This is Turtle.

If a Builder has a warrrenty written up as a extra cost to warrent his work
you can refuse it anytime you like and have them subtract it from the cost
of the sale. You have to state cost of the warrenty or your commiting fraud
by hiding it from the comsumer.

Now in the State Of Louisiana there is a consumer law that says and I quote
here. If a Realstate company or Builder in the State of Louisiana sells a
home. he / she / it is responisible for any deffects know or unknown for 2
years. No if ,and's , or but's. There is really no warrenty sold here on the
new home for builders and realistate brokers all pay insurance if they fail
to fix or repair anything under this provission. Now the State will pull
their licences to operate in the state along with having to pay the repairs.

There has been a case like this where the Builder got the buyer to sign a
waver to warrenty and did not explain it to him. The buyer had trouble and
called the builder and he pulled out the waver agreement and when the smoke
cleared . The builder licences was pulled for doing business in Louisiana
for 90 days , paid another contractor to fix the problem, and paid all legal
fees.

If a builder / realstate dealer want to sell a warrenty to fix it. he is
more than welcome to do so and con the buyer out of the cost but if the
warrenty do pay all the expence in full. the burden of cost falls back on
the Builder / realstate dealer . Here a realstate dealer will pay for the
warrenty to put it between the buyer and them to take up most of the cost.
Now if cost does rize about warrent. Look out here it comes.

Louisiana figured out the fast talking lawyer years ago and put a stop to
the whip lash dealing here. Other staste may let you get away with this but
Louisiana don't allow it at all.

You would be correct if the warranty is an option. And in general all extra
cost warranties are a bad idea, better to bank the money and use it if needed.
The builder is obligated to meet codes and to produce a merchantable product in
any case.

But the case in point involves a warranty which was touted up front and was
included (hidden) in the sell price. These third party warranties are just a
means to avoid having the keep fixers on hand and to let someone else deal with
the after market support. The give nervous home buyers a false sense of
security. The last home I sold, the buyer wanted a specific homeowners warranty
on my nickel. I suspect her agent had put her up to it no doubt for an extra
commission. I told the agent it they wanted a warranty then go buy it
themselves. The deal went through without a warranty.

Regards,

John