Dear Do-It Man: I have a problem with a Davis County homebuilder. My wife and I purchased this new home in 1987 and moved into it the following year. After seeing many problems arising, we contacted the builder and gave him a list of needed repairs like most new homes need: taking care of nail pops, putting in missing molding, fixing misfitting windows, fixing the roof and taking care of a crack in the concrete floor.

When a subcontractor repaired a few nail pops he said, "Some people expect too much."To make a long story short, the nail pops are more prevalent now than ever and the floor in the basement and garage now have 1/2-inch wide cracks.

The roof materials used on our home were like second-class merchandise and after we complained for three years, the builder finally installed a new roof over our old one. He charged me around $800 for labor.

An officer of the company keeps promising to do something about the cracked garage and basement floors, but he has not said what he would do or when he would do it.

If there is a problem with the stuff I have in the garage, I would be glad to rent a truck and clear out the whole garage.

We also had French doors that would whistle a tune when the wind blew. After five years of calling and complaining to the builder, the windows were finally replaced, but now we have new primer painted doors with old chipped molding.

Maybe I am being ungrateful by complaining, but I am also tired of promises not being fulfilled.

My question is, can you recommend someone in the legal field to advise me, could you get me some answers, or should I just forget this flaky company?

- J.E.S., Bountiful

Dear J.E.S.: The Division of Occupational & Professional Licensing of the Utah Department of Commerce suggests several agencies that may be able to provide assistance.

They include the division itself, which can be reached at 530-6628; and local building inspectors.

However, in a vast majority of complaints like yours, the problem is a civil matter between the homeowner and the homebuilder.

In that case, you might want to contact a mediation service such as Utah Dispute Resolution (532-4841); or hire a private attorney - the Utah State Bar's Lawyer Referral Service can be reached at 531-9075; or take the builder to small claims court.

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If you decided to hire someone to fix the problems, you could try to recover the cost of the repairs by taking the builder to small claims court. The most you could recover there is $5,000.

If you decided to do that, we would suggest that you take photographs of the unrepaired items before you have them fixed. The photographs would serve as evidence in small claims court.

A crack in the concrete such as you describe might mean that the dirt under the floor was not properly compacted before the concrete was poured.

In the meantime, we have forwarded your letter to us to your builder. We'll let you know if we get a response.

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