Orlando Sentinel - 11/18/04
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-locbrits18111804nov18,1,295398.story?coll=orl-news-headlines
Rain, leaks worry British homeowners
U.K. residents struggle to arrange repairs for their Florida vacation houses blighted by storms.
By Kelly Griffith
Sentinel Staff Writer
November 18, 2004
DAVENPORT -- Martin Bruton bought his vacation dream home in Four Corners in 2003, hoping to trade the drizzle of Wales for the sunshine of Central Florida for a few weeks a year.
Then came summer rains and water trickling into his house through leaky windows. Then, this year, hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne blew through -- and things went south fast.
Wind-blown rain poured through the walls of his five-bedroom, 2,500-square-foot pool house in The Abbey neighborhood, just off Ronald Reagan Parkway near the spot where Orange, Osceola, Lake and Polk counties meet. His walls were wet, his carpet soaked -- but Bruton was in Wales. After myriad long-distance efforts to assess damage and have things repaired, he returned in October but couldn't stay long enough to see it through.
"We had hoped our builders would help us, so when we left [the United States], we had made no formal arrangement for long-term repairs," said Bruton, who visits the Four Corners home about six weeks out of the year and rents it for another 25 weeks.
"We thought they would come back to us with at least a cause of the problems, but no," he said. "It seems as if now that we are in the U.K., we are out of sight and out of mind. We are awaiting advice from the lawyer and praying for dry days."
Bruton is one of thousands of Brits who've taken advantage of favorable currency exchange rates to buy second homes in the area. Real-estate brokers estimate 80 percent to 85 percent of the new homes around U.S. highways 27 and 192 are owned by Brits. In Polk County, for instance, 3,344 homes zoned for short-term rentals have U.K. owner addresses on file at the county Tax Collector's Office, and most of those are clustered in the northeast part of the county.
And like hundreds of other homes around the region, some of those houses were damaged by water seeping through their concrete-block walls, most likely because of thinly applied paint and cracks in the stuccolike material that covers the walls or around windows and doors.
The Florida Building Code does not set standards on how the paint and stuccolike material should be applied, but industry experts say mass-production builders sometimes skimp on time and materials. Most builders have termed hurricane damage the result of an "act of God" and have refused to pay for repairs.
As a result, many absentee owners -- Bruton says he's spoken to at least 20 in the area, and some in the industry say there are scores more -- find themselves with water-damaged houses, unresponsive builders, skyrocketing phone bills and unexpected airfare costs as they try to figure out from thousands of miles away what to do.
Many hire management companies to keep the homes rented out part of the year, and have leaned on them to help get repairs done. Michael Eckersley, owner of Sunsplash Vacation Homes in Davenport, said he managed about 80 homes for overseas owners. Of those, half had hurricane problems that ranged from $50,000 in damage to just a few shingles missing. In all cases, he handled everything from dealing with insurance companies to painters.
Some overseas owners pooled resources to hire their own experts to assess damage.
In some cases, the good will of neighbors helped those overseas.
Bob and Jen Gay of Cardiff, Wales, were staying in their Four Corners vacation home during the storms. They say they had water leaking in "from the outset" after buying the house in July 2003. During the hurricane season, they babysat both their and the Brutons' water woes.
"They were running with mops and buckets between our home and their own, which was leaking to a similar extent," Bruton said. "We were completely distraught, not knowing whether or not to abandon work and family commitments to jump on a plane to Florida the next day."
The Gays and Brutons are back in Wales now. Bob Gay repainted and made enough repairs to rent the house to another family from the U.K. last week. But the aftereffects of the damage are evident.
"It smells damp," said Mark Turnham, who has eight family members staying in the Windsor Place home.
Said Jen Gay, 58, who owns a plant business just outside Cardiff, the capital city: "It is very difficult dealing with this from Britain, and we are worried that water will ingress again before we can get the house repaired."
Getting the houses ready for rentals is key for Brits, they say. Many rent the homes out at least half the year to help pay for them. Bruton's next guests are due at Thanksgiving, and he hopes the paint and sealer he applied to the interior are enough. After Frances, he had all the windows and doors re-sealed. But during Jeanne, water poured in again.
His management company dried the carpets and bedding, and a friend cleaned up. Returning in October, Bruton organized a meeting, hired an engineer and mold inspector, and finally made some of the paint and interior fixes the best he could himself. He said mold is already visible.
The owner of a painting and decorating company in the U.K., Bruton expects trouble if there's rain. He also worries that if mold spreads in the cavity of the home, he won't be able to rent at all.
Bruton's builder, Dean Homes, would not comment on the issue. Bruton said the company responded to his complaints shortly after he bought the house and recaulked around windows. He said he has met with the builder since the hurricanes but hasn't been satisfied with the response so far.
He still hopes the builder will help.
Matt Allen, broker at Holiday Homes & Villas in Davenport, specializes in sales to British buyers and said he took dozens of frantic calls after the storms from buyers who needed someone to check on their homes. So far, he hasn't seen sales drop, but he is getting more questions about construction.
Ray Walker, a Disney-area real-estate salesman to overseas buyers, said the distance can be difficult when an owner is hungry for information. He estimates that he talked to 20 or so overseas owners after the storms, many of whom may not return until Christmas.
"Never," said Bruton, "has 5,000 miles seemed so far."
Kelly Griffith can be reached
at kgriffith@orlandosentinel.com
or 863-422-5908.
