The Senate Commerce & Labor Committee meeting in Carson City was standing room only April 5 as contractors and homebuilders testified on the damage done to their businesses by construction defect lawsuits.

The overwhelming consensus was that the simple right to repair would rectify most of the reported problems and dismiss the need for expensive litigation.

R. Scott Rasmussen, representing the Nevada Subcontractors Association, called upon the State Contractors Board to act as a review panel for homeowners with construction complaints, and said that SB 516 would empower the Contractor’s Board to investigate allegations of defective work, order repairs to be made and ensure that such repairs are completed in a timely, correct manner.

"We need an independent board, someone to oversee what’s going on," Rasmussen said.

Kim Gregory, chairman of the Contractor’s Board, testified that the board the Contractors Board strongly opposed being drawn into construction defect matters. He said the board already has the ability to do what is outlined in the bill, and that a "timing" issue is the basis of their opposition.

The bill demands that all construction defect complaints go before the Contractor’s Board for review, asks the Contractor’s Board to investigate those complaints, yet does not provide for the extra time and effort necessary for the board to handle that demand in addition to their current duties.

Contractor’s Board Executive Director Margi Grein agreed that the board could find itself overwhelmed if SB 516 passed as written. She said that the board received 2064 homeowner complaints last year. 1093 of those were substantiated with 200 of them going before the board. The majority of them were resolved by the staff, who contacted the contractors and gave them notice to correct. Once corrected, those cases were resolved.

Grein estimated that it would cost $5 million dollars a year for the board to implement the requirements of SB 516.