Column: Knauf drywall deal doesn’t take care of everyone yet

For example, what happens to people who have remediated their own homes, at considerable expense, with the hope of recouping those costs through the legal process?

Those situations are left to be negotiated. But a number of homeowners in Florida and other states fall into that category, particularly those whose builders have been unwilling to step forward and repair the homes. Such has been the case locally, for instance, in WCI Communities’ Venetian Golf & River Club, which has the highest concentration of tainted Chinese drywall in Sarasota County.

Since the summer, several Venetian homeowners have begun their own remediations. Any global settlement with Knauf, to be considered truly global, cannot leave those victims twisting in the wind.

Also, to qualify under the current pilot program, an affected home cannot be vacant or “abandoned,” which means hundreds of people who fled their contaminated homes and sought refuge in rental housing are not eligible. The same with any home or condo the owner used as a rental property but which no one is understandably leasing it now, or homes that are bank-owned, having been repossessed through foreclosure and sitting empty.

Those restrictions make sense for the pilot program itself — the initial priority should be on targeting those still living in the corrosive environments — but any global settlement to solve the problem will have to include those “vacant” properties in the mix.

The same is true of homes that have a mix of Knauf drywall and a domestic brand — a very common situation, especially in newer subdivisions that sprang up during the boom years. Those affected homes don’t qualify for the pilot effort if they have more than five percent domestic board.

But they, too, must be included in any global settlement, and if Knauf tries to backtrack on using the comprehensive protocol established by U.S. District Court Judge Eldon E. Fallon on those homes, that could be a big problem. Fallon’s guidelines include basically gutting the home, taking out wiring and appliances in addition to removing all contaminated drywall.

That’s because it does not take much of the contaminated Chinese board to create the same corrosion and potential health effects. Many Southwest Florida homes that are clearly affected — and that are part of the litigation — fall into the category of being “mixed.”

In fact, some of the first homes the Herald-Tribune reported on when the crisis first began, such as in Lennar Corp.’s Heritage Harbour development in Manatee County, involved homes with a mix — containing, for example half Knauf drywall and half domestic, or a 70-30 split, or something similar.

But the results were the same: They had the problem.

The crucial next step to watch, then, as this pilot program for Knauf attempts to broaden into a potential global settlement for the company, is whether mixed homes are indeed brought into the fold without a fight. If that hurdle is passed early next year, then a global process for all Knauf homes has a good chance of being within reach.

The comments from Knauf’s attorney, Gregory J. Wallance, last week were cause for hope. He indicated the company was “very comfortable with the guidelines” for repairs being applied in the pilot program, and would consider expanding that approach to all homes.

All then may go well. But if not, and if Knauf attempts to challenge the established remediation guidelines when it comes to the mixed homes — trying to claim, for instance, that they do not need as comprehensive a fix — then the entire process could derail or, at the least, drag on for a much longer period of time.

That scenario would leave countless Florida homeowners, including many of those who have been dealing with Chinese drywall since the very beginning, in a limbo that with each passing day is becoming a burden harder to bear.

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