Comments on: UPDATED: City Says Builders Repeatedly Shirked Inspection Rules

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:04:51 +0000

Regrettably, Mr. Covington is a sub-par builder and a WU scofflaw. Please Google that fact accordingly. His pattern of unprofessional, inconsiderate and illegal behavior is exemplified by a blatant intentional disregard of WU standards, with which the rest of us readily comply. On top of that, he can’t pay what he owes to WU, nor the banks that unfortunately financed him.

PS Apparently, his attorney, Ron Simon, lives in a house built by Mr. Covington.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:56:20 +0000

The City’s Building Department has an open file on each and every home from start to completion. I find some fault with the management of the projects by the City. Yes, the builders are at fault, but the lack of record keeping and follow-up on the part of the City leaves you wonder who is running the store!

By: WU Resident

WU Resident — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:41:36 +0000

What should one do when a builder or contractor attempts to extort money from you? I have heard examples of people who are near completion of a project and the builder/contractor request that they provide more money or face the risk of not receiveing their permits or certificate of occupancy. It sounds like a civil matter but it sure seems wrong to deny someone the right to move back into their home.

By: WU Resident

WU Resident — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:56:15 +0000

This article comes as no surprise. People who have delt with Covington Builders say that they cut corners all the time and that they regularly perform work without proper permitting. Apparently, their main office was even flagged by the City of Houston for similar noncompliance and the city forced them to cease use of the building for some period of time.

By: George Boehme

George Boehme — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:15:07 +0000

John Brown, the current West U Chief Building Official has been with the West U for a little over a year. He is doing a great job. However I believe West U has had six different CBOs since 2000, so Brown had an unsettled sea to wade though. He discovered that Covington Builders had not obtained the required Certificates of Occupancy for an assortment of the homes they had built in West U going back many years. Brown brought this issue forward to the West University Place Building and Standards Commission with a recommendation for total compliance, and if that could not be achieved a six month suspension of the contractors license would be warranted. At the last meeting of the BSC, they recommended one last attempt to achieve total compliance before suspending Covington’s license. The BSC instructed him to meet with Brown to arrange for compliance with the code requirements. The BSC is an appointed group of West U residents that are appointed to two year terms by the City Council. However their actions and decisions ARE NOT subject to the review of the City Council. And for whatever reason, the BSC decided not to follow the recommendation of John Brown and the city staff to revoke Covington’s license unless he immediately complied with all laws and instead decided to give him another month to comply. As a city councilmember, I want to send a very strong message that we are enforcing our building codes strictly and respond instantly and aggressively against those who ignore them. In my view, that is exactly what John Brown and the city staff did in this instance.

By: NG

NG — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:31:40 +0000

There is NO EXCUSE for anyone, especially licensed builders and other professionals, not complying with West U building codes and other rules. However, the City of West U has created the current situation / problem regarding building permits and regulations. Many times the folks in the office are arrogant and just plain rude. Recently I was in for some remodeling permits. Two different people interpreted the rules differently. Finally out of frustration I insisted the interpretation be put in writing. When it came time for the inspection, the inspector didn’t even know what he was to inspect, I had to tell him. As with a previous comment, he just “knocked around” and left.

By: W U Builder/Resident

W U Builder/Resident — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:12:12 +0000

Susie is indeed spot on. As long as residents continue to subvert the process themselves, there will be the unscrupulous waiting in the wings to take advantage of that fact. My concern is that all builder’s are being tarred with the same brush here. That is far from being the case. Most of those who build in West U are honorable and understand the benefit and advantages of having a clear inspection process for all the parties involved, as a matter of fact they actually welcome the relationship and requirements because it is inarguable that it leads directly to a better built home for the home buyer. Those who do not, and subvert the process, should lose the privilege of building, end of story. And shame on the residents who are scofflaws themselves and become part and parcel of the problem with shoddy, negligent building practices.

By: Susie

Susie — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:20:34 +0000

There are “builders” all over the neighborhood doing renovations that don’t even bother to get permits. I say this from personal experience because I requested a bid on a $100K+ renovation and was told by the contractor that he didn’t “do the whole West U permitting thing”. Needless to say, I didn’t give him the job, but know that he does work all over town. Badly.

By: W U Builder/Resident

W U Builder/Resident — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:19:35 +0000

You, as a citizen, are either grossly misinformed as to the procedural requirements, or ignoring them as these builders did. Experience with building a pool has little to do with the complete inspection process required of single family residential construction.

It is not the city’s responsibility to comply with building regulations, it is specifically, and legally, the builder’s responsibility. The City will not, and can not, perform any specific building inspection on new residential construction until requested to do so by the builder. There is a card issued to every builder at the start of each project which must be maintained by the builder and turned in, completed, to the city prior to the home’s final inspection. The builder must initiate each inspection therein, and only when the property is ready for that particular inspection. The city has absolutely no knowledge, and thus no responsibility, in initiating these required inspections at the appropriate time since ONLY the builder has this knowledge.

Some of you are trying to excuse these examples of gross negligence by blaming it on the city. Neither you, nor the builder’s in question, will prevail because you are morally and legally on the wrong side of this issue, granted a rare case where these two concepts coincide in today’s culture.

I guarantee you the builders in question will ultimately have to live with the consequences of their negligence, more than likely through civil action. You scoff at the law, you ultimately pay the price. To do otherwise, or to attempt to excuse it with misguided sentiment, will be to the detriment of both present and future home owners in this city.

By: senior resident

senior resident — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:38:17 +0000

These responses are just the beginning of a flood of complaints about the inspection process. Before we moved into our house we couldn’t schedule an inspector immediately. We wanted our college student son to stay in the house until they came and when I told city hall that, the response – delivered in a nasty tone – was that we would be fined $1,000 a day for such an “infraction.”

Several years later, as construction next door turned out old house’s lower lot into a lake, the new inspector refused to allow us to put in drains. He was gone in three months and the next inspector allowed drains- but no one ever called us and told us that. We spent a lot of money trying to remedy the problem without drains. And I could go on, and so can dozens if not hundreds of others.

By: West U. Citizen

West U. Citizen — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:35:23 +0000

Our experience building a pool and dealing with city inspectors was all “miss”. Unattentive. Disdainful. Disrespectful. I watched the guy prod around with a stick for a few seconds before running off. Drainage inspection – check. No wonder the original drainage on my house was a disaster. These guys are nothing more than a profit center for the city. You can drag Covington under a bus but this also highlights the shoddy work performed by the city inspectors. They are not there for our safety but rather to fill the coffers with fees and the files with paper clutter.

By: Covington owner

Covington owner — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 01:54:31 +0000

Robert is an excellent and responsive builder. I should know, I live in a home that he built. If they want to compare records, then let’s have an airing of the workflow, consistency, and decisions coming out of our own planning office. His record of making West U a better community no doubt stands up well compared to that of our city officials. Whenever a home site comes up for redevelopment on my street, I’ve always hoped for a Covington built home. I still do.

By: W U Builder/Resident

W U Builder/Resident — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:06:26 +0000

An excellent article. However, to have not had a “Building Final” is not necessarily the benign thing made out to be in the article and could well mean that some of these homes indeed have unsafe components!

There are many safety issues and possible code violations that are addressed ONLY during WestU’s “Building Final” … just one of those being compliance of the home’s stairs, stair wells, and railing. Noncompliance of these particular items being some of the most common cause of serious accidents in the home, particularly of children and the elderly. That these homes were sold without a “Building Final” and subsequent COA, is totally inexcusable, shows a total lack of regard for the safety of the buyers, and borders on criminal negligence.

For those trying to gloss this over, there is NO excuse for this behavior by any builder; compliance _is_ the responsibility, by law of the builder, not the City; and lack thereof should be a reason for criminal action.

Sorry, folks … this is potentially SERIOUS business.

By: West U Resident

West U Resident — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:45:10 +0000

I blame the City for a very poor checks & balance system. The Builders pay a high fee to cover the expenses of the City to come to the property to do these inspections. If a house is over a year old and not complete , the City should have a follow up system to see what status the house in. The problem coming up is there will NOT be as much new construction, so those tax dollars will NOT be coming into the City, they will neeed to find new ways to generate dollars? They are picking on Covington, he is a neighbor, a friend and gives back to this community. Atleast it isn’t costing the City as much as The City’s error on the Marlowe/Pedan house, that was because of City allowed error on their end on permits.

By: Z

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:22:48 +0000

This clearly shows that Covington Builders’ poor reputation is deserved — his clear disdain for the rules, laws and regulations, his disregard for customer service and job completion, and his lack of integrity. Glad the city is paying attention to what many of his home buyers have experienced first hand, as they clean up the many messes he creates. He is a builder who does not care about the end product unless he makes lots of money. This is why he has a lawyer on retainer.

By: G

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:31:31 +0000

EXCELLENT article Angela! Robert is a stand-up person, though a bit scattered at times. I hope WU doesn’t turn this into a witch hunt — fine him, let him fix the issues, and move on. He and his family are a credit to the neighborhood, both by their presence and by the homes he builds.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:11:09 +0000

Great article. I put a pool in last summer. Dealing with the WU building inspectors was “hit or miss.” Some of the staff at the city were great, others should be fired. I had to change pool builders after my first choice gave up when he was told by one of the city permits people he would want to commit suicide before finishing with the city. This after I spent 2 months working collecting references and completing the design.

As a sub note – The tree convenience in West U must to go. The only reason for this policy is to keep a few tree inspectors employed. If people can’t take unwanted trees out – they have to wait for a hurricanes.

Peter