The list of my clients who have had frustrating and costly run-ins with the TRCC is long. Not a single one of them has received even an iota relief from their builder through the infamous and feckless SIRP (State-Sponsored Inspection and Dispute Resolution Process).

For those of you who are interested the process works like this. TRCC will not even listen to a complaint until after a house has received a certificate of occupancy and is in fact occupied. Now in my world, if an agency actually wanted to insure code compliance and level of quality of workmanship, the time to get involved would be during the construction process; not after it is over. Am I off track here?

So, happy unsuspecting homeowner moves all of his cheap Chinese junk into his new home only to find that the upstairs toilets are serving double duty as fountains for downstairs residents' amusement, the windows and doors also double as exercise machines, his children have made up games around determining which faucets are hot or cold throughout the house, all of the plumbing on the north wall freezes when it gets below 30°, the attic stairs fall down when his 120 lb. wife goes up them with a string of x-mas lights, the dishwasher air gap also cleans the granite counters whenever the machine is run, the AFCI breakers trip when anything is plugged into a bedroom receptacle, the A/C duct system is so poorly balanced that walking through the house is like going on vacation to different climates, et al. You've got the picture, right?

He's called the builder and his drooling henchmen contractors in several times to no avail. Every time they come to look at or fix anything, which is not all that often, the break, damage or totally destroy something else, which of course gets added to the ever burgeoning number of things gone wrong. He's just about to drive down to the local pawn shop and purchase 9mm of relief when he remembers he's got a warranty and the TRCC on his side. God bless Texas!

So he goes on their site, downloads the reams of paperwork, and files a claim, and pays his fee (tax). Weeks, maybe months, later they contact him to say that one of their inspectors is riding to the rescue. Happy homeowner's major concerns at this point are plumbing issues. The inspector sent out is there for the plumbing issues noted in the complaint. As a plumbing inspector he immediately sees a number of other plumbing-related items that require repair. But, TRCC will not allow, and actually specifically proscribes him from mentioning those things either verbally or in writing. He can only myopically approach the subject that is written in the complaint.

Let's say then that homeowner boy gets lucky and the inspector agrees that his complaints have merit. He reports to TRCC. TRCC then tells the builder that these things are wrong and he should fix them. The builder disagrees. That's the end of the process. TRCC has no power (and usually no desire) to force compliance.

Where does this leave happy homeowner? Well, now he has the right to pony up even more money to his attorney and sue the bastards. So, why couldn't he have just done so in the first place? Simple. TRCC is in place to create multiple burning hoops for the homeowner to jump through on his way to court. The hope is that he will become discouraged and dissuaded along the way. It almost always happens that way.

So, any of you who actually believes in the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, Osama bin Laden, and that the military is about to shoot a rocket at a failed satellite just because it has fuel on board, will also believe that the Texas Residential Construction Commission is a consumer protection agency.

Aaron