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twitterUnion group part of lawsuit over home prices
Saturday, May 9, 2009 | 12:45 p.m.
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A union trying to organize construction workers helped put together a lawsuit accusing KB Home and Countrywide Financial of inflating home values and appraisals in Nevada and Arizona, a union spokeswoman said Saturday.
The plaintiffs in the suit, which was filed in Arizona, are members of the Alliance for Home Buyer Justice, a group that has been agitating against KB Home, Pulte Homes, Lennar Homes and D.R. Horton -- all builders active in Las Vegas. The alliance was created by the Laborers’ International Union of North America.
Laborers’ Union spokeswoman Dawn Page said the union and the alliance did the research for the lawsuit and that the law firm handling the case is doing so on a contingency fee basis, meaning the union, the alliance and the homeowner plaintiffs didn’t pay the law firm up front for its work.
A news release issued Thursday by the plaintiffs’ law firm didn’t disclose the participation of the union or the Alliance for Home Buyer Justice. The law firm, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, has offices in Phoenix and Seattle.
Page said the union and the alliance have been working with homebuyers in Southern California and Phoenix who were hurt by subprime loans and may also work with similar buyers in Las Vegas as well.
She said the lawsuit was not part of a union organizing campaign, but that in the future as the economy improves the union would like to represent workers who build houses.
On Tuesday, the Laborers’ union and the alliance plan an event at the Builder 100 Conference in Chicago to protest Pulte Chief Executive Officer Richard Dugas being awarded homebuilder “Executive of the Year.”
"The corporation’s customers might think differently, according to a group of Pulte homeowners who allege that the company relied on deceptive practices to push buyers into subprime loans and other risky mortgages. They also allege serious defects in homes built by Pulte," the union said.
Pulte and its Del Webb subsidiary in the Las Vegas area have previously denied union organizers’ allegations of defects in its homes.
Pulte is buying Centex Homes, another builder active in Las Vegas.
The Laborers’ union’s campaign targeting homebuilders says on its Web site:
"Nearly 1 million working men and women labor each day building America’s houses. At the hands of corporate homebuilders, they face unsafe working conditions, substandard pay and exploitation.
"Denied the most basic dignity and rights, LIUNA is helping residential construction workers unite for better lives. Working with homebuyers and community, civic and faith groups, those who build America’s houses will win living wages, safer job sites and quality construction skills – and homebuyers will know they are making a life investment in a home, not just a house that denies the American Dream to others.
"The historic effort has begun among thousands of hard-working men and women in metro Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas."
Pulte Homes was targeted in Southern Nevada by a different group of union organizers in March. The Building Justice campaign -- a partnership of the International Union of Painters and the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, with the support of the AFL-CIO -- organized a protest against Pulte during a Nevada State Contractors Board meeting in Henderson in March.
In the Countrywide and KB Home case, the law firm said Thursday it filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Arizona seeking class-action status against KB Home, Countrywide Financial and LandSafe Appraisal Services, claiming the three conspired to illegally rig home appraisals in KB developments in an effort to boost home values and sales prices.
The suit claims KB and the other defendants inflated home prices by as much as $280 million in Arizona and Nevada alone during a three-year period beginning in 2005.
KB Home and Bank of America, which now owns Countrywide, have denied the allegations.
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There is no intimidation from unions. Let us take part of the employees pay in Dues for Dems or we will do everything we can to destroy your company. When the mob did this it was called extortion. Today it is just empowering the people. They are all hoodlums no matter how you tell the story.
C'mon the builders don't have any money to get. This lawsuit is 3 years too late. Most of the builders are BK or on the verge of it. This will just put them over the edge, causing more people to be out of work. Nice job labor union!
Active home builders in Lost Wages....LOL
This will go nowhere. Summary judgement in favor of the defendants.
Goingbust is right. The Federal Judiciary is bought by the $pecial interest$. All the proof that you might want from official judicial and government records at www DOT drhortonsjudges DOT info. Five federal judges, one state judge, a Nevada commissioner, a cover up by HUD, 600 defrauded consumer declarations..... a few thousand records.
More stupidity from neiman1. he seems to forget the settlement by builders who used faulty plumbing products and wanted to leave thousands of homeowners with huge replumbing bills. Of course anyone who has purchased a home in Las vegas is aware that the builder requires(illegally) the homebuyer to use their appraiser and mortgage company, and not one of the homebuyers choice. Anyone with a brain would know that is what this law suit is about. Anyone has the right to join the suit and help with discovery. Most of the posters here have never purchased a home and are ignorant of the deception involved in the process. for instance a home buyer is prohibited from using a professional inspector during the walk through. I wonder why a legitimate home builder would not want a professional to accomany a homebuyer during the walk through? It is obvious.
Of course everyone is a gangster to neiman who still lives with his parents, never had a real job and spends the largest part of his day reading fiction and skateboarding.neiman1 a real piece of work.
neiman1 the real hoodlums were the enablers of the financial world who encouraged subprime loans. In 2002 Bush encouraged easier loans for people with questionable credit,and in 2004 Greenspan encouraged Wall Street to help find products for people with questionable credit to buy homes.
Lets not forget The Commodity Furtures Modernization Act of 2000 sponsored by Phil Gramm and Richard Lugar. Of course McCain was right on board with his deregulation of banking bills. McCain and foreclosure Phill Gramm along with Gramm wife who wrote the Enron Loophole.
Neiman these are gangsters. Gangsters with pens. Quit listening to your hero the idiot Rush and come out of your comma.
neiman1 Bush and his right wing lying pals who are the real thugs lost get over yourself.
Just what we need. Union loafers, with their ridiculous work rules, falling down and collecting workers comp as a job finishes. But that's OK, because within a year there will be little work here in Vegas, and unless the loafers are related to their business agent, they'll be eating their young, and forced to move. Bye, bye "Craftsmen." Maybe you can get a job down in the Imperial Valley, picking lettuce. You'll last 3 days max....
bdover Are you on some form of disability or state aide? I'll bet you have never had a real job in your life. You and neiman ride your skateboards and read comic books all day telling each other how famous you'll be when you grow up.Not to worry if you had to put on a hard hat and tool belt every morning you would snivel and cry for mama. You are another blow hard who isn't old enough to understand anything in life.If homebuilders had qualified union workers instead of illegal immigrants they would not lose those defective work related lawsuits. Now go take your nap.
the builders owned the appraisers and the lenders, so they inflated prices for shoddily built homes, and now they are trying to pass laws (sb 337 and 349) that would require your house to burn, flood or fall over within 4 years of construction in order to sue them.
D R Horton is among the worst predatory lenders through its affiliate DHI Mortgage. The FTC's records show that DHI originated predatory loans in 17 states:
www.drhortonsjudges.info