2,044 Indianapolis-Area Homeowners Win $24 Million Settlement Over Mold-Ridden Trinity Homes

Starting in 1998, Trinity Homes LLC built thousands of houses across the Indianapolis metro area, pricing them between roughly $200,000 and $500,000 and marketing them to families looking for new construction. What buyers did not know was that the brick exteriors were going up without a moisture barrier and without the one-inch air space between the brick veneer and the wall sheathing that Indiana Building Code required. Rain that worked its way into those exterior walls had nowhere to go.

Over the following years, water collected inside walls, rotted sheathing, and fed mold and mildew that eventually reached interior spaces. Homeowners in Boone, Hamilton, Hendricks, and Marion counties began reporting the same pattern: roof leaks, warped walls, and visible mold. By the time the class action was filed, the class of buyers and current owners of Trinity homes built between June 1998 and October 2002 numbered more than 2,100 households.

Cohen and Malad, LLP, working alongside co-counsel Plews Shadley Racher and Braun, represented the class. Richard Shevitz of Cohen and Malad was among the attorneys at the table for the homeowners. The litigation pressed Trinity and Beazer Homes Investment Corp., the Atlanta-based parent company, to account for construction that fell short of code on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood scale across the entire metropolitan area.

On October 21, 2004, Hamilton County Superior Court 2 Judge Bernard L. Pylitt approved a 50-page settlement agreement, finding it fair and adequate for the class. The deal required Beazer to fund $24 million in warranty reserves to investigate and repair every affected home, with work overseen by an independent construction management firm and a three-engineer dispute resolution panel. Defendants were required to assess at least 216 homes every six months and complete repairs on each house within 16 weeks. A fresh two-year warranty attached to every repaired home upon completion.

Of the 2,161 class members notified, only eight filed objections, and 40 homeowners opted out to pursue individual claims. The claims period ran through February 2005, producing 1,310 valid claims. Court records showed 2,044 homes ultimately covered by the settlement.