Dream Homes Have Become Nightmares, Residents Say : Courts: More than 250 Laguna Sur Villas homeowners are suing the developer, alleging that the dwellings have numerous construction defects.

By BOB ELSTON

Jan. 31, 1993 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Even on a rainy day, Joe Sinsangkeo can gaze out the window of his son’s bedroom and see down the coastal bluff to the ocean.

But if he shifts his gaze down to the floor of his condominium, the carpet is sopping wet and the walls bubble with watermarks.

Three years ago, Sinsangkeo, 35, bought this “dream home” perched on an oceanfront bluff in the exclusive gated community of Laguna Sur Villas in Laguna Niguel. Today that $400,000 condominium is wrought with what may be roof and floor problems so severe that realtors have told him it is unsalable.

“I have invested in hell--it is a nightmare,” Sinsangkeo said. “My son wants to put up pictures of Michael Jordan on the wall and have a place to call his room, but I tell him he can’t live in there. . . . Nobody knows what is wrong with this place.”

Storm runoff invades his son’s room each time it rains, coming in through the ground-level bathroom window and soaking into the floor and rotting the walls. He has unplugged all the appliances in those rooms for fear of electrocution or fire.

Because of the conditions, his 9-year-old son, Jay, has had to live with his grandparents in Mission Viejo for more than a year while Sinsangkeo remains in the condominium, only going downstairs to vacuum the soaked and musty-smelling carpet. He said he can’t get rid of the condominium at a loss.

Sansangkeo, a manager of computer systems programming at PacifiCare, an HMO in Cypress, imagines that the only way to lose the home is to foreclosure. “I am paying my mortgage for what? To only live in half of my house?” he said. “I feel trapped.”

But he is not alone in his nightmare.

Sinsangkeo and the 252 other homeowners in the Laguna Sur Villas have shelled out $4,000 apiece to pay a $1-million legal bill to pursue a lawsuit against the developer and subcontractors involved in building the neighborhood in the late 1980s.

They are seeking untold millions of dollars in damages for what they allege to be construction defects in roofs and foundations that have cracks or leaks. The treasurer of the homeowners association, Barbara Biniasz, said that about 240 of the 253 homes in the new neighborhood have periodic roof leakage.

Some residents have installed water sensors on their floors so they can be alerted when to pull up the carpet and unplug appliances. Audrey Cox, president of one of the homeowners associations, who receives trouble calls from residents, said it is not uncommon to find water trickling out of electrical sockets.

Some other problems, according homeowners, include: * Unstable foundations that are not adequate to support their intended loads; * Misplaced or missing anchor bolts at foundations; * Walls with no foundations; * Defective attics; * Crawl-space problems; * Improperly installed roof vents; * Drywall cracks; * Stucco cracks; * Kitchen cabinets that are separating.

On Feb. 18, a judge will take the first steps toward deciding what went wrong and who is responsible for damages, in a hearing in Superior Court in Santa Ana. In that hearing, attorneys on both sides expect the court to order inspections of the individual homes, which they say could take four to six months to complete.

“The problems up there are huge,” said Robert Goff, attorney for the homeowners. “This is one of the largest construction defect cases in the state.”

The lawsuit was filed during the spring of 1991 by the two Laguna Sur Villas homeowners associations. In cross complaints, attorneys representing the developer, Homes by Polygon, claim that residents may have been overzealous in watering their lawns or constructing landscaping and that any problems cropping up were the responsibility of residents to repair.

“I anticipate this will be a very gradual process,” said Roberta Evans, attorney for Homes by Polygon. “We don’t know what is wrong out there. We have not yet had the opportunity to do site inspections.”

Polygon is based in Washington and is no longer doing business in Orange County, according to Evans. Also named in the homeowners’ lawsuit are Hon Development Co., which owned the land before Polygon, some county building inspectors and dozens of subcontractors.

The legal process may prolong headaches for some residents who last week had to bail rainwater leaking out of their ceilings.

“My son had to poke a hole in the ceiling with a screwdriver” to release water which had collected there last week, said Carol Weiss, a resident. “Otherwise the ceiling would have fallen.”

In her rented condominium, Weiss has placed a trash can in the middle of the party room where a pool table ought to be. It catches about five gallons of rainwater per week.

“I feel sorry for the people who live up here,” she said. “It is a disgrace.”