Foundation Problems and Homebuilder's Warranty

[oklahoman]

My question involves real estate located in the State of: Oklahoma

We closed on our first home in the spring of 2007. The builder supplied the typical 1-yr homebuilder's warranty. About 9 months after moving into the house, I noticed a crack about 1/4" wide in the mortar of the brickwork in the back-left corner of the house. In addition, we noticed some severe door stick issues. We notified the builder of this, and he sent someone to 'shave off' the doors to fix the stick issue ("fix"). As we neared the 12-mo time (i.e. end of the warranty period), I notified him again that we were concerned that there may be foundation problems. Most of the exterior doors on that side of the house stick and/or do not latch properly (e.g. the deadbolts are now too low for the holes, etc), and the crown molding has shifted (broken paint seal, gaps between molding and ceiling, etc). I took many pictures of these issues, and sent some of them to him. He emailed me back (I used email since it provides written record) and reassured me every way to Sunday that these were all 'normal' and cosmetic issues associated with minor settling. I know some settling is normal for new homes, and I'm sure some of the more 'hairline'-type of mortar cracks and molding separations are cosmetic and not indicative of more substantial problems.

Since then, the doors have gotten worse, and there is a new horizontal crack in the mortar (from an exterior door to where that wall abuts another wall, approximately 5' in length). In addition, there is now a crack developing between the sloped ceiling and a wall in the living room. The two neighbors to my immediate north (we have 0.75 acre lots) have both had their foundations repaired (one of them had 13 pillars fixed/installed) by their builder, who is different from my builder.

So... Do we have any legal recourse? I can't imagine that the builder is going to be willing to pay for the foundation repairs unless legally required to do so. On one hand, we are now outside the 1-yr warranty. On the other hand, he knew about the problems before the warranty expired, and he even told me that he stopped by in person to check them out. Since the problems started some time before warranty expiration, and he was aware of the problems, does he have any responsibility for the repairs? $10,000 in foundation repairs on a house that we've owned for 18-19 months is ridiculous, but I'm not sure what we can do.

Thank you!

[Betty3]

You could try suing him in small claims court but you can only sue for up to $6,000 in small claims court in Oklahoma. You might talk to an attorney & see if you believes you have a case & possibly sue in a higher ("general") court.