Thread: Question regarding HUD Form

Hello-
I currently live in a subdivision in South-Central Texas which is built on expansive soil. Of the approximately 300 houses in this subdivision, over 70 are experiencing mild to severe problems with the foundations. As you can imagine, the whole neighborhood is up in arms and quite a few people are lobbying for the builder to buy the homes back.
A committee has formed in the neighborhood and one of the interesting items that they have discovered is that on the HUD form, I believe it is called the "Builders Certificate", there are boxes to check off that asked if the house is built on expansive soil, land fill, fill dirt or a water source. The builder checked no to all of these items. But, when questioned about why we are having all of these problems they state that you have to expect this sort of thing because the house is built on expansive soil. My question is, did the builder lie on the HUD form?
There are a lot of rumors swirling around about the builder falsifying a federal document but I can't imagine a national builder could get away with this. Has anyone heard of anything like this before? Thank you for your help with this matter.

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A developer lie on a disclosure form? NO WAY
Of course the developer would fill out any form honestly and accurately regardless of how it might affect his ability to do a project or change his profit margin.
You are asking if he lied. The real answer is probably. His answer, that will be stated by his attorney, will be something like:
He didn't know; it was an oversight; a flunky who has since been fired filled out the forms; what expansive soil; we are unaware of any scientific data that shows that this area has sufficient soil conditions to cause such problems; the planet is a living thing that is ever changing; my client is broke and his LLC is dissolved; etc.
In defect/litigation stuff like this I suggest people look at the big picture. Hiring an attorney, even just for some initial paperwork review, can save a lot of time, hassle and unnecessary speculation.
"We want to sue the developer and have him buy the houses back".
Sounds great, go after the SOB. But is that realistic? Does he have any money, does your States' laws allow for such action, is it feasible under the sale contract and disclosure form to even attempt such action. These are fairly basic questions an attorney can resolve. If YES, then great time to move onto the next steps involved in going after the developer. If NO, then maybe its time to evaluate how YOU and your neighbors are going to deal with your houses.
To start you could put together a funding mechanism to get a soil engineering report and remediation options.
Hope that helps.

Thanks for the quick (and informative!) reply Markus. The committee has the soil report and the geotechnical report. They are a smart group and hopefully we will have a fair outcome from this mess. The builder is a well-known national company and can well afford to buy these houses back. Funny enough, I specifically stayed away from KB Homes because of their reputation, but they have a subdivision right next to mine and they are experiencing zero problems! Each lot was soil tested and they have specific plans for each different lot. Imagine! KB Homes did the right thing! Once again, thank you for your response. It was helpful.