Home Court Advantage: How the Building Industry Uses Forced Arbitration to Evade Accountability

Millions of new home purchasers each year are forced into binding mandatory arbitration by deceptive “warranties,” and those warranties may violate the law in as many as 17 states, Public Citizen has found. These warranties are particularly insidious because consumers often do not learn of their details until after moving into their new houses. The process is inherently secretive, and arbitration firms routinely flout the few laws that require them to disclose basic information about their cases. “The arbitration companies know that their futures depend on keeping the people who hire them happy, and that means the builders and warranty companies,” said David Arkush, the director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. “As a result, the system is stacked against the consumer.”

• Read the full report
• Read the press release
• Read the letters to state Attorneys General
• Read the statement of Michelle Rechtien