‘Suspend Tottotville mortgage payments’

House Vice Speaker Timothy Villagomez is pushing for the suspension of mortgage payments by Tottotville homeowners pending the resolution of their complaints about shoddy workmanship in the construction of their homes.

In a May 11 letter to CDA executive director Marylou S. Ada and CDA board chair Sixto K. Igisomar, Villagomez said the payment should be suspended “until these matters [defective homes] are resolved.”

“It is not equitable to require the homeowners to make their mortgage payments every month while they continue to live through problems with their homes,” said the lawmaker.

In the letter, Villagomez cited CDA for its “apparent inaction” over the complaints made by homeowners since last year.

“It appears that no real course of action has been taken to address the homeowners’ concerns since making their formal complaint back in September 2004,” said Villagomez.

He said the newest development was the hiring of an independent inspector, but he said that only five homes have been inspected.

“Any finding based solely on the inspection of five homes would not be realistic under the circumstances. It would be more prudent to inspect all the homes experiencing any reported problems,” he said.

Further, Villagomez said that CDA “must be more aggressive” in its dealing with the designer, SSFM, “to ensure that the homeowners’ concerns are addressed and resolved as soon as possible.”

He said SSFM must be held accountable and liable for the problems the homeowners are experiencing today.

He said that if SFFM does not cooperate, “let the court decide the matter once and for all.’

Tottotville homeowners earlier complained of water leaks from ceilings, window sills, and exterior doors; water-damaged rear service doors due to lack of roof protection; rattling water pipe sounds on dry wall locations; peeling paint on concrete ceilings; and damaged roof tiles.

An occupant also complained of water seeping in from the floor to wall connection during heavy rain, as well as water ponding.

Another homeowner complained of ceiling leak, possibly from a crack in the concrete roof; ceiling leak between the master bedroom and toilet; leak from underneath the kitchen sink; a hole in the outside wall; water traces and wall paint bubbles; loose kitchen door pulls; and separation between concrete wall and wooden closet framings.

There are about 45 homeowners who currently live in Totottville, the first subdivision built by the CDA-run Northern Marianas Housing Corp. in 2000. The units were awarded through a lottery conducted by NMHC.

Tottotville was hailed by both government and private authorities as a model subdivision since it is fully paved, has a basketball court, and has 24-hour water and electricity.

The uniformly designed houses—each unit containing two bedrooms and a garage—were designed by Hawaii-based SSFM company and reportedly constructed by Telesource, which allegedly had subcontracted the project to smaller construction groups.

These subcontractors allegedly used cheap construction materials in building the Tottotville houses.