A recent case from the Court of Appeal, Blanchette v. Superior Court, highlights the need to strictly comply with the time limitations of the homebuilder's Right to Repair Act in order to claim that defense to a claim for construction defects. In 2002, the Legislature adopted what is known as the Right to Repair Act, which are a series of Civil Code provisions pertaining to new residential construction where the purchase agreement with the buyer was signed by the seller on or after Jan. 1,2003. It does not apply to remodeling projects and does not apply to homes bought before 2003. It provides that before a homeowner or a homeowners association can file suit against the builder for con-struction defects, they first must follow strict pre-litigation proce-dures which include a notice to the builder of the claim with spe-cific notice requirements; after receipt of that notice, the builder has a strict time period of 14 days to acknowledge receipt of the claim and thereafter has another 14 days to conduct an inspection; after that inspection, the builder has exactly 30 days to make an offer to repair or pay for the defects.
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