April 2001
By Dan Bryson

The topic of this month's column is one of the most common pitfalls of homeowners in dealing with their EIFS problem—not filing suit within applicable time limits. I have received hundreds of calls through the years that typically start with "I am having problems with the EIFS on my house. What should I do? It's going to cost $75,000 or more to reclad our home." The first questions that I will ask you are as follows:

1. How old is your house?
2. Have you obtained a moisture report?
3. Who is your builder?
4. Who is the manufacturer of the EIFS? and
5. When did you first notice problems?

The answers to these questions are critical and greatly influence our ability to recover any money for you (and it's okay if you don't know the answer to all of these questions). Every State (or Commonwealth in Virginia!), requires that claims for construction problems such as EIFS be filed within a few years (typically 4 or 5 years from the date the certificate of occupancy was issued). These time periods are typically called "statutes of limitations." Further, many general contractors will attempt to shorten the statutory period to a few years (most people obtain longer, and better, warranties on a new car). There are ways to get around these attempts but the greatest Achilles Heel of our ability to recover money for homeowners are the applicable statutes of limitations. I have had owners call me and the statute of limitations had only expired by a few weeks. What several weeks earlier was a strong case with a very high likelihood of substantial recovery, suddenly becomes very difficult if not impossible to win.

Early on, I really did not understand why people would procrastinate and miss these critical deadlines. Of course, the answer is that most people are very busy and really don't know how to tackle the problem, so they put it off, or they have spoken with their builder who has attempted repairs and told the owner that the problem is fixed. But it's not and a few years later the house is experiencing elevated moisture readings again. In addtion , the law in many States requires that claims be filed within a few years of the date that a homeowners learns of problems with the EIFS. It is not uncommon to have situations where the homeowner noticed problems with the EIFS, read an article about problems, or received a moisture report of elevated readings then does nothing for several years. Once a lawsuit is filed, the clock stops ticking on applicable statutes of limitations. Don't lose your case because of procrastination!.