Yeah. I was NOT fun.

All done and said, my lawyer bill was $330K.

I sold the house for $90K to a guy that bought like ten of them in the neighborhood (they do minimal repairs and then turn them into rentals). House cost $309K to build in 1995.

After it was all over and the lawyers, engineers and such were paid off we walked away with about what the current market value of the house would have been were it normal. So you don't really get anything for all the stress and worry (which there was an abundance of).

The scumbag builder filed bankruptcy, during the process, re-incorporated under a new name and was building houses 30 miles north of me before the ink on the settlement check was even dry.

But for me, after going through that for 5 years, I would walk away from a house in a heartbeat if it's on over 3% expansive soil or if a used house has the damage you are looking at.

Also I should note, the house DID have a structural basement AND was built on piers but during deposition it came out that the builder did not follow engineer specs and the piers were not deep enough into bedrock. That right there sunk them in the eyes of the court.