Dark side of the housing boom: Shoddy work; Steps you can take if you find yourself living in a poorly made home.

U.S.A. -"Less than a year after moving into her new 2,100-square-foot house in Lenexa, Kans., Susan Sabin has strung up lemon lights in her front window. The lemons, she says, go perfectly with the home's most prominent features: jammed doors, warped windows, bent pipes and cracked walls. 'The house is essentially splitting in two,' says Sabin...now stories of shifting soil, leaky roofs, damaged stucco and other construction defects abound...the building frenzy also opened the door for unskilled labor, unscrupulous contractors and untested products...Contractor problems rank among the most common consumer complaints, according to the Better Business Bureau...What do you do? A lawsuit is bound to be expensive and messy, if you can even get in front of a jury at all; many builder's contracts nowadays include a binding-arbitration clause that essentially waives your right to a jury trial....Here's how to evaluate the likelihood that you'll be able to get your home repaired at minimal cost, and your plan of action."...
June 21 2007: 6:59 PM EDT