Reader comments
Disabled woman fighting for accessible home

I'll put them on my list of builders to NEVER use.

"Just buy the house first, THEN we'll fix the mistakes" (and meanwhile, they'll sneaky-sneak some tiny words into the written contract, negating that verbal promise and the buyers would be stuck with the mistake-ridden house).

In the midst of a housing downturn, it's mind-boggling why a builder wouldn't want to build the home that the customer ordered!

I've heard too many builder horror stories from buyers of Utah's largest home-builders' products.
In no way would I want to do business with any of them.

If this builder was smart, they'd realize that light switches can be on two levels, that an aging population will want more homes like this, and that ADA homes are increasingly in demand.

Richmond, step up. Give the buyer want they want, NOT what YOU want to build. THEN, they'll buy it.

The Ugolinis are obviously smarter than the average gullible Utah homebuyer.

Good for you! 13 years ago, I had a home built specifically for my handicapped son. The builder knew it, but still did not make accomodations that we requested. The "ramp" into the garage was 8 inches high and only 3 feet long. My son was once pushed out of the house on that ramp by my ex-husband, too fast, and because of the inadequate grade of the ramp, my son fell forward and smacked the bumper of a car with his face. The builder at least complied with the wider hallways and some wider doors. The builder treated the seriousness of our son's situation as no big deal, even tho we were stressing the importance of my son's ability to access and paying premium dollar to build the home.
8 years later I went through my divorce and part of the court proceedings was to decide who should live in the home. That same builder came to court to testify for my ex-husband that the home did not have any special accomodations for a handicapped person. I GUESS THE BUILDER GOT THAT PART RIGHT!

A builder can build it if they have drawings to show what you want. Obviously Richmond didn't hire a designer or architect that knew much about designing to meet ADAAG or ICC/Ansi A117.1-2003 (or 2006). If you don't have a basement and use slab-on grade, it is fairly easy to start. If you do have a basement, make it deep, and hang the joists from the wood sill plate.

Many commercial architects or builders would know how to do this, and there are companies like ASSIST that help a lot of people. Richmond obviously didn't hire anyone to help them, and they don't do this typically.

Ramps should be 1:12. That takes a lot of room. You are better designing the house so it doesn't need a ramp. Ramps steeper than 1:8 are usually worse than stairs for safety.

As a recent home builder I have to say that I'm not surprised. If you have special modifications that need to be made I certainly would not go with a big developer like Richmond. You'd be much better off to buy a plot of land where you can choose your own builder. That's what I did. But even at that, general contractors usually have several homes that they're working on at a time and details slip through the cracks if you're not on top of it all the time. You really need to visit the home at least once a week during the building process to make sure things are being done as you asked. Building a home is definitely a "live and learn" experience but one bit of advice I'd give to anyone building a new home is to visit the home at least once a week during construction.

No, they are not being "deliberately discriminatory" but can they not follow directions? This is not carpet color, it is ability to live safely. And comfortably.
Disabled persons don't really want more privileges, just want the same ones.

It's really not a discrimination issue. It's just simply that if you want someone to build you a highly customized home you shouldn't hire a company that specializes in cookie-cutter home building. Surely there are general contractors out there that specialize in wheelchair accessible homes. You just need to find one.

Richmond shouldn't have agreed to build the house as needed if they couldn't follow directions. And a custom home builder would probably have charged a lot more for less house. I hope the court makes them fix all the mistakes so that the original contract is fulfilled as ordered.

Builders can't follow directions even when building from a standard blueprint. The only recourse is to inspect each day what has been done and get the mistakes corrected before allowing the builder to continue.

The point of the matter is these people did not get what they paid for. How hard can it be for a builder to follow building instructions? There is no excuse. It's sickening to hear about story after story of people getting taken by building companies/developers, let alone people with disabilities who absolutely need their homes to be a certain way in order for them to be able to function in their everyday lives.

I'm glad these people are not giving up. Give them what they paid for- a house with specific accommodations. Consumers shouldn't keep settling for less. Hold these companies accountable for what was agreed upon and don't settle!

It would be good if some of the govt agencies that build new homes would at least make some effort at universal design. They don't,they won't and they are using HUD money Wow, how helpful can you get. I hear it said that no one will buy them. I don't believe it. They build some rather high end stuff, brick siding, garages, AC, tile floors, but nothing in the way of 36" doorway, slightly larger bathrooms, or no-step entryways. Making a house convertable to accessible isn't all that hard, or expensive. Maybe the housing agencies should step up and actually help folks. Isn't that why the taxpayers fund these agencies?

It;s not an discrimination issue, it's an incompitance issue!

Unless they meet your demands, don't give up. You should get what you paid for. Very weak excuse of the "builder don't get it right 100% of the time", even with instructions of what is needed for this lady's special requirements? And don't buy the house with the excuse they will fix it to meet your requirement later. Once you buy the house, most of the outside fixtures are not under warrenty or contract for the builder to fix it.

Was there a contract? Were changes made and initialed/signed and incorporated into the contract? If so, the Builder has no excuse whatsoever, and by not fulfilling the contract the Builder cannot force the Buyer to buy! If the Builder did not have the plans and specifications changed and delivered to the actual construction team, then that was another failure on their part.

Also, is there no Building Supervisor on these sites that makes sure the buildings are going up according to the contract, plans and specs?

We're planning to relocate to Utah when my husband finishes his current employment commitment. There's no way in heaven that we'll use Richmond.

It is a breach of contract and also and foremost a DISCRIMINATORY action because Richmond deliberately ignored that they were building that house for a DISABLE person.

This article understandably doesn�t tell the whole story. We consulted an architect who came to the preconstruction meeting to help with Universal Design. Richmond�s architect drew the plans accordingly. The whole process took nearly four months. We visited the building site almost daily, taking 1000s of pictures. We pointed out the mistakes, but Richmond misrepresented their mistakes by blaming the sewer line. We were never allowed the Four-Way.
A Professional Engineer has determined that the house could have been built almost 5 feet lower to allow a reasonable 5% slope as per contract. It pains us that the Antidiscrimination Division�s report was based on outrageous fallacies. It even sought to change the contract to our detriment. We have requested that Gov. Huntsman audit the case, We do not want our case to be a negative precedent and harm other disabled persons who need accessible housing.

If you want a home with a lot of customizations... Don't go with a group that specialises in cranking out a certain number of cookie-cutter floor plans.

If you want a custom home with everything built to your individual needs and specifications... You need to design it that way from the begining, instead of making a grundle of verbal modifications to a standard model.

I have family who live in Richmond Homes (Lehi). From everything I've heard or seen they are excelent and fit their needs (but they learned you must keep a close eye on them to make sure any customiations requested are done right). These crews are used to banging out a standard floorplan in a few days. Sometimes customizations don't get communicated correctly or are not executed correctly (these crews don't specialize in custom home construction).

People just need to know what they're getting into. Richmond, Ivory, etc, don't specialize in building custom homes. There ARE builders out there who do design homes from the ground up to fit your individual needs (instead of starting with a standard model and making small customizations), but it costs much more.

Richmond should know their limitations and turn-this-type-of-job-down-or-commit-to-do-it-right.

There's always more to a story. This article should raise more questions, and definitely we all would benefit from supporting disability rights for them to live as others do. "Trusted" government and builders must be held accountable for the general public good.

why don't you people ever post anything i write what goes

Perhaps I'm being overly judgemental, I have a hard time seeing how a builder knowing that a cripled person needs a certain type of house, is given the particulars, goes ahead and leaves these very essential parts of the house out.

I just don't get it, other than the fact that the builder is a very careless / disorganized person or just blew her off.