FOX 13 investigates dangerous defects in new home construction

TAMPA - New housing developments are popping up all over Florida, and for the past two years, FOX 13 has investigated claims of faulty home construction. After we asked for a response from the state, the Florida Attorney General’s Office launched an investigation.

If you were to search for new construction homes in the Greater Tampa Bay Area, on a site such as Zillow or Realtor, you'll find thousands of new builds. Many of those homes are in mega-developments, like Victoria Lakes on Patterson Road in Odessa.

Once the development is complete, Victoria Lakes will have 196 homes built by Taylor Morrison and Arthur Rutenburg.

Local perspective:

Hillsborough County Commissioner Joshua Wostal is keeping a close eye on the progress at Victoria Lakes because he doesn’t want a repeat of what happened in Pasco County.

"It was pretty serious up there, so you know hopefully they've turned it around here in Hillsborough County," exclaimed Commissioner Wostal.

The commissioner is talking about Starkey Ranch. A massive community development on 2,500 acres with more than 5,000 homes. The homes were built by a number of different builders.

Commissioner Wostal said, "I do have friends that were up there in Starkey Ranch and the mold was so bad that it started to crack their counters, and they were displaced." 

One particular neighborhood called Whitfield Preserve saw a number of issues.

Resident Niteeja Likhite said, "We assume this is a new construction so we wouldn't have many problems."

But Niteeja says her family had problems from the start.

What they're saying:

"Issues that started as soon we moved. There were a lot of issues with the house, and we constantly tried to get someone to, you know, fix it, but there was always a delay," she explained.

The Likhite’s closed on their home at the start of the pandemic in February 2020, when homes in the area were going up fast. The homes in Starkey Ranch were priced from 500,000 to over a million dollars.

"One day I was in the kitchen, and it started pouring on top of my head, and I was like, where is this water coming from?" Niteeja exclaimed.

Niteeja has two daughters and her youngest was a baby at the time. She recalls having multiple de-humidifiers running non-stop to cut down on the moisture in the home.

She explained, "It was terrible with the baby, and we didn’t only have it for like a day or two with the baby, it was for two weeks in my house!"

Niteeja learned an improperly installed shower pan in her upstairs bathroom was causing the leaks and subsequent mold. Because the bathroom wasn’t used much, the issue didn’t arise until years later.

When she contacted the builder, Taylor Morrison, in 2023, she was told that because she was outside the two-year home warranty by about a year, the builder was not responsible for repairs.

An email from a corporate customer experience manager with Taylor Morrison to Niteeja states:

"The pictures indicate a lack of homeowner maintenance and Taylor Morrison is not responsible for this, whether reported within the warranty period or not."

Niteeja told us, "I was mad! That in my beautiful house, like we spent all our money on this house that we built, and this is what we got."

Niteeja's experience is not unique. Over our two-year investigation, FOX 13 spoke with a dozen homeowners who all had similar stories of mold in their new construction homes.

Those homeowners did not want to be identified, but they did create a private Facebook group called Taylor Morrison Mold of SR, or Starkey Ranch.

In the group, the 53 members share their experiences with mold, shower pan issues and even discuss a possible class action lawsuit.

READ: Florida's home insurance crisis: Investigating the risk, cost of underinsured homes

After receiving more than 30 complaints, the Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into the construction defects in Starkey Ranch. It remains open and active.

Brad Gatin has seen the mold issues firsthand. He works for Certified Mold Assessments and was hired by at least 6 homeowners to perform high-level testing in the Starkey Ranch community. We first met Brad in November 2023.

FOX 13’s Allie Corey asked Gatin, "What you found was not healthy for people to be living there?"

Gatin replied, "Personally, from the results that came back, I wouldn’t want to have my family or to be exposed myself in a home like that." 

The homes he inspected were new, they’d been built within the last two years.

Gatin explained, "It seems to be stemming from poor ventilation and then that’s causing all the ductwork to sweat and then that saturates the dry wall, and then you have mold growth occurring."

In at least one case, he says a family moved out of their home twice for mold remediation.

FOX 13 reached out to the builder, Taylor Morrison, and they told us out of the 160 homes built in the Whitfield Preserve area of Starkey Ranch, half of them needed some form of remediation. There are some homes in the community that are still dealing with HVAC and mold issues today.

A spokesperson for Taylor Morrison also told us they created a special operations team to come out and fix issues which they say stemmed from pinched ductwork, gaps around interior AC grills and supply vents in air handler unit closets that should not have been there. 

When we asked the Pasco County Building Department about these issues, they told us their department couldn't keep up with the volume of new builds during COVID, so they allowed builders to hire their own private inspectors. This is a practice afforded to them by state law.

FOX 13 made multiple interview requests to Pasco County Commissioners and the building department, they were all declined.

A spokesperson told us that as soon as FOX 13 made them aware of the issues related to the health and safety of residents in Starkey Ranch, they implemented new measures.

They sent FOX 13’s Allie Corey an email highlighting the new policies they inherited to prevent something like this from happening again.

"In the future, Pasco County will randomly select permits, which will include plan review and inspections, to be audited in accordance with Florida Statutes," the statement reads.

Commissioner Wostal says Hillsborough County is using their own inspectors who will oversee these builds every step of the way.

"I did feel a sigh of relief when I confirmed that they are using our internal people. The good news is the internal staff; that’s their one job. It’s what they do every day and so they’re really up to par on the standards," said Commissioner Wostal.

Niteeja is grateful her insurance covered the demolition and rebuild of their upstairs bathroom. Her advice to prospective homebuyers looking to buy a new home.

"My only message to them is do thorough inspections, do not trust these big builders," said Niteeja.

Construction continues at Victoria Lakes. Commissioner Wostal is confident, the work done here, will be done right.

"We will do everything that we can to make sure there’s no shortcomings that were done, no surprises that there will be such a mold infestation that you’re displaced for a year and that’s our promise to our residents," Commissioner Wostal explained.

With regard to the new development in Hillsborough, a spokesperson for Taylor Morrison told FOX 13, "At Victoria Lakes, we have applied code changes that have gone into effect since Starkey Ranch and have also addressed prior workmanship issues."

What's next:

The AG’s office is keeping their investigation open and encourages any homeowners still experiencing mold or other construction defects to file a complaint with their office.

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