Speaker of House explains his stance on Homeowner's Bill of Rights

Speaker of House explains his stance on Homeowner's Bill of Rights

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Story Published: Mar 6, 2008 at 9:17 PM PDT

Story Updated: Mar 6, 2008 at 9:17 PM PDT

By Keith Eldridge

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OLYMPIA -- The Speaker of the state House of Representatives is still standing in the way of voting on a Homeowner's Bill of Rights. KOMO 4 News is not taking a stance on this issue; we just wanted to know why Speaker Frank Chopp won't put this bill up for a vote.

The bill (SB 6385) would allow homeowners to sue contractors for things like water leaking under new homes.

The bill was crafted by democratic Sen. Brian Weinstein, D-Mercer Island.

"The House Judiciary Committee passed this bill both this year and last year. The Senate passed it, I understand the governor is in favor of it," he said.

"There are still various aspects that still need to be worked out," said Chopp.

The speaker's own party committee chairs have all expressed approval of the bill as has the governor, but Chopp says he's still not sure.

"I just think there are a lot of legitimate issues that have to be concerned about it and a lot of questions that still need to be answered about that particular proposal," he said.

"I think people are going to start to lose faith in government if we can't have democracy work and it looks like democracy is pretty close to not working in this instance," said Weinstein.

"Were still working on it," said Chopp. "There are some serious issues about when you consider this particular thing. There are still various aspects that still need to be worked out."

"I'm optimistic and I hope something can be done in the next 24 hours, but I'm getting a little worried," Weinstein said.

A year ago the house speaker said the same thing - that he wasn't ready for this bill.

When told his chair of the committee gave her full endorsement of the bill after sitting in on all of the hearings and gathering information that the speaker himself may not, Chopp said, "I've reviewed the hearing requirements or the testimony. And I've listened to quite a number of stakeholders on this who have not had the opportunity to participate in this particular bill."

The speaker says he wants to make sure a law doesn't get passed that has the unintended consequence of driving up housing costs and driving builders out of business.

The deadline for the bill to get voted on is Friday at 5pm.

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