Board monitoring defect bills

Jennifer Shubinski

Wednesday, May 7, 2003 | 11:25 a.m.

Members of the Nevada State Contractors Board will be in Carson City today and Thursday to watch the progress of legislative bills, including proposed construction defect legislation.

The seven-member board decided Tuesday it would continue to not take a position on the controversial Senate Bill 241, which would change the requirements for people filing construction defect lawsuits.

The board agreed to continue to monitor the bill, which has been through several revisions.

"We don't need to take a position, but we should be there to absorb which direction this is going," Michael Zech, chairman of the Contractors Board, said.

The bill passed the Senate last month, and will be heard by the Assembly Judiciary Committee Thursday.

When the construction defect bill was first introduced, the board had concerns about its proposed role as a mediating body between home builders and residents, as outlined in the bill.

Under the proposed law, homeowners with a dispute over construction defects or repairs must first go to the Contractors Board before a case can be brought to court.

The fiscal impact of the bill on the State Contractors Board has not been determined.

The board also will be monitoring Senate Bill 371, which if passed, would create a construction defect commission. The Senate Finance Committee heard testimony on the bill Monday and took no action.

The proposed commission would use funds from a recovery fund, collected from contractors, to pay for claims brought before the commission. The State Contractors Board already has a Recovery Fund in place that provides compensation to homeowners who have exhausted all means of recovery against an egregious contractor.

"They would like to use the (State Contractors Board) Recovery Fund to pay for the commission," Jay Parmer, a lobbyist for the board said Tuesday. "The commission would be judge, jury and executioner."

Parmer told the board that there will probably be significant changes to the bill, which currently duplicates much of SB 241.