Letters

Shoddy Construction on the Rise? To the Editor: I just read your article “Big Builders Face Media Scrutiny” (Notebook, 11/01) and disagree with the builders who say homeowners’ complaints are "isolated incidents" — a vague term that implies that shoddy construction is rare, which is false. In our neighborhood alone, people complain verbally to those they know will understand their frustration, but when you ask them to make the complaint official, they back out. The reason isn't that they don't have legitimate complaints; it's because they see the easy way out is to cover up the defects and resell without disclosing, or just fix the defects themselves and cut their losses in order to protect their property value. It's an expensive,