Florida Law Just Addresses Houses' Structural Integrity

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Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: TEST / DESK: ASEC / DATE: 02-26-2004 / EDITION: FLA / ZONE: PRE / PAGE: PAGE29 / DEADLINE: 16.59 / OP: mcook / COMPOSETIME: 18.15 CMYK

PART 6

BOBBY COKER/ORLANDO SENTINEL Hands-on. Seminole County building inspector Terry Scott checks the concrete shell of a home going up last week in Heathrow. In Seminole, 1 in 4 inspections gets a ‘red tag’ signifying the work was not good enough. Code, inspections let flaws through Florida law just addresses houses’ structural integrity

By DAN TRACY that go into a house. Hefeli’s issues fall into the SENTINEL STAFF WRITER categories of craftsmanship and aesthetics, henever the rain falls on Mari- neither of which is covered by the code. bel Hefeli’s two-story house in “Those are not the type of things we look at,” southeast Orange County, she acknowledged Bob Olin, Orange County’s act- Wcan see right through the stucco ing chief building official. and trace the outline of every In fact, a yearlong investigation of new-home concrete block in the walls. construction in Central Florida by the Orlando Once inside her $175,000 home, she can’t Sentinel and WESH-NewsChannel 2 found that use the handrail up the stairs because it is so the state building code — and the often-over- loose it might pull out of the wall. Some of the worked, sometimes-careless local inspectors baseboards are peeling away. In the kitchen, who enforce it — offers little or no assurance there’s a growing gap between the counter and that a buyer will move into a well-built, fault- the wall. And the smoke detectors tend to fall free home. from their mounts on the ceiling. The bottom line: Building inspectors look out “How can something like this pass?” asked for the structural integrity of a house — but no Hefeli, who moved into her home just before one really is checking the quality of the con- Christmas 2001. struction. Actually, none of the problems in Hefeli’s “Caveat emptor [buyer beware] is the rule,” Centex-built home violates any part of the Flor- said Paul Wean, an Orlando attorney specializ- ida building code, which sets minimum standing in real estate. ards for the structural systems and materials Continued on A30

RESIDENTIAL Percentage of residential inspections that failed 30% INSPECTIONS NOTE: Polk County includes northeast portion only. 25 Volusia County includes DeBary and portions of west Volusia only. Though all county inspectors 27% 20 enforce the same statewide 21% building code, failure rates 15 19% 19% vary from county to county. 10 13% 12% 5 5% 0 City of Orlando Lake County Orange County Osceola County Polk County Seminole County Volusia County (Oct. 2000- (Oct. 2000- (Jan. 2001- (Jan. 2000- (Jan. 2001- (Jan. 2000- (Jan. 2000- SOURCES: Individual counties/cities June 2003) March 2003) April 2003) June 2003) April 2003) April 2003) Sept. 2003)

ORLANDO SENTINEL

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COLORSTRIP: Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: TEST / DESK: ASEC / DATE: 02-26-2004 / EDITION: FLA / ZONE: PRE / PAGE: PAGE30 / DEADLINE: 17.0 / OP: mcook / COMPOSETIME: 18.13 CMYK

A day in the life of a residential building inspector Experts say that for home-building inspectors, 16 to 20 inspections are considered a full day. On June 7, 2002, an Orlando building inspector completed 36 inspections at 32 separate houses during an 8-hour shift. Driving his route — a round trip of at least 45 miles — took a reporter 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete. Here's the breakdown of this inspector's day.

Total miles traveled: Start of day 50 Inspector’s route At least 45 miles 436 Areas where City Hall Total homes inspected: homes were inspected 36 inspections at 32 houses Inspections included: ORANGE COUNTY 4 for framing 22 houses Map 10 for final walk-throughs 4 1 house area 6 wall lintels 441 5 stucco 17 2 footers 92 528 Average time per inspection: 528 Orlando (Does not include travel time or breaks) International 9.4 minutes Airport 527 Normal time supposed to be spent on 5 houses each inspection: N 4 houses Framing: 30 minutes MILES 0 1 PART 6 Final walk-through: 30 minutes Lake Stucco, lintels: 15 minutes Hart Central Florida eWay Footer: 10 minutes Green

SOURCE: Sentinel research ORLANDO SENTINEL Inspectors check as many as 40 homes a day From page A29 They are, they maintain, a set of independent eyes, charged by law to ensure that the walls are sturdy enough so the house won’t The Sentinel and WESH also discovered: fall down, that the wiring won’t short-circuit and cause a fire, that / Significant differences in the way the code is enforced by the the roof will stay on in high winds. major jurisdictions in Central Florida. Though the code is part of “What we are looking to do is get the house built right,” said state law, it’s enforced by inspectors working for counties or cit- Olin of Orange County. ies. Some aren’t so sure. Lake County, for example, employs a building official who “If it meets the letter of the code, it could still be almost falling passes more than 99 percent of his inspections. The entire Osce- down,” said Kelvin Eder, a private house inspector and builder. ola County Building Department, on average, passes almost 95 percent of its inspections. Inspection philosophy varies By contrast, one in four inspections in Seminole County ends The major governments in the region operate under different up with a so-called red tag signifying the work was not good inspection philosophies — and it shows in the pass/fail rates enough. One Seminole building official flunks more than half of logged by their employees. his inspections. A review of records from 2000 to this June in six counties re- / Building officials are overburdened, on occasion conducting vealed that Seminole flunked the most inspections, at 27 percent; 40 inspections a day or more. That is at least twice what is consid- followed by Polk at 21 percent; Orlando and Volusia at 19 per- ered by experts to be a reasonable daily workload. cent; Lake, at 13 percent; Orange, at 12 percent; and Osceola, at With too much to do and too little time to do it, inspectors can less than 6 percent. — and do — miss code violations. A Sentinel-WESH inspection of In Lake, Orange, Volusia and Osceola counties, according to officials in each, the inspectors try to “get along” and cooperate with the builders, particularly when there is a dispute over a con- The approval rate for inspections by Osceola struction issue. Inspectors might not flunk an inspection when there is a prob- 95% County’s Building Department since 2000. lem, choosing instead to come back another day during a different check to see whether the original error was corrected. Only if the problem persists is it noted and a reinspection fee charged. 406 Central Florida homes built in 2001 turned up 132 apparent Ken Scheitler, Lake’s chief building official, said being amia- violations of the state’s building code — the most common being ble is the most practical approach, because it is impossible to stoves not attached to the walls. watch everything a builder does at every single house. It’s possible more were missed. Many areas checked by build- “There has to be some kind of trust,” he said. ing officials could not be scrutinized by the Sentinel/WESH in- Added Olin of Orange County: “Some guys are going to not spectors because they were covered by concrete, drywall and in- pass [an inspection] because that’s the way they are. They take sulation. pleasure in turning someone down. What we are trying to do is / Houses “built to code” — with no evident infractions — are get the house built right.” still likely to have fit-and-finish flaws. Osceola’s chief building official, Jeff DeBoer, said he counsels The most common faults found by Sentinel/WESH inspectors his inspectors to “build a relationship with the contractor . . . their — leaky windows and roofs; mold; rooms that can’t be adequate- superintendent and representatives.” ly heated or cooled; cracks in floors and walls — are not covered But disgruntled homeowners say a “work with the builder” ap- by the code, which sets only minimum standards. As a result, proach encourages inspectors to get too cozy with construction building inspectors ignore them. superintendents, resulting in approval of slipshod construction. Said Bill Lang, a custom builder who works mostly in Lake That’s why other counties say they go by the book, not the County, “They [the inspectors] have nothing to say about work- builder. manship. They have no say. I wish they could.” “We’re strict, but we’re fair and reasonable,” said Larry Gold- man, Seminole’s chief building official. “When the big hurricane Building codes’ long history hits, we still want our homes to be standing in Seminole County.” Building regulations go as far back as the time of Hammurabi, Seminole, Polk and Orlando officials say they track their pass/ about 1800 B.C. Then, as now, they dealt mainly with minimum fail rates because they think they are an important barometer of standards, emphasizing structure and safety concerns. how effectively their inspectors are performing. They said they The stakes were a little higher then. If a house was so poorly do not have a pre-set goal for rejection rates. built that it fell down and killed the owner’s son, the builder’s son Goldman, though, said he would be worried if one of his in- was put to death. Boston was one of the first American cities to adopt a code, outlawing in 1630 thatch roof coverings and chimneys made with The approximate number of inspections by Orlando’s 31 wood. And as codes developed in America, they focused primari- ly on safety and structural integrity. 70,000 building inspectors in the past year. The code sets minimum standards for everything from air- conditioning ductwork to the amount of reinforcement in a foundation pad; the thickness of wood on the roof; and the amount of spectors passed more than 99 percent of his building checks — as insulation in the attic. There are literally thousands of standards has happened in Lake — and likely would go out with him to — often spelled out in enormous detail. make sure he was doing his job correctly. Goldman said he re- Consider how precisely the Florida Building Code specifies cently fired one inspector for consistently rushing through his in- how to test a window’s ability to withstand hurricane-force spections. winds. “In the case of windows, the doors, and sliding glass doors,” the code says, “a pressure-treated nominal 2-x-4 wood Approach differs buck #3 Southern Pine shall be used for attachment of the speci- Inspectors typically visit a house 10 to 15 times during the men to the test frame/stand/chamber.” course of construction. They’re supposed to eyeball the materials But the code says nothing about how well — or badly — all used and how they were installed. But when they are in a rush, those elements come together. It doesn’t require that openings they check paperwork instead. for windows be square and true — and properly caulked so they For example, inspectors often will look at a tag saying insula- don’t leak. It doesn’t require that all ducts provide consistent air- tion was blown into an attic and move on, rather than climbing up flow, so one room isn’t colder or hotter than another. It doesn’t and making sure. set a time requirement for a pad to “cure” (so it won’t crack), or In fact, many can’t climb up and look — because they don’t mandate that sheeting on a roof lie flat and level so the shingle carry a ladder on the truck. They either inspect roof work, hurri- line won’t be “wavy.” cane straps, the tops of block walls and insulation from the Dale Greiner, Lake County’s director of building services and ground — sometimes using a mirror mounted on a long pole — or a member of the Florida Building Commission that oversees the hope the builder has a ladder on site they can borrow. code, bluntly sums up the code’s standards: “To be perfectly hon- Some jurisdictions, such as Osceola, don’t issue ladders — est, it’s the cheapest way to build a box.” saying they don’t want their inspectors to put themselves in situa- Still, building officials say their role is critical because their bottom line is the safety and structural integrity of the house. Continued on A31

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COLORSTRIP: Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: TEST / DESK: ASEC / DATE: 02-26-2004 / EDITION: FLA / ZONE: PRE / PAGE: PAGE31 / DEADLINE: 17.0 / OP: mcook / COMPOSETIME: 18.12 CMYK

DAN TRACY/ORLANDO SENTINEL Problem pipe. At a homesite in Orlando’s Baldwin Park, a Sentinel reporter found a 6-inch pipe across a trench on one side of the foundation area — a potential code violation because rules say the footers must be clear of debris before cement is poured. Builders want code kept as it is tions that could result in a fall or damage to the house. of two footers, five stucco and six wall lintels. PART 6 Some inspectors aren’t particularly observant. Walk-throughs and framing inspections should take a half- In June, Orlando inspector Charles Bargaineer was checking hour each. Stucco and lintels should take 15 minutes each, and footer setups at a David Weekley homesite in the tony Baldwin footers 10 minutes. Park subdivision. Running across the trench on one side of the Those estimates were made by Resch, who also studied the re- foundation area was a 6-inch pipe, left from the days when the cords of Godin’s inspections and rode along during the retracing land was the site of the Naval Training Center. This was a poten- of his route. tial code violation, because the rules say the footers — which will When Resch added up all the inspections, he estimated they support the weight of the walls and roof — must be clear of debris should have taken at least 12 to 13 hours. That would include before cement is poured. travel, but not a 30-minute lunch break or taking time to talk with Bargaineer, a 17-year veteran, ignored the pipe and approved builders or workers, which commonly occurs during inspections. the setup. Days later, the Sentinel and WESH gave a picture of the When told Godin’s timesheet showed he worked eight hours pipe to Mike Rhodes, Orlando’s chief building official. He sus- that day, Resch declared, “You just can’t do it [in eight hours]” pended Bargaineer for three days without pay. and do it right. Both Bargaineer and a representative of Weekley — which “The reality of the work is there are days lots of inspections are subsequently cut out the part of the pipe that intruded into the called in,” Rhodes responded. “Clearly, we would prefer not to do footer trench — would not comment. that many inspections.” Rhodes said Bargaineer told him he could not recall whether Since taking over this summer, Rhodes is pushing back in- he walked around the entire foundation area before approving spections a day if too many are called in. He could not say why his the inspection. predecessor did not adopt a similar policy. “I hope it’s an isolated incident. I prefer to leave it at that,” Rhodes also ordered the city to resume collecting the $50 rein- Rhodes said. spection fee, which is supposed to be charged when an inspector has to go back to make sure a problem he flagged has been cor- ‘Too much territory’ rected. Orlando largely stopped collecting the fee starting in the Builders praise government inspectors, saying they work hard 1990s. No one — including Rhodes, who took over the depart- to ensure houses are constructed correctly. ment in July — can say why. “They’re knowledgeable, and they’re great,” said Alex Hanni- All of the other major governments contacted by the Sentinel gan, a small custom builder and immediate past president of the or WESH collect reinspection fees. Home Builders Association of Metro Orlando. After starting up in July, Orlando brought in more than But Hannigan concedes that the inspectors often are asked to $105,365 through the end of October. The fee must be paid before check on too many homes. Area agencies typically promise next- a final certificate of occupancy is issued to the builder. day service once an inspection request is called in. Orlando pledges same-day service if the call comes in before 7 a.m. ‘The quality suffers’ Orlando has 31 building inspectors, and they conduct nearly For their part, inspectors say they have a lot to do but shrug off 70,000 inspections a year. The city hasn’t added a new inspector the workload as part of the job. Salaries start in the low $30,000s in years, although Rhodes said the workload has increased so and top out in the mid-$50,000s, depending on expertise and the much that he will seek to hire seven next year. size of the government. Orange has 87; Seminole, 25; Osceola, 21; Polk, 20; and Lake, One of their biggest complaints is that they cannot red-flag a 17. Most have added inspectors in recent years — Osceola picked builder for bad craftsmanship, such as too little stucco on the up 15 during the past five years — to try to keep up with the build- walls or a bad paint job or corners out of square. The problem, ing boom. they say, is there is too much demand for new homes, causing Almost 18,000 homes a year have been built in the region since workers to hurry and turn out a mediocre product. 2001; about 23,000 will be built this year. That translates into at “When the volume goes up, the quality suffers,” said Lake least 200,000 inspector visits, and as many as 345,000, each year. building inspector Larry Schmidt, who flunks more than 22 per- Experts say that 16 to 20 inspections are considered a full cent of his inspections. day’s work. But government records show that building officials Builders do not support toughening the code to consider qual- in metro Orlando conducted at least 21 inspections a day more ity, arguing the concept is too subjective an issue. than 2,900 times since October 2000. “That’s a slippery slope you go down,” said Mike Hickman, “A lot of compromise comes from having too much territory to president of the Florida Home Builders Association and a custom cover,” said Alan Mooney, president of Criterium Engineers, a builder in Lakeland. private home-inspection service operating in 35 states, including Some buyers, he said, may put great value on a square corner, Central Florida. but others might not because they are not willing to pay for it. Some inspections take only minutes — for instance, making Jack Glenn, the association’s director of technical services and sure the sewer line from the house is connected to a septic tank or a code expert, said the builders don’t want a building inspector the wastewater system. The inspector looks into a trench, check- involved in disputes over issues that are too open to the interpre- ing that the pipes are connected and running downhill from the tation of individuals. house. “There’s no way an enforcement official can make those deter- A framing inspection, however, can take far longer. The in- minations without getting into the middle of a mess,” he said. spector is supposed to check a variety of elements, including the Instead, he and Hickman insist, “quality” is an issue best de- hurricane straps that attach the roof trusses to the walls of the fined between the builder and the buyer. home, the bracing of the roof trusses and the connection of load- That’s of little comfort to Hefeli, a homemaker who moved bearing walls to the concrete foundation. That might take 30 min- from Chicago with her family to the Waterford Lakes develop- utes for a small, basic production house; a large, custom house ment because her husband got a new job in the area. with an elaborate roofline could consume three hours, according Their Centex house was what’s known as a “spec,” or one built to Ron Resch, a certified private building inspector and former and completed without a specific owner. Centex declined com- general contractor who is a paid consultant to the Sentinel and ment. WESH. When she and her husband first saw the house, she said, it The Sentinel and WESH followed three different inspectors — looked fine. Instead of going over it with a critical eye, she said, without their knowledge — for several hours each and never wit- they were eager — and excited — to move in. nessed a check taking more than 30 minutes, including at least Hefeli said she began to suspect her house wasn’t as nice as three framing inspections on larger homes. she thought when the smoke detectors began falling the day they One inspector worked for Orlando and was checking houses moved in. at Baldwin Park; the other two were employed by Lake County “Shouldn’t they have standards for this?” she asked. and were going over homes in the bustling Clermont area. Chief building officials in Orlando and Lake defended their inspectors, saying they were diligent workers who do their jobs well. As for rushing through their inspections as observed by the Sentinel and WESH, Lake’s Scheitler said, “That sounds atypical. That doesn’t sound like any of my guys.” Said Rhodes of Orlando: “Are we in a hurry to do inspections? Sometimes I think we are.” ‘You just can’t do it’ Reporters also retraced the steps of Orlando building inspector Robert Godin, who completed 36 inspections at 32 separate houses in southeast Orlando during one eight-hour shift June 7, 2002. His day was chosen because it was not an abnormally high or low schedule for an Orlando inspector. Godin drove at least 45 miles from City Hall to his inspection sites and back. Driving his likely route, observing posted speed ROBERTO GONZALEZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL limits, took two hours and 20 minutes. Signing off. An inspection sheet shows who has looked at a home Among his inspections were 10 final walk-throughs of homes being built in Orlando. Records from 2000 to June show Orlando almost ready for occupancy, four framing inspections and checks inspectors flunked 19% of homes.

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PART 6

BOBBY COKER/ORLANDO SENTINEL Lengthy inspections. Seminole County building inspector Randy Hatch studies a house plan. He fails the work he inspects 54.9% of the time, records show. Recently, Hatch spent more than an hour going over the concrete-block walls of a large custom home north of Sanford before finding a problem and red-tagging, or failing, it. 2 inspectors look at job differently stucco, leaky windows, unanchored toi- Seminole’s chief building official, said he 1 often fails work he lets and “wavy” roofs and walls — that would have to “question” anyone who plague most new houses. flunks fewer than 1 percent of his inspec- Enforcing the code can be a subjective tions. sees; 1 rarely does process. To Goldman, a flunked inspection Pass/fail rates are largely meaningless means his employees are paying atten- By DAN TRACY to Dale Greiner, Lake County’s director tion — and have caught a mistake. SENTINEL STAFF WRITER of building services. The idea, he said, is Hatch, a former carpenter and mason to show builders how to construct their who joined Seminole County six years Randy Hatch of Seminole County may homes correctly, so they won’t make mis- ago and is certified to inspect those be the toughest building inspector in Cen- takes and flunk inspections. trades, said he does not set out to flunk tral Florida. Tom Romboli of Lake County “He [Romboli] is doing exactly what builders. could be the easiest. I’m asking him to do,” Greiner said. Rom- “I don’t pick on people,” he said. “But if Their work on two separate Septem- boli, who is certified to inspect electrical, you are going to build in Seminole Coun- ber mornings and an analysis of building- framing, mechanical and plumbing sys- ty, you’re going to do it right.” inspection records illustrate the point. tems, is paid $44,366 a year. Unlike Romboli, who inspects mostly Hatch, 48, spent more than an hour go- “We are basically on the same road as relatively simple production homes, ing over the concrete-block walls of a the builder, with the same goal, but on Hatch sees a lot of large custom homes large custom home north of Sanford be- different sides of the road,” Greiner said. with unusual or multiple rooflines. As a fore finding a problem and red-tagging it, “Personally, I think you get more things result, he said, he often finds problems in or flunking the inspection — something done with honey than with vinegar.” the truss work of these homes. he does 54.9 percent of the time, records Greiner said he spoke to Romboli If he rejects a job, Hatch said, he will show. He had agreed to let Sentinel and about the seemingly cursory inspections show the builders or subcontractors WESH reporters come along and watch. he did while being videotaped and was where they erred and, if possible, allow A week later in a Clermont subdivi- satisfied with his explanations. them to fix it before he leaves. sion, Romboli made quick checks of four Concerning the quick checks of the “It works out for everybody in the end. houses in various stages of construction, two houses, Greiner said, “I’m not advo- You get a better product,” said Hatch, recorded on video shot by WESH-New- cating 10-minute framing inspections, who makes $42,000 a year. sChannel 2. Romboli, 53, did not know he but they happen. It depends on the cir- Unlike inspectors in other counties — was being followed and later declined to cumstances.” Indeed, Romboli set a re- including Romboli — Hatch rarely has be interviewed. cord for Lake County on Jan. 22 with 51 more than 20 inspections a day, giving He stayed 13 minutes at the first inspections in one day. Experts say most him, he said, enough time to do his house, 10 minutes at the second. At each, inspectors can’t handle more than 20 a checks correctly. Romboli signed a sheet OK’ing the fram- day. Builders, he said, generally appreciate ing, electrical, plumbing and mechanical As to the footer inspection, Greiner his approach, even if they have to pay the systems of each. said Romboli told him he actually made $25 reinspection fee and do a job a sec- At a third house, he walked up to a lot that check the previous day and had for- ond time. Lake charges $55 per reinspec- where concrete footers had been poured gotten to sign the inspection sheet. tion. — footers support the walls and founda- Asked about Romboli spending more Said Graham Miller, a construction tion of the house — and signed the on-site than 90 minutes talking to workers on a manager for Brentwood Custom Homes inspection sheet without looking at the building site, Greiner said he was glad to of Altamonte Springs whose masonry work. hear it. Romboli, he said, is an excellent was cited for a missing piece of reinforc- Romboli spent his biggest chunk of teacher and likely was discussing the ing steel: “What’s right is right, and time during the morning — an hour and building code. what’s wrong is wrong. That’s what he’s 40 minutes — talking and laughing with “He does a real good job of taking the there for.” four workers and supervisors at a home- time to deal with them. . . . Our goal is to Hatch said he derives no enjoyment in site. He approved all of his inspections — get our reinspections down,” Greiner issuing a red tag but added, “I have a duty which records show he does 99.2 percent said. to the people of Seminole County, and of the time. By contrast, Larry Goldman, I’m going to do it. I take my job seriously.” In fact, a computer analysis of building 1 inspections done in the past 3 ⁄2 years by six Central Florida counties, plus the city of Orlando, shows that Hatch flunks more than any other inspector, and Rom- boli passes more than anyone. Hatch red-tagged 2,491 of 4,538 inspections he has done since October 2000. In the same period, Romboli did 6,494 inspections — and flunked 46. To some extent, both men reflect the overall records of their employers. Dur- ing the same period, Seminole County inspectors failed 27 percent of their inspections — the most of any Central Florida county. Lake inspectors flunked 13 percent, ranking them ahead of only Orange and Osceola counties. Though Romboli, Hatch and their re- spective counties are at opposite ends of the pass/fail spectrum, they’re enforcing the same statewide building code. The code sets minimally acceptable standards for residential-construction practices and materials — to ensure roofs are anchored against high winds, the wir- COURTESY OF WESH-NEWSCHANNEL 2 ing is safe, the stove is attached to the Shorter inspections. Tom Romboli, a Lake County building inspector, checks the work at a wall. But it doesn’t speak to the fit-and- house in Clermont. Records show that he passes such work 99.2% of the time. Recently, he finish issues — cracking concrete and stayed 13 minutes at one house, 10 minutes at another.

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PART 6

ROBERTO GONZALEZ/ORLANDO SENTINEL Problem area. Deyne Matzinger checks the attic of her home in Osceola County. Her roof was missing hurricane straps and other attachments. Under some circumstances, high winds could have taken off the roof. Osceola settles claim but keeps deal quiet Homeowner wins $5,000 for overlooked flaws

By DAN TRACY Even when oversights occur, government Still, said commission Chairman Paul SENTINEL STAFF WRITER officials argue that inspectors cannot be Owen, “Whether it was our fault or not, I expected to be perfect. think we have some — I don’t want to say Deyne Matzinger cashed a $5,000 check / Many complaints by owners are about liability, but we do have some moral obli- from the taxpayers of Osceola County be- workmanship — everything from cracks gation there, I think, because we did miss cause county building inspectors over- and leaks to puddles on the patio and some of those inspections.” looked critical flaws in her home. But she is rooms that won’t get cool. By law, inspec- Indeed, almost nothing went right with not allowed to talk about it. tors are not interested in such problems. Spring Lake Village. Here’s why: County officials fear that if Matzinger, though, was worried about In April 2002, the county banned the de- the word gets out, they could be inundated more than appearances. veloper, Jeffrey Klein of North Palm with requests for money from people in She had to pay more than $7,300 to re- Beach, from building in Osceola after similar circumstances. pair major faults in the three-bedroom, Matzinger and dozens of her neighbors re- The county settled with Matzinger, a 40- two-bath house she bought for $122,000. A peatedly complained that their houses year-old homemaker, and her husband, private inspector she hired discovered her were falling apart. William, in late July. One key to the deal roof was missing hurricane straps — a Many of the homes in the subdivision, was keeping it quiet, according to a tran- clear building-code violation — as well as south of Orlando International Airport and script of a closed-door meeting of Osceola truss bracing and an attachment that off Boggy Creek Road, had cracked foun- County commissioners and administra- should have connected the left corner of dations, mold and drainage problems. tors. the roof to the supporting wall. Under the Some were never finished, because Klein “I would like to think that the least right circumstances, high winds could went bankrupt. He and a partner are also amount of awareness that we raise on the have taken off the roof. facing charges in New York that they de- issue overall, the better,” said Commission- Matzinger, a former retail manager who frauded investors of millions of dollars that er Ken Shipley, according to a transcript of called fighting the county and her builder a were supposed to have been spent on the July 28 meeting obtained through a full-time job, said the inspectors should Spring Lake Village. have caught the faults during their regular Now, several of Matzinger’s neighbors, checks. including Richard Young and Bob Wiley, County officials balked, saying they are also criticizing the county, citing prob- could not be held accountable for a missed lems with drainage and mold. ‘You just can’t let people get away inspection or two. So she went to small- “You think you are protected by the claims court, which limits awards to a max- county. Nobody is protected by the coun- imum of $5,000, because she did not want ty,” said Wiley, a 61-year-old retired main- with not doing their job over and to pay an attorney. tenance supervisor. Governments rarely lose such suits. Water puddles in the crawl space be- over again.’ But, according to the transcript of the com- neath Wiley’s house, because the ground is mission meeting, Osceola’s attorneys ac- too low. His house, he said, is filled with — DEYNE MATZINGER knowledged the county had erred. mildew and mold. The issue, said Assistant County Attor- Jeff DeBoer, the county’s building direc- ney Olga Sanchez De Fuentes, was the tor, said his office is not responsible. Drain- “missed inspections, which we have al- age plans for the development were sub- public-records request by the Orlando Sen- ready come clean with and said that, yes, mitted by a professional engineer — and tinel and WESH-NewsChannel 2. we did miss their hurricane straps . . .” the county is required by law to accept the Public records also show that a check Commissioners had no problem settling engineer’s certification that the drainage for $5,000 was cut for Matzinger on the suit. Their bigger worry — in a county was adequate. Aug. 26 and mailed to her home. Matzin- whose nearly 95 percent approval rate for DeBoer added that no inspection de- ger, citing terms of the settlement, inspections is the highest in Central Flori- partment — in Osceola or elsewhere — wouldn’t comment. da — was that other homeowners unhappy could guarantee that every mistake by a It was an uncommon victory for an un- with their builders and the Osceola inspec- builder will be caught. happy homeowner. Getting money from tors might try to sue for damages. “I don’t think it’s realistic to think we’ll the government is rare. There are two main That’s why attorneys recommended the get 100 percent,” he said. reasons: gag order. That may be, Matzinger said, but foul- / Government building inspectors are “She wouldn’t be able to go out and ad- ups that were missed in her neighborhood charged with looking only for code viola- vertise what the settlement was and why,” are too great to ignore. tions, mistakes — such as missing hurri- said County Attorney Jo Thacker, who de- “You just can’t let people get away,” she cane straps — that do not meet the state’s scribed Matzinger’s suit as a nuisance that said, “with not doing their job over and minimum construction requirements. was cheaper to settle than fight. over again.”

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