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Call Kurtis: My New Home Has A Defective Door

WEST SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- Neighbors say they're having issues with their new homes. They say it has to do with the keyless locks on their back doors.

Allison Ramey was feeding her dogs in the backyard, when her back door locked her out – with her then eight-month old baby still inside!

"I went to go back in and it locked," she said.

Allison said the keyless door's lock mechanism malfunctioned. She panicked and had to break in through a window so she could get to her daughter.

"My daughter is somewhere [and] I can't get to her." Allison remembers thinking.

Her neighbor, Rick Sanchez, said his back door lock malfunctioned too.

"I was doing this," Rick said, shaking the door's handle from outside the house.

It's not just happening from the outside. Rick showed us how sometimes the keyless lock can lock you inside the home.

He said it takes using a butter knife to get the door to finally open.

Rick's wife, Nicole, calls it a fire hazard.

"Absolutely, it makes me totally nervous," Nicole said.

Both families reached out to the company that built their homes, Seeno Homes.

Rick said after 12 repair attempts, the builder's best fix was a small piece of tape that holds back a malfunctioning pin in the door.

He said it's not a permanent fix, but said the builder claimed they are past the one-year warranty.

"We want it to be fixed once and for all," Rick said.

Allison Ramey is afraid to even use her back door after Seeno's repair attempt.

"They broke off a piece of wood shim and just wedged it in," She said.

Attorney Michael Kennedy is representing the owners of 11 homes in the neighborhood, claiming a variety of construction defects including windows, patio doors, roofing and foundations. Kennedy thinks the builder cut corners.

"They're trying to maximize profit and decrease cost," Kennedy said. "And that [means] moving quickly using the cheapest materials."

The Contractors State License Board's Rick Lopes said the expired warranty argument doesn't fly if the issue was reported before the year was up.

"[The builder] knew about the home when it was still under warranty," Lopes said.

We wanted to find out what Seeno had to say, but after half a dozen calls, the company eventually responded by saying "no comment."

But, with pressure from the CSLB, they returned to Sanchez's home with a whole new door.

And now the door works!

"We're really, really excited. It actually opens." Nicole said.

The CSLB closed the complaint and no citation was issued, because the builder fixed the Sanchez's door. As for anyone else with this type of issue, the CSLB recommends filing a complaint with them.

So, how long do builder warranties last? The law requires builders to give you a one-year warranty. However, some will give more than one year.

As for how long they're required to make repairs, it depends on what is written in each builder's warranty.

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