Builder's Warranty for new construction

[Deby Julio]

Hello everyone!

About 6 months ago we bought a new construction home (3 B, 2 Baths, bonus) in South Carolina. At the time, the builder mentioned we had a 1 year builder warranty. Two weeks ago our tenant called saying that the toilets, shower, etc were clogged. I then contacted the builder to check what this could be....a 6 months old house with clogged pipes? huuummm.

The builder states he will try to help and find someone to fix, but he will not pay for it because it was not his problem. He mentioned that this is not cover under his warranty.

Ok, so where is the warranty? Let's take a look....Then we realized that we actually never got a copy of the warranty, we never signed anything, so he can say whatever he wants.

A day and half later the tenant's phone call, the builder said he contacted his plumbing guy but he is not sure when he is really going to fix it. He kept saying he was not going to pay for this bill.

As a landlord, we have to fix issues like this ASAP.

I then called a plumber myself. Just to check and unclog the pipes they charged $500. Then they found the root of the problem: A broken pipe 5 foot deep under the drive way! Oh no! This is going to be a problem! It will cost some thousands of dollar.

We tried to talk with the builder and he is really mad saying this is not his problem, not his fault. We have been "fighting" for about 2 weeks to see who will pay for this bill, who's responsibility this is......

The weird, scary part is that we are buying another new house with this builder and the closing should be in a couple of days. He should be willing to work with us (we are buying another house with him!)

My question is:

1) Is this builder responsible in fixing this pipe? (the house is only 6 months old!).

2) What should we request for this other new house (that we may be closing soon)? We do not want to make the same mistake.

3) What type of warranty should we request? Is there a minimum type of warranty we should request? What should we look for on this warranty?

This whole thing has been a headache, but we are certainly learning from it!

I appreciate all the help and advise!

Thanks a lot!

D