Litigation affecting Real Estate.
We have a new issue in town, presenting Kitec Fittings….. On October 17, 2006 in the District Court, Clark County, Nevada, Case No. A493302 a class action was certified concerning Brass Kitec Plumbing Fittings. The Plaintiffs counsel has a web site at www.plumbingdefect.com. Take that web site with a grain of salt, it is designed by the Plaintiffs’ counsel who are poised to earn money if they win their case. I am not aware of Kitec’s defense web site, when I find it, I will share it with you.
What does it mean to you? It should not mean anything. But we the world’s not a perfect place. The reason it should not mean anything to you is that a Nevada licensee is not responsible for investigating property they are selling. I have argued this point for years, that you are conduits of information, not creators of information. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but I am right. As a licensee you are a marketer and a salesperson. You are not an investigator, no are you a guarantor of the condition of the property you are selling. I have taken this point to the next level and in July of 2007 you will see Senate Bill 69 rendered law wherein I changed the Nevada statutes to clarify, what has always been the case that real estate licensees, “Owe no duty to conduct an investigation of the condition of the property.” Go to http://www.leg.state.nv.us/74th/Reports/history.cfm?ID=183 for the entire history of this new law. Thank you, thank you, you’ve been a great agent base tonight. tip your waiters, I am here all year.
Back to Kitec. So why is Kitec an issue? Because sometimes certain ‘confusing’ or ‘scary’ issues come up and we have to face facts and move faster and in better detail than our statutory duties require. Therefore, years ago, I created the Prudential®, Americana Group, REALTORS®, All Inclusive Form. This form is a questionnaire for our Sellers and general information for our Buyers to give them a heads up on new/contemporary issues affecting Southern Nevada. It started with the mold form and grew. Remember, the Nevada Required NRS 113 Sellers Real Property Disclosure Statement already asks a Seller if there has been, for example, water invasion? And/or any other matter affecting the property. Therefore, if a seller had mold through their house, the SRPD easily addresses that subject and as a Nevada licensee you should not have been concerned. Well….ours was the first mold case in Las Vegas in 1996 (originally the Plaintiff blamed the smell in the house on sewer issues and later amended their claim to mold) and it cost the Sellers and other Defendants thousands and thousands of dollars for an issue no one could even pronounce, (Stachybotrys Chartarum, pronounced Stacky Bo Trus Sha Ta Rum). My office wrote the first mold form in Nevada. I shared it with any and every broker in the state, if they wanted, attempting to educate the whole REALTOR® community to stop the madness. Because, as I predicted, mold was not end of real estate. It’s an issue, like any issue, it can be remedied. It only occurs in certain occasions, it is not as toxic as it was presented, etc. etc.
So, that brings me to Kitec. It’s a mold-type issue. It is moving faster that the average consumer/seller can keep up. It is an alleged defect in a certain type of plumbing. Simply stated, at the joints of the pipes clogging within the pipe occurs at times causing the bursting of pipes within a home. Due to its nature, the remedy is to re-plumb the entire home. This cost is currently bid at approximately $5,000 per 1,000 square feet. That’s right. One remedy is to re-plumb the entire home for thousands of dollars. The SRPD should address this right? Of course. However, does ever seller know that they may have such plumbing within their home? Of course not. And it’s not their fault. With time we will know more and have clearer, more financially efficient answers. Right now we are in a Rumsfeld a “known-unknown.” Thus the amendment to the All Inclusive. And just to make the matter more confusing, Kitec is not construction defect (NRS 40), but products liability. So it is yet again a side winder of an issue that the SRPD has a difficult time is fleshing out. Therefore, the All Inclusive now asks if your seller has received notice if the Property is the subject of a class action lawsuit regarding Brass Kitec Plumbing Fittings. And as always, even if the Seller states, “no or unknown,” the question being posed serves to inform your buyer of this issue. And that is the point of the All Inclusive, it forces a conversation on issues that the SRPD may not address adequately. Another question it asks is whether or not the Seller has received settlement monies for such matters and better yet…what did they do with the money?
As I say in my presentations at the Prudential®, Americana Group, REALTORS® offices, I do not want to introduce any new forms. There is already too much paper work. We have actually removed a few forms over the years and right now the Belt Way is on the chopping block. But I need you to respect and befriend the All Inclusive. In the All Inclusive are the ‘new and changing’ issues. So even if your Seller and even you were not aware, we at Prudential®, Americana Group, REALTORS® do our best to point out an issue that may grow into future time consuming resource eating lawsuits. And now the All Inclusive touches on Kitec.
June 8, 2007 at 11:37 am
Re: Litigation.
I saw nearly this same issue come up in California nearly 20 years ago. They were dealing with DWV (drain waste and vent pipe, ABS plastic). The manufacturer was shipped some bad resin for the pipe, they manufactured the pipe and the plumbers installed it.
Some time later the pipe started cracking and leaking inside peoples properties. Well you can immagine the mess, we’re talking drain pipe here.
Well the point is two manufacturers and one insurance company went bankrupt, and I was dealing with the proplem for the the excess insurance carrier. They also were replacing plumbing in houses, appartments buisnesses, etc. and sellers had to beware.
These are not new problems and they will continue to show up.
June 9, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I think we should add REHAU to the all inclusive disc. since it has already come to the public attention then we can look like we are ahead of the game as far as disclosure and make sure all agents are making their clients aware of both types of problem plumbing. Please!
September 5, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Feb. 09, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Lawsuits flow over plumbing
Homeowners sue installers, who blame manufacturer for faulty fixtures
By HUBBLE SMITH
REVIEW-JOURNAL
About 35,000 to 50,000 homes in the Las Vegas Valley have Kitec brass fixtures. A class action lawsuit claims the fixtures are faulty.
A construction defect lawsuit that started last year with about 1,000 homes in Sun City MacDonald Ranch has been expanded to include potentially 35,000 to 50,000 homes throughout the Las Vegas Valley, an attorney for some of the homeowners said.
Randall Jones of Harrison Kemp Jones law firm said the class action lawsuit includes all owners of homes in Clark County with Kitec brass plumbing fittings. Defendants named in the lawsuit are Kitec maker IPEX, Classic Plumbing, Sharp Plumbing and Cox & Sons Plumbing.
Extensive corrosion and crystallization caused by chemical reaction occurs where Kitec is coupled with polyurethene-based tubing, resulting in plumbing problems such as leaks, reduced water flow and breaks, the lawsuit alleges.
“We have metallurgists who opined that, based on testing of these brass fittings, they will all fail,” Jones said. Major home builders that used Kitec include KB Home, Pulte, Richmond American, Signature, Woodside and John Lang, he said.
Steve Hawley, owner of Classic Plumbing, said the Kitec problem cost him his business and he’s pursuing legal action against IPEX, the Canadian-based manufacturer of Kitec.
“I’m basically out of business,” he said. “I have no employees. I’m the only employee now just to handle the lawsuit. Here I had one of the largest residential plumbing companies in the valley for 25 years and had to shut it down.”
Hawley said he put Kitec fittings in about 5,000 homes in the valley, many of them for Richmond American. When the fittings started having problems, he called Kitec and company officials said it was “no big deal.” They paid for product and labor to repair a few homes and then “pulled up stakes” in Colorado and moved to Canada, he said.
“I was out of pocket $300,000 taking care of these people, so I couldn’t come out and take care of the poor homeowners,” Hawley said. “I told them it’s not a workmanship problem, it’s the product. So I sued Kitec.”
Cox & Sons Plumbing declined comment. Sharp Plumbing failed to return phone calls.
Developer Del Webb started using Kitec fittings after other plumbing problems surfaced in Sun City Summerlin, attorney Francis Lynch of Lynch Hopper Salzano, representing Sun City MacDonald Ranch homeowners, told the Review-Journal last year.
He said the MacDonald Ranch case is continuing and a hearing is scheduled in March. Judge Nancy Saitta, who was previously handling the case, was elected to the Nevada Supreme Court. The new judge, Timothy Williams, certified the class action lawsuit.
Pulte Homes, Del Webb’s parent company, recently sent letters to residents of its master-planned Anthem community in Henderson, offering to pay homeowners $7,800 to make necessary repairs, which could require rerouting plumbing overhead through walls and attics.
Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 40 was changed a few years ago to rein in construction-defect lawsuits, giving builders the right to repair or compensate home owners before they go to litigation.
“In this instance, we want to compensate homeowners to get repairs done on their homes so they can go on with their lives and enjoy their homes and not be caught up in a lawsuit for five years with no promise of compensation,” Pulte spokeswoman Sasha Jackowich said.
Pulte “hasn’t offered a dime” to homeowners in Sun City MacDonald Ranch, Lynch said, even though the same Kitec material was used in those homes and the builder’s own experts said the plumbing has to be replaced.
Favil West, president of Sun City Anthem Homeowners Association, said Kitec fittings may have been installed in as many as 3,000 homes there.
“The board had, up until last week, declined to become involved in this matter as clearly it is a homeowner-developer issue,” West wrote in the Anthem Compendium. “At the request of literally hundreds of our residents, the board directed me to investigate and report. The board further directed that a legal opinion be obtained with respect to the limits of participation of the board without exposing the association to any liability.”
Sun City Anthem resident Tony Bell said most of the people he’s talked to are taking the money and forgoing the lawsuit. He was told it would take about 45 days to receive the check.
“A lot of them are having the work done before they get the money,” he said. “I’m taking the $7,800 rather than wait five years in the lawsuit and get a check for $36. You’ve got to take the money out of your pocket and fix it and you might not get enough money to fix it.”
Bell said he signed a release from future claims against Pulte over the Kitec fittings, though it does not exclude other coverage under Pulte’s home warranty. It gives Pulte the right to sue Kitec and recover losses, he said.
Chuck Davis, another Sun City Anthem resident, said he signed the release with Del Webb and opted out of the class action lawsuit. “I don’t do anything for attorneys,” he said.
Davis said the $7,800 repair cost is based on the largest home in the Anthem community and there’s a “flock” of residents who think they can make money by having the work done for less.
West said board members met with the class action lawyers in December and then met with their own attorney. Sun City residents discussed the issue with lawyers from both Pulte and Harrison Kemp Jones at a January board meeting. He said most of the board members have requested an inspection.
Kristi Lonsinger said she’s happy with her plumbing repairs, but complained that the city of Henderson raised its inspection fee from $91 to $285. Normally, city officials would inspect the work once when it’s completed, but now they make three or four inspections, she said.
“They no longer care about the final cosmetic look. The city said they want to make sure our homes are put back together the way they should be,” Lonsinger said in an e-mail to neighbors.
November 8, 2007 at 10:00 am
Any info you could provide would be helpful regarding advantages/disadvantages of using wirsbo with copper & bronze fittings, plastic fittings,or the choice to repipe using ALL COPPER? Website info, reviews of repipe situations, reliability of this company. The problem is dezincification in Nevada, so which is the better way to go with a repipe?? Also, where can I find reviews of this company-are they Wirsbo Certificated? “REPIPE SPECIALISTS from NEVADA”? Thank you
July 9, 2008 at 9:51 pm
I’m an owner in a crumbling investment for studio suites at Palms Place. Trying to get representation or potential advice on my rights in regard to default, inability to get a loan and the fact that the builder’s delay in finalizing project really hindered most folks’ ability to get loans for the project. I’ve heard many people talking “class action” but don’t know where to begin. I just know I’m about to lose $200,000 and I’m trying to see all of my options. Just wondering if you had any expertise on this project or the many folks who are getting screwed..
July 12, 2008 at 5:21 pm
This not my area. If you would like you can contact me direct at darren@dwelshlaw.com and I will try to give you the names of a few attorneys.
March 6, 2010 at 5:46 pm
This is a really nice blog you got here. The theme is great! Color combination is awesome.
July 2, 2010 at 12:54 pm
[…] July 2, 2010 TGIF Legal Tip: Kitec Litigation Update Posted by Darren Welsh under Contracts, Litigation, TGIF Legal Tips Leave a Comment This is a follow up to my June 8, 2007 report on Kitec Plumbing, Litigation Affecting Real Estate. […]
January 24, 2012 at 3:19 pm
[…] is a follow up to my July 2, 2o10 and June 8, 2007 reports on Kitec […]
March 29, 2012 at 3:31 pm
[…] is a follow up to my June 8, 2007 , July 2, 2o10 and January 24, 2012 reports on Kitec Plumbing in Clark County […]
October 5, 2012 at 9:24 pm
Very interesting blog giving the details about real estate law.i did get lots of good points from here. thanks for sharing.
Jeffrey T. Angley
December 12, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Thanks , I have recently been searching for information about this topic for ages and
yours is the best I have discovered so far. But, what about the conclusion?
Are you sure about the source?
March 24, 2014 at 11:23 am
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Anyway, just wanted to say wonderful blog!
May 28, 2014 at 2:28 pm
[…] TGIF Legal Tip: Litigation Affecting Real Estate – June 8, 2007 […]
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August 28, 2017 at 1:36 pm
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TGIF Legal Tip: Litigation Affecting Real Estate | Nevada Residential Real Property Law