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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, April 15, 2002

Mililani plumbing woes prompt action

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Central O'ahu Writer

MILILANI — Homeowners who said they have experienced serious plumbing problems at Castle & Cooke's The Ridge development have scheduled a neighborhood meeting April 27 to discuss whether they should hire a lawyer to sue the developer.

Colleen Sagon, a resident of The Ridge development in Mililani, said she has dealt with two major plumbing problems since 1992. She said the most recent was last year, when leaking pipes in her living room wall near the bathroom flooded the carpet.

Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Punono Place resident Colleen Sagon asked her neighbors last month about leaking or ruptured pipes at the 14-year-old, 240-home tract at the south end of Mililani, above Kipapa Gulch. She said 40 homeowners responded that they have experienced plumbing problems in their walls or beneath their houses.

Problems have included drenched carpeting and water inside electrical fixtures, residents said.

Mililani developer Castle & Cooke Homes Hawai'i said the company stands behind the quality of its homes and said it believes there is not a widespread problem at the development, which was built in 1988.

"We have been dealing with a series of issues, but at the same time these are problems coming up 12 years past the (one-year) warranty," said company president Harry Saunders. "Have we had instances of failures in plumbing? Yes, but we believe these are isolated instances."

Saunders said the company has offered $1,000 to each homeowner complaining about plumbing problems. But there have been no takers, Sagon said.

Sagon said she has not been satisfied with the developer's response.

"We're not asking Castle & Cooke for anything more than what they're responsible for," Sagon said. "They keep saying it's past the warranty, but you cannot have an unusual amount of homes undergoing the same problems."

Sagon and her husband, Alan, have dealt with two major flooding incidents at their house since 1992, the most recent occurring last year from pipes in their living room wall near the bathroom. A large portion of the carpet became waterlogged and had to be removed, she said.

Sagon, unsatisfied with Castle & Cooke's response to her complaints — company officials inspected the pipes but refused to pay for damage — handed out fliers around the subdivision to see if neighbors had similar problems. Her husband, a licensed plumber, did similar repairs at several area homes, and soon after her inquiry, other homeowners began responding.

"A lot of the homeowners are angry by Castle & Cooke officials' response that the incidents were isolated, where we now think it was a larger problem," she said.

Shanon Cook, whose family lives on Apuki Street a block from the Sagons, said she has dealt with four major floods from leaky plumbing in her home since 1997. But it was signs of leakage in her kitchen ceiling just below her second-floor bathroom that startled her.

"My husband tried to take down the kitchen light fixture to clean out the bugs and dirt, and a bunch of water collected in there just spilled out and drenched him," said Cook, pointing to faded water stains near the light fixtures. "Another kitchen light near the sink doesn't even switch on now. ..."

Many of the complaining homeowners said plumbers making repairs to their homes have told them that faulty copper piping and structural problems from many of the homes' underground plumbing are most likely causes of the leaks.

Saunders acknowledged that the majority of The Ridge homes have underground plumbing, but said the company has made or paid for repairs several years past the life of the home warranties if homeowners can visually pinpoint the problem.

Since building The Ridge homes in 1988, Castle & Cooke and other developers have switched to above-ground plumbing in which pipes aren't buried under the homes' concrete foundation.

But Sagon said many homeowners also cannot afford to penetrate the concrete foundation to look for leaks and hold Castle & Cooke accountable.

"Asking us to show them the problem means we have to dig up the ground or make holes in our walls, so it's a financial Catch-22," said Sagon, who estimates it will cost about $5,000 to dig underground to inspect the plumbing.

Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.