Toilets left unconnected to the sewer, flushing waste under a new home for nearly a year in South Carolina.

Improper repairs to an uneven floor that caused the possible loss of structural integrity of one house in southern Ohio.

A lack of waterproofing causing rotting wood and major structural damage at a seaside condominium complex on the coast of Maryland.

These examples of construction defects and mistakes share more than just the same company behind the work. The affected homeowners also say they faced major legal and operational hurdles from Ryan Homes, the nation’s fourth-largest homebuilder, when trying to get their houses repaired.

And they weren't alone. A USA TODAY Network investigation shows that Ryan Homes ignored warranty requests for dozens if not hundreds of customers nationally. The builder forced customers into lengthy delays, and then fought many of these claims in court, the investigation found.

Ryan, part of a publicly-traded conglomerate that builds more than 18,000 homes a year and churns out $800 million a year in profits, also demanded customers enter into restrictive arbitration agreements and agree never to publicly discuss their cases or repairs, homeowners say.

The secrecy means even more customers may have been affected and settled for less than they were possibly entitled to, but they are not allowed to talk about it.

Building continues on homes in the Ryan Homes' Pine Bluff subdivision in Milford, Ohio. Ryan Homes has been in business since 1948 and operates in 14 states. Liz Dufour/Cincinnati Enquirer

Veronica Stevens of suburban Columbia, S.C., recalls being “furious” when a home inspector she hired told her that workers failed to hook up two toilets to the discharge pipe in her new home.

That meant any flushed waste poured onto the ground in the crawlspace under the house – including when Stevens' family hosted 125 people for a Christmas party.

“Every one of them used that bathroom,” Stevens said.

She and her husband, Jonathan, previously complained to Ryan officials about the smell, and she says a Ryan worker told her he climbed under the house without dirtying his shirt and blamed it on a piece of moldy cardboard.

After the mistake was discovered, the company offered $17,000 initially and barely cleaned up the waste, Stevens says. So the couple felt forced to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit.

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“It was horrible … and then the lady adds insult to injury” with the initial settlement offer, Veronica Stevens said. “They also wanted us to cancel our warranty if we settled. We try to be nice people, but they mistook our kindness for weakness.

“What they saw was that they could squeeze us, that we were in need. No – wrong couple,” she said.

A spokesman for NVR, Inc., the holding company that owns Ryan Homes, declined to comment on any of the cases and on its legal practices. Curt McKay said it was NVR’s policy not to give interviews to the press.

Arbitration: Tool to aid builders or owners?

Arbitration and non-disclosure agreements are common in the homebuilding industry, experts say, and industry officials say they speed up claims and protect both the homeowner and builder.

But consumer advocates say such tactics are weighted against homeowners who can’t muster much of a legal battle against companies as large as Ryan.

“It is just hellacious what consumers have to go through afterward for legitimate problems,” said Jack Gillis, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group. “It’s beyond comprehension to me why these monolithic companies don’t just swoop in and fix the problem – it’s instant good marketing.”

Others say Ryan takes such “legal bullying” to the extreme, although the approach is common in the homebuilding industry, experts say.

One likened it to an automaker refusing to make repairs after a new car breaks down unless the owner agrees to less than what was promised in the warranty and then not talk about the incident.

"It's difficult for an individual homeowner to redress a grievance or get a defect corrected without a large entanglement that may or may not involve an attorney," said Lee Martin, a former county building official who is now a forensic architect for Robson Forensic, Inc., a Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based firm that does research for lawyers and insurance adjusters.

Arbitration, in particular, has “turned out to be a really disastrous process for consumers" and is especially serious for homeowners, said Paul Bland, executive director of Public Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer and legal advocacy group that has been fighting arbitration agreements.

The process usually comes with non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), which prevent the parties from talking about any settlement publicly. But such agreements have an overall social cost, legal experts say.

"Our democracy and our form of capitalism depends on alarm bells going off when something goes wrong and this (NDAs) muffles the alarm bells," said University of Florida law professor Mark Fenster. "Not all NDAs are bad if it is just one little thing and not a big deal. But when it becomes systematic, it becomes a significant issue because other people who should know about problems don't."

Company operates in 14 states

Ryan Homes is part of home-building conglomerate NVR, Inc., a publicly-traded company based in Reston, Virginia. The company operates in 14 states in the eastern U.S., including Ohio, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee.

NVR reported nearly $800 million in net profits in 2018 alone, a number expected to exceed $826 million this year. NVR stock is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange with shares selling for more than $3,600 apiece.

According to NVR's 2018 annual report, the company sold more than 18,000 new homes last year.

Ryan Homes' corporate literature and marketing materials tout quality craftsmanship – and the company targets upscale customers with the promise of custom-built homes constructed quickly at lower than custom prices.

Ryan Homes also touts a one-year warranty on any material or workmanship defects outside of landscaping, while mechanical systems are covered for two years and structural defects are covered for 10 years.

“At Ryan Homes, we are proud of the care and quality built into each of our homes,” according to some of the company’s marketing materials. “We stand behind our homes and our warranty coverage provides our homeowners the peace of mind they expect.”

Homes built in 'assembly line process'

Michael Clark, owner of On Target Inspections Liz Dufour/Cincinnati Enquirer

But one home inspector who has dealt with Ryan many times says the company's approach and speed causes major problems.

“It’s just an assembly line process,” said Michael Clark, a home inspector in Milford, Ohio, outside of Cincinnati. “You go to one of their sites and you can see they only care about corporate profits.”

He points to Ryan's refusal to put extra protection on roofs that most homebuilders use. Clark says it costs $200 per house to install what's called a drip edge, an extra piece that almost all shingle manufacturers recommend or require.

But Ryan Homes doesn't install them on the homes he's inspected, Clark says.

"That is a good insight into the overall approach they take when they build things," he said.

Ryan Homes owner shows sewage damage 48 hours after move in Robert Bialas shared this video showing sewage damage that required his flooring to be ripped out and damage to the basement 48 hours after moving in. (Editor's note: There is adult language) Robert Bialas, Cincinnati Enquirer

Additionally, the internet teems with unsatisfied customers. There is a closed Facebook group called “Ryan Homes Sucks” with more than 800 members, and another Facebook group called Ryan Homes Building Problems has more than 1,000 followers. Other sites such as Consumeraffairs.com list hundreds of horror stories.

Posts highlight what owners say are shoddy construction practices ranging from misaligned ceiling lighting fixtures to leaky plumbing causing leaks to mold issues creating health scares to cracked foundations and faulty heating/air conditioning units.

On top of aggressive building schedules, companies such as Ryan use local labor that isn't trained properly, experts say, leading to more issues.

"Homebuilders face stiff competition," said Martin, the forensic architect. "There is definitely a rush to meet a schedule, and there is not much formal training for most construction laborers."

Ryan touts on its website that it can build a house in 90 days. That's a third to a half the time most builders take, with the National Association of Home Builders and the Census Bureau both listing an average completion time of seven months for a new home.

Speed in construction often leads to later issues, Clark says.

One suburban Cincinnati couple got a new house 11 weeks after signing a contract, saying Ryan's insistence that they would stand behind their work was a major selling point.

“All they did was flaunt this warranty,” said Tasha Amos. "Peace of mind, they said."

But the day Michael and Tasha Amos closed, the front doorknob fell off. They say the door has never locked properly because workers installed the footplate incorrectly.

Show caption Hide caption Sixteen months after Mike and Tasha Amos moved into what they thought would be their 'dream home' in Milford, Ohio outside Cincinnati, their front lawn... Sixteen months after Mike and Tasha Amos moved into what they thought would be their 'dream home' in Milford, Ohio outside Cincinnati, their front lawn still had not been landscaped and their mailbox was in the wrong spot. Liz Dufour/Cincinnati Enquirer

Every time they filed a complaint, the company would “string them along,” Michael Amos said.

Then they discovered the floor in their dining room sloped.

But when trying to level the floor, Ryan workers cut into key supporting parts of the home and ruined the house's structural integrity, according to inspections done by Clark and others.

Clark says the company left the wood for the floor joists out in the rain, leading to warping. Then the supposed fix only made matters worse.

“With the Amoses, I was stunned. What Ryan had done is never permissible,” Clark said. “There is no building code that lets you cut floor joists (all the way through), ever.”

Now, the couple still resides in the house but can’t sell it because of the structural issues. They say Ryan refused to deal with them once they insisted a lawyer inspect any repair plans and after they refused to sign any arbitration deals.

The Amoses went without grass or a yard in their muddy lot for more than a year and fought back by posting "Don't Buy Ryan Homes" signs in their front window.

“Just today, my son said ‘I want to move back to my old house,’” said Michael, fighting back tears.

“What did our kids do to deserve this? What did we do to deserve this?” Tasha said.

Family's new Ryan home 'structurally defective' A building inspector believes the family shouldn't be living in their new Ryan home. Now they're in a court battle and stuck with a home that still needs structural repairs. Liz Dufour, ldufour@enquirer.com

The couple from Milford, Ohio, sued in state court earlier this year, asking for the company to buy the house back. But Ryan transferred the lawsuit earlier this year to federal court, a move that was allowed because Ryan is based in another state.

“They (Ryan Homes) have more money and more lawyers than the homeowner, so they can keep dragging it out,” said Clark, who said he’s seen other similar cases.

Arbitration instead of lawsuits

The move to federal court is just one of many legal moves the company employs when fighting warranty claims, the investigation shows.

Homeowners also say Ryan officials stop being cooperative when they ask for everything to be put in writing, as the Amoses did. The couple recalls agents and project managers getting angry at getting emails and texts and demanding business be conducted by phone.

Another tactic is called binding arbitration. That’s when two parties in a dispute use an outside arbitrator instead of going to court and agree to the final decision of that arbitrator.

Many employers require signing such agreements when someone is hired to prevent wrongful firing lawsuits upon separation. Other companies, such as homebuilders, write it into warranties and contracts before a sale.

But once an agreement is reached, it becomes binding and prohibits someone from suing in court if they are not happy with the outcome of the arbitration.

Do you have a new home nightmare to share? Email us at homenightmares@gannett.com.

Proponents say it speeds up possible settlements by avoiding legal delays.

Officials with the National Association of Home Builders, the industry’s largest trade group and lobby, said they didn’t track how many of its members use such arbitration in their warranties, but that it is “strongly encouraged.”

“We think it’s the most rapid, fair and cost-effective way of resolving disputes,” said NAHB’s vice president for construction liability David Jaffe, who declined comment on specific cases including those involving Ryan Homes.

Jaffe says there are no hard policies for how arbitration for homebuilders should work, but that NAHB says the process “ought to be fair.”

But critics say the process is stacked against consumers, especially since such agreements are usually done ahead of time, are legally complex and prohibit further recourse in the courts.

“In forced arbitration, the cards are stacked against you the homebuyer,” Gillis said. “In many cases, it’s written into the warranty contract without anyone noticing. And that means the company picks the arbitrator, set the rules for the arbitration, and you the consumer are forced to go through this process and give up some of your legal rights.”

Jaffe disputed that, saying NAHB stands “behind those organizations that work to ensure arbitration provisions are fair to both parties.” He says NAHB also encourages home builders to follow the guidelines set out by the American Arbitration Association. Officials with that agency did not return messages seeking comment.

“Arbitration from our perspective is merely a different venue for resolving a dispute, but it shouldn’t favor one party over another,” Jaffe said.

Legal experts worry that expanded use of the practice has a cost.

"Arbitration in and of itself is not a bad thing ... but with more companies using this and forcing consumers and employees into it, we are essentially burying the law," said Jean Sternline, a law professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

"These (binding arbitration) clauses can be damaging more broadly to the society at large because it keeps it out of a courtroom and therefore keeps us from knowing how laws should be interpreted and enforced."

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Dealing with aftermath of a secret

Condominium owners at the Sunset Island complex in Ocean City, Maryland, are getting a first-hand education in how such agreements can bury what really happened.

They have been battling Ryan Homes for several years after discovering much of the underlying structure of their buildings was soaking wet and rotting.

Roger Williams, president of the ownership association at Sunset Island condominiums in Ocean City, Maryland, talks about water damage/construction issues that they have had with the complex. Todd Dudek/The Daily Times

As it turns out, a previous incarnation of the owners’ association got Ryan to fix waterproofing issues in 2010, but the agreement was kept secret from the new association until recently.

The deal released Ryan from any future liability but also allowed for arbitration in the case of a dispute, as well as a non-disclosure agreement.

Current homeowner’s association president Roger Williams says those repairs were not done properly, however, and that the water damage is as bad as ever.

Roger Williams, president of the ownership association at Sunset Island condominium, points out water damage/construction issues at the Ocean City, Maryland complex. Todd Dudek/The Daily Times

He said it will cost each condo owner $40,000 apiece to make it right if Ryan doesn’t pay for it, and that’s after each owner has already paid $11,500 for previous repairs.

Williams also says the average property value is down $50,000 per condo because of the damage.

But Ryan won't agree to arbitration, Williams says, because the company told the association that it was the homeowners' fault that the structures leaked due to improper upkeep and because the deadline for arbitration had passed.

“Ryan Homes’ tactics were simply to just refer to the previously-signed release agreement and say they had fulfilled all their obligations,” said Williams, adding that he is trying to get the state attorney general and state legislators to intervene in the case. “At the end of the day, Ryan refused to take any action to make the repairs.

“These homeowners got screwed through no fault of their own.”

Sunset Island homeowners outraged, Ryan Homes refusing to repair damages to condos Sunset Island condo owner Roger Williams explains Ryan Homes' failure to address the damages to units in Ocean City, Md. Kaisha Young, Salisbury Daily Times

Silence for settlement?

In addition, many Ryan homeowners say the company demands that they sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before agreeing to do any warranty work on a house.

The USA TODAY Network tried to interview several homeowners who settled their differences with Ryan Homes through arbitration, but all declined to be identified or participate because of such agreements.

For example, Abigail and Dennis Carroll sued NVR Inc. in 2014 in upstate New York over serious injuries they sustained when a staircase inside a Ryan home collapsed.

The Carrolls previously agreed to buy the house, located in the Rochester, New York, suburb of Penfield, according to court documents. They were doing an inspection walkthrough of the partially-finished structure with their son, who was a minor, when the collapse happened, the papers state.

They initially asked for millions in damages but moved to discontinue the suit in 2015. All parties signed confidentiality agreements and therefore can’t discuss the details of the case, said the Carrolls’ lawyer William Heitz.

“There should be no marketplace reason for a legitimate company to require silence,” Gillis said. “Primarily, if they fix a problem and can represent to customers that should anything go wrong that we’ll fix it.”

Ryan customer Kelly Mascitti provided a letter from Ryan offering her $1,500 to fix the problems in her home. But it came with a catch: she said a Ryan official told her in person there would be no deal if she didn’t stop saying negative things about the company on Facebook.

Mascitti refused, saying the repairs in her suburban Philadelphia townhome will cost more than $30,000.

Kelly Mascitti shared photos showing damage and other issues after her suburban Philadelphia home with built by Ryan Homes. Kelli Mascitti

“And they keep trying to get me to sign off on their repairs, but I won’t sign anything because they haven’t fixed it right in the first place,” said Mascitti, who adds that she can't find a lawyer to take her case and fight Ryan.

Jaffe of the home builders' association defends such NDAs, saying they are a way for companies to “manage expectations.”

“Your issue may be very different than someone else's,” Jaffe said. “But the company may not be able to do for others what they did for you because there is a different agreement or different understanding. Others may not be entitled to that. So it’s best that the disclosure is limited in those cases.”

Consumer advocates warn that NDAs can be “dangerous” because it prevents possible major flaws from becoming public knowledge.

“It prevents other potential homeowners from knowing the facts of these cases and being able to go in with their eyes open,” said Kristin Gilbride, senior attorney for Public Justice.

“It’s muzzling people.”

'I can't recommend them to anyone'

In the South Carolina toilet case, the Stevenses say they fought the company for more than a year before suing Ryan and then settling out of court.

The couple’s lawyer says the fight was “as contentious as I’ve ever seen,” and the case was months away from trial when Ryan made the final offer after two years of clashing.

Stevens says part of the issue was that the company didn’t properly clean up the mess under her house and that she had to fight to get them to install permanent fans to keep air circulating and prevent mold from growing.

Their lawsuit states that Ryan’s initial efforts at cleanup were nothing more than scraping up a few inches of affected dirt and sprinkling around some lime dust to hold down the smell.

The final settlement included a non-disclosure agreement. But the agreement only prohibits them from discussing the size of the settlement and allows them to talk about the case itself.

The couple says the amount was well above $100,000 but they declined to give specifics. Stevens and her husband say they intend to retire and live out their days in the house but know they will have to disclose the damage if they ever sell.

Additionally, she has obtained her real estate license and knows she’ll be faced with having to possibly sell someone a Ryan Homes house.

“Professionally, I’m going to have to stay impartial and just present the facts,” Stevens said. “But if you ask me personally? I really can’t recommend them to anyone.”

James Pilcher and Liz Dufour report for The Cincinnati Enquirer. Matthew Prenksy reports for The Daily Times in Salisbury, Maryland. Sarah Taddeo reports for the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York.

USA TODAY Data Editor John Kelly contributed to this report.