To my neighbors

To my neighbors,

Sure, we’ve all dealt with a lot worse than missing hurricane clips. But that’s no reason to turn a deaf ear to the missing hurricane clip problem here, even if you don’t live in a house that was built in 2004, 2005, 2006, or early 2007. Your neighbors do.

Do you want to know what you can do? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Let the SCHHCA know through your neighborhood rep, board members, etc. that any issue that involves more than 2,000 houses here is their issue too. If they won’t change their charter, then we need a homeowners’ association (a homeowners' association is a distinctly different concept than the community association that we've got--it's like the homeowners' associations that you've known all your life--that represent your interests.) . Remember, we vote.

2. Let our Beaufort County councilman, Jerry Stewart, know that any issue that involves more than 2,000 houses here is his issue too. Let him know how you feel about personnel from the Beaufort County Building Code Enforcement office making false and misleading statements to the newspaper (8/18 Bluffton Today) and to us. Tell him that when he tells a constituent that he will “keep him informed” on an important issue that you expect him to do so. Cc chairman Wes Newton. Remember, we vote. http://bcgov.net/

3. File a complaint with the SC PE board stating that Pulte’s engineer, Charles Thom, made public statements that “Sun City homes are robustly constructed” when he had not inspected the houses in question. Tell them that you object to a professional engineer making false and misleading public statements. http://www.llr.state.sc.us/POL/Engineers/index.asp?file=complaint.htm

4. Send your facts and photos of your house’s valley truss connections’ problems to me and I’ll post them in http://peretired.blogspot.com/

5. Tell a friend or friends about Pulte deciding not to install hurricane clips on valley trusses in houses that it built here after 2003. Tell them that they’re installing them now, but that they refuse to install them in houses built in 2004, 2005, 2006, and early 2007.

6. Stay informed: http://www.poorlybuiltbypulte.info/ , http://www.fightdelwebb.com/ and http://www.suncityblufftonhomedefectclaims.com/index.asp are websites that you should visit frequently.

Finally, a few of you have asked me what to do. As a retired civil engineer with more than 35 years experience, I must tell you that I think that you should have hurricane clips on your valley trusses. But, as a neighbor, I understand that it’s difficult finding someone to do the work, that you may not have the money, that you have insurance, that you have other, more important things to deal with, etc. After all, we’ve all dealt with a lot worse than missing hurricane clips.