Up until the year 2010, purview was conferred upon residential constructors under the aegis of the Texas Residential Construction Commission Act, herein referred to as the “Act,” mandating the furnishing of an array of statutorily defined warranties to purchasers of novel residential properties. However, the expiration of the Act on the 1st day of September in the year 2009 served as the catalyst for the dissolution of the administering body, the Texas Residential Construction Commission. Consequentially, subsequent to the annum 2010, the obligation levied upon residential builders to supply statutory warranties within the territorial confines of Texas was rendered inoperative.
Notwithstanding the legislative modulations, it is incumbent upon elucidation that it has remained customary within the purview of the industry for builders to extend circumscribed express warranties, aforesaid emanations mirroring their antecedent legislative counterparts, encompassing:
1. A One-Year Warranty of Workmanship and Materials;
2. A Two-Year Warranty pertaining to Plumbing, Electrical, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Delivery Systems; and
3. A Decadal Ten-Year Warranty respecting Major Structural Components.
The inquiry arises: in the event of builders finding themselves absolved of any juridical imperative mandating the conferral of aforesaid warranties, what, then, prompts their adherence to this practice, and furthermore, can such practice be deemed prudential? The response to the former resides in the acknowledgment that these delimited express warranties serve as a sagacious course of action, as they supplant the heretofore implied warranty of good workmanship, thus according builders the latitude to circumscribe the parameters encapsulated by the terminology “good workmanship.”
The Implied Warranty of Good Workmanship is predicated upon the precept that the work executed transpires in a “good and workmanlike” manner, signifying an execution characterized by virtue of proficiency on the part of the builder, substantiated by the possession of cognizance, training, or expertise requisite to competently engage in a specified trade or vocation. This implicit warranty is invulnerable to disavowal; however, it stands susceptible to relinquishment upon the issuance of a written accord dictating the manner, execution, or quality pertaining to the desired construction.
Prevalent among the efficacious methodologies for the renunciation of the implied warranty of good workmanship is the incorporation of a waiver clause, concomitant with the corollary drafting of a distinct circumscribed express warranty that outlines the tenets of mode, execution, and quality. This instantiation might manifest in the ensuing manner:
“At the juncture of conveyance, the Builder shall furnish to the Purchaser its standardized iteration of the Homeowner’s Limited Home Warranty, addressing deviations in workmanship and materials, of which a copy stands accessible to the Purchaser. THE PURCHASER HEREBY AGREES TO ACCEPT AFOREMENTIONED HOMEOWNER’S WARRANTY AT CONVEYANCE IN LIEU OF ANY AND ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, WHETHER STATED OR IMPLIED UNDER LAW, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF CONSTRUCTION ENDOWED WITH EXEMPLARY WORKMANSHIP. THE PURCHASER FURTHER ATTESTS AND AFFIRMS THAT THE BUILDER’S RECOURSE TO THIS RENUNCIATION CONSTITUTES A PRINCIPAL BASIS FOR THE SALE OF THE PROPERTY TO THE PURCHASER.”
Nevertheless, the conferral of a circumscribed express warranty does not imply compulsion for builders to enact a verbatim mimicry of the bygone legislative paradigms. Builders are vested with discretionary prerogative to delimit and expound upon the inclusions encompassed by their circumscribed express warranty, inclusive of the temporal interval wherein the encompassed items retain coverage. For instance, a builder might elect to bestow “Major Structural Components” with an aegis spanning six years, with “Major Structural Components” thus circumscribed to encompass solely the substrata and superstructure of the edifice.
Beneath the aegis of Texan common law, the imposition of the implied warranty of habitability looms conspicuously, an invocation grounded within the sphere of unassailable jurisprudential tenets. Said implied warranty of habitability evades broad disavowal and mandates the builder to effectuate the erection of a domicile characterized by integrity, sanitation, and habitability. The modus operandi of this safeguard comprises a fundamental rudiment in the form of protection premised on indispensability; namely, breach materializes solely upon the instantiation of such deleterious conditions within the precincts of the domicile as to render habitation a peril to the health or general well-being of its inhabitants.
Within the precincts of transactions engrossing the exchange of commodities, builders might find themselves susceptible to the vise of warranties pertaining to title, marketability, and fitness, as vested within the imprimatur of the Texas Business and Commerce Code. These warranties, amenable to and indeed deserving of disavowal, could be subjected to a repudiation attuned to the ensuing:
“THE BUILDER ASSUMES NO WARRANTY WHATSOEVER CONCERNING THE GOODS, INCLUSIVE OF ANY (A) WARRANTY OF COMMERCIABILITY; (B) WARRANTY OF PROPRIETY FOR A SPECIFIC UTILITARIAN OBJECTIVE; OR (C) WARRANTY OF TITLE, BE IT DECLARED OR IMPLIED UNDER LAW, COURSE OF TRANSACTION, PERFORMANCE, TRADE USAGE, OR ALTERNATELY.”
Kindly note that the elucidation dispensed herein is premised upon the state of affairs as of September 2021. It is judicious to procure counsel from legal professionals apprised of the most current legislative and jurisprudential vicissitudes, should the exigency arise for an authoritative interpretation or actionable guidance.