Speed-Built Homes Flawed, Owners Claim

It began as a light-hearted publicity gimmick.

To advertise the talents of San Diego’s then-lagging construction industry, a house-building contest was held in October, 1983, on two vacant lots in the city’s Paradise Valley neighborhood. With television cameras rolling and sportscaster Ted Leitner providing jovial commentary, two teams of 300 workers furiously worked to construct two three-bedroom homes in the breakneck time of two hours, 52 minutes and 31 seconds.

The stunt briefly won nationwide media coverage, including a spot on the television program “That’s Incredible,” and was quickly forgotten. But for the people who say they unknowingly bought the homes built in the competition, the matter is not easily forgotten and far from humorous.

“They have really done a number on us,” said Angie Van Gaasbeck, who with her husband Charles bought one of the three-hour homes for $90,000. “We just wanted to own our own home. It’s supposed to be the American dream. It’s turned into a nightmare for us.”

Van Gaasbeck said problems began soon after she and her husband bought the house in May, 1984, when the Navy transferred him to San Diego from Northern California. On their first night in the house, she said, the hot water pipes burst, flooding one of the bathrooms.

The slab on which the house sits is uneven and cracked from end to end--the result, Angie Van Gaasbeck said, of poor grading and workers using quick-drying concrete that was poured while extremely hot. Other problems include a flawed roof, mismatched paint, buckled walls, crooked door frames, a back yard that floods with every rain and a faulty sewage system that causes unpleasant odors in the house, she said.

Similar complaints have been made by the owners of three other homes involved in the speed-building stunt. Two of the homes were built in six hours during a “practice” session before the actual contest.

One of the practice houses was bought in May, 1984, by Roberto and Cindy Guasch, who said they had no idea of the home’s origin. The other six-hour house was bought in August of that year by Brad and Kathy Galtney, who also found their new home to be seriously flawed.

“We don’t even open this door,” Kathy Galtney said, pointing to a hall closet located next to a bath room. “The odors in there are really bad. It’s embarrassing. . . . My biggest worry is that we seem to be having earthquakes more regularly. Even though the inspector said it was sound, there’s always that worry: Is this house going to fall on me?”

The Guasches have filed suit seeking complete repairs against builder Charles Koon, the Building Industry Assn. of San Diego and the Homeowners Warranty Corp. The Galtneys and the Van Gaasbecks say they intend to sue as well. Koon and the building association arranged the speed-building contest and Homeowners Warranty insured the homes against major structural defects.

The other house built in the contest was purchased by Jim and Bernice Eash, who have said that although their home has some of the same flaws as their neighbors’ they consider it “liveable” and are not planning any legal action.

Brad Galtney, Charles Van Gaasbeck and Roberto Guasch are all current or former members of the armed forces who bought their homes under Veterans Administration financing. All three families were first-time home buyers new to the San Diego area.

“They were desperate to sell and we were desperate to buy,” Van Gaasbeck said. “I really didn’t want to rent because I couldn’t see paying all that money for nothing.”

All three of the wives said they chose the homes because they liked their design, which gave them a greater sense of spaciousness than other 1,500-square foot dwellings. But the idyll of their brand-new suburban homes was disrupted a few weeks after they moved in when a neighbor told them about the contest.

“I said ‘That’s incredible, it’s not physically possible,’ ” Angie Van Gaasbeck said, adding that the truth finally hit home when she watched a videotape of the event. “When I first saw it, I just couldn’t believe it. It took me forever before I could watch that damn thing without coming unglued.”

The families have said they received numerous promises from Koon that all the houses’ defects would be corrected. But more than two years after buying the houses, many serious flaws remain, they say.

Cindy Guasch, who has filed suit, said she told Koon repeatedly about a dip in one corner of her living room floor. At first, she said, she was told that the carpeting in that area of the room did not have padding. When a carpet company came to her house and told her the problem was the house’s uneven slab, Guasch called in Koon to take a look.

“He told me I was being overcritical, that there was nothing wrong with the house,” she said. “He told me to just put a chair in the corner and you wouldn’t even notice it.”

Kathy Galtney said Koon gave her similar advice when she complained about a warped wall, telling her to “put something on it to camouflage things so nobody would notice.”

Koon was unavailable for comment despite repeated calls to his office this week. A building association spokesman declined comment about the houses.

In addition to making their lives inconvenient, the problems with the houses have kept the homeowners from taking advantage of declining interest rates. Only one family--the Guasches--has been able to refinance their home loan, and only after they spent almost $5,000 to grade their back yard and install a drainage system.

“I work for a mortgage company and refinancing these houses is something you can’t do,” Kathy Galtney said. “I can’t even get a loan from the company I work for.”

Putting the homes on the market is also not an option, they say, because disclosure laws would require them to tell potential buyers of the houses’ myriad problems.

The Van Gaasbecks and the Galtneys said they also tried to remedy their problems by filing claims with Homeowners Warranty Corp. After months of evaluations by engineers and claims adjusters, the company offered the Van Gaasbecks $10,000 and the Galtneys $14,000, the families said. Both families rejected the settlements.

“It was an insult,” Galtney said. “ . . . We assumed we would be protected.”

M. J. Brenne, the company’s public affairs manager, said the responsibility for problems occurring during the first two years after the homes were constructed rests with the builder, adding that she had heard Koon was being more than fair with the homeowners.

“It’s my understanding that in this case the builder has offered to buy back the houses,” Brenne said. “In that case, he’s going above and beyond his warranty responsibility.”

Angie Van Gaasbeck said Koon has never offered to buy her home, but that she desperately wishes he would.

“We’ve asked them to take the house back and that’s exactly what we want,” she said. “I want out. I really do.”