dollars for assistance to residents who are suffering through Chinese drywall in their homes. This is an important step in the right direction towards the removal and replacement of the toxic wallboard. The Times-Picayune reports

LRA Executive Director Paul Rainwater said the authority’s staff will now design a program and make it available for public comment. The details of the application process, eligibility requirements and how the program would work are all still being developed, he said.

“You’re not even in the batter’s box, you’re still in the dugout talking about this thing,” Rainwater said in describing the status of the program’s implementation.

A couple weeks ago the Louisiana Recovery Authority set aside $5 million dollars for assistance to residents who are suffering through Chinese drywall in their homes. This is an important step in the right direction towards the removal and replacement of the toxic wallboard. The Times-Picayune reports

LRA Executive Director Paul Rainwater said the authority’s staff will now design a program and make it available for public comment. The details of the application process, eligibility requirements and how the program would work are all still being developed, he said.

“You’re not even in the batter’s box, you’re still in the dugout talking about this thing,” Rainwater said in describing the status of the program’s implementation.