Building Inspection Services - SBDCNet - National SBDC Information Clearinghouse

Building Inspection Services

Excerpt:

Commercial real-estate loans are going sour at an accelerating pace, threatening to cause tens of billions of dollars in losses to banks already hurt by the housing downturn. The delinquency rate on about $700 billion in securitized loans backed by office buildings, hotels, stores and other investment property has more than doubled since September to 1.8% this month, according to data provided to The Wall Street Journal by Deutsche Bank AG. While that's low compared with the home-mortgage delinquency rate, it's just short of the highest rate during the last downturn early this decade.

Some experts say it now looks as if the current commercial real-estate slump will rival or even exceed the one in the early 1990s, when bad commercial-property debt played a big role in dragging the economy into a recession… The Federal Reserve and the Treasury are moving to adapt a funding program to make it attractive for investors to buy debt backed by office buildings, hotels, stores and other income-producing property.
The program, called the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, was begun to finance purchases of debt backed by consumer credit, and officials will expand its use to include commercial-property debt. The Fed is an institution that traditionally makes short-term debt available. In TALF, federal loans run three years, already a duration Fed officials are uncomfortable making. But even that might not be long enough to spur investor demand for commercial mortgage securities, which typically mature over 10 years.

Source:   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123802456807742287.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
-------------------------------------------------------------

Excerpt:

Two U.S. Senators have filed a bill seeking a recall and temporary ban of certain Chinese-made drywall, the latest effort to address problems with Chinese-made drywall believed to be emitting unpleasant, sulfurous odors and causing unusual air-conditioner problems in homes from Florida to Louisiana.

Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.) introduced the bill, which also asks the Consumer Product Safety Commission to conduct a study in conjunction with the National Institute for Standards and Technology and the Environmental Protection Agency. They want the study to include at least 10 samples of drywall that was imported from China during 2004 through 2007 and used in residential dwellings in the U.S. The study should include at least one sample of drywall from residences located in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia, according to the bill's text. The bill is called the Drywall Safety Act of 2009.

Reports of problem drywall first surfaced in January in Florida, where Home builder Lennar Corp. is suing two Chinese manufacturers of drywall, claiming the wallboard is defective and is causing electrical problems and emitting rotten odors in dozens of homes in the state…

The CPSC has no safety standards for drywall, a construction material commonly used to build interior walls, and the agency has said it isn't aware of other federal standards for the product. The bill asks the agency to determine whether a consumer-product-safety standard regulating the composition of materials used in drywall is necessary to protect the health and safety of residential homeowners.

Source:   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123843935950270581.html
-------------------------------------------------------------

Excerpt:

Complete with box lunches and lemonade – and a crew of onboard experts including a home inspector, mortgage lender, and representative of a title company – ReMax Haven Realty's foreclosure bus tour takes hopeful homeowners, at $15 a seat, to see the bank-owned homes that are in "short sale."

It's a nationwide trend: The foreclosure crisis – one in every 519 American households received a foreclosure filing in April, up 65 percent from a year ago – doesn't stop at the well-manicured boundaries of these affluent suburbs. Its reach extends into every neighborhood and income level. Maybe you've seen the foreclosure tours in your own neighborhood. They can be a welcome sight when your neighbor's home sits vacant for months on end.

Source:   http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0528/p20s01-usec.html
-------------------------------------------------------------

Excerpt:

As Windsor residents gear up for the first anniversary of the tornado that devastated their town, one Colorado lawmaker is protecting the people who help clean up that kind of disaster.

Rep. Don Marostica, R-Loveland, carried a bill through the Colorado legislature that grants immunity to building code inspectors who respond to disasters.

Marostica’s measure would protect inspectors from civil lawsuits if they say a building is safe, and it’s later determined to be unsafe.

It stemmed from the Windsor tornado, after Marostica and state Rep. Glenn Vaad, R-Mead, drove to the scene to help.

When the lawmakers arrived at the emergency center, several state officials hadn’t yet arrived, but building inspectors from surrounding municipalities started showing up to offer a hand.

The inspectors can tell whether a damaged structure is safe to enter or live in.

“They were real nervous about going out and inspecting, because they didn’t want a civil lawsuit against them if they did something wrong,” Marostica said.

Source:   http://www.fortcollinsnow.com/article/20090401/NEWS/904019982/1026/NONE&parentprofile=1057&title=Inside%20Politics%20%20Building%20inspectors%20protected%20from%20post-storm%20lawsuits

< Prev		Next >

SBDCNet National Information Clearinghouse

SBDC Counselor Login