Please know who you are hiring and their credentials

Skip Hillman bounced from growing pot to running an overseas hook-up service to his latest money-making venture: saving desperate homeowners from the perils of Chinese drywall.

His arrest record and lack of building experience were no impediment to joining the growing ranks of Florida drywall testers and "remediators," a motley group of entrepreneurs who are peddling wallboard diagnoses, air cleaning machines and total drywall removal — and doing it with zero oversight by state or federal regulators.

Afraid that fumes from defective drywall are sickening their families and ruining their investments, beleaguered homeowners turn to these unregulated businesses that offer unproven solutions.

Tainted drywall emits gases blamed for corroding pipes and wiring, and for nosebleeds and coughs in homes nationwide. In Florida, the defective wallboard was concentrated in areas caught up in the most recent housing boom, including Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties.

Scientists have yet to pinpoint what causes the gases or identify a foolproof solution to the problem. But a burgeoning, multimillion-dollar industry has emerged anyway, spurred by rumors about the harm bad drywall can do.

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Among those profiting in Florida are people who have been convicted of fraud, thieves and uncertified workers who illegally posed as licensed contractors, according to a Palm Beach Post review of county, state and federal records.

Of 47 remediation and inspection companies identified by The Post, 26 were created since January 2009, records show. Only 18 of those companies are run by licensed general, building or residential contractors.

Under Florida statutes, builders who hang drywall must hold state-issued contractor certificates. But people who "remediate" drywall problems fall into a gray area of the law, which doesn't prohibit unlicensed workers from repairing or tearing out wallboard. As a result, anyone can offer services regardless of training or professional qualifications.

Hillman, 49, holds no contractor's license. His most recent job was running Asian Brides on Cam Inc., a company whose website offers "live personal introductions to beautiful women from all over the world." He now sells home inspections and drywall removal through Chinese Drywall Specialist Inc., a Cape Coral-based business he formed with his uncle in July 2009.

Hillman recently boasted of inspecting hundreds of homes and said he charges, on average, about $40,000 to remediate a 2,000-square-foot house.

"I'm doing a service for lots of people with Chinese drywall," Hillman told The Post. "Everyone's happy, and there have been no complaints about our work."

Many remediation companies are run by qualified, well-intentioned workers, but the industry's growth also has left room for crooks and quacks to prosper, state health officials, legislators and consumer groups say. They added that it's too soon to tell whether remediation techniques rolled out in the past year will work in the long term.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation has investigated 11 drywall remediation companies but pursued cases against none of them, a spokeswoman said. The Florida Attorney General's Office has received no complaints about remediation or testing companies, but it's maintaining a list of such businesses in case problems arise.

"It has all the ingredients for a major league rip-off when you have little government involvement, you have uncertain science, you have no laws on the books, and you have desperate homeowners who are willing to try anything to keep their dream home," said state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, who filed an unsuccessful bill this past legislative session that would have required state oversight for remediation companies. "You have snake oil salesmen out there trying to make their pitch along with reputable business people, and it's up to the consumer to sort out which is which."

Since Chinese drywall emerged as a problem in 2008, state and federal regulators repeatedly have warned homeowners against hiring people who promise quick fixes.

"These products and alternative methods have been pulled out before to fix the problem of the day," said the Florida Health Department's David Krause, a toxicologist who compared some Chinese drywall remedies to bogus solutions for asbestos and Hurricane Katrina's formaldehyde-ridden trailers. "This is nothing new. It's the same industry. They're just changing the letterhead to deal with the problem at hand."

As people learned of bad drywall, rumors spread quickly. Homes with the problem wallboard were dubbed "cancer traps" or identified as radioactive. Some blamed the drywall for the deaths of elderly family members.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission still is investigating and has advised homeowners to replace tainted drywall along with wiring, pipes, sprinkler systems and smoke alarms.

Amid this backdrop of fear and uncertainty, Arthur "Skip" Hillman got into the remediation business. His career path didn't follow that of your typical drywall expert.

In June 2004, police caught Hillman, who then worked for a boat rental company, operating a marijuana grow house in Margate, according to a sworn statement for Hillman's arrest. He ultimately pleaded no contest to felony drug charges, and a judge withheld a formal finding of guilt.

Hillman told The Post he grew marijuana because he was suffering from Stage 4 lymphoma and needed to smoke pot to gain weight. He said each of the 91 plants found growing in the house was for his personal use. "They were very small," he said.

He said his cancer since has gone into remission.

Hillman went on to create Asian Brides on Cam Inc., which operates overseasmatchmaker.com.

The dating website brought in about $300 a month, according to bankruptcy records Hillman filed in March. Next he set his sights on drywall remediation.

Had he sought to become a licensed Florida contractor, Hillman would have had to demonstrate experience and education, submit to credit and background checks and offer proof of insurance. But remediators need no certification under Florida law. "The buzzword is 'drywall remediation,'" said Paul Del Vecchio, a Boca Raton contractor who sits on the state Construction Industry Licensing Board. "The game is the verbal semantics. 'Remediation,' not drywall work."

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A lack of regulation also is permitting the spread of Chinese drywall inspectors. With no enforceable standards, anyone can claim expertise in the art of divining drywall problems. Drywall inspectors such as James Kreider are developing their own techniques. Kreider's Coral Springs company, Kross Inspectors, says on its website that it has conducted more than 6,500 inspections statewide. Its services cost from $275 to $600. "Consumers turn to Kross Inspectors as the leader in the industry," the website says.

Before forming his inspection company, Kreider worked not as a contractor but as a banker. At First Union National in Naples between 2000 and 2002, Kreider siphoned more than $200,000 from loan checks cut by the bank. Investigators said he used the money to pay off a new GMC Yukon sport utility vehicle, among other things.

In 2004 Kreider, 39, pleaded no contest to charges of committing an organized scheme to defraud and money laundering. He was sentenced to 34 months in state prison and 10 years' probation. He remains under state supervision.

"I've never tried to hide that," Kreider told The Post, adding that no one ever has complained about his company. "I've been very proud of fighting fraud in the inspection business," Kreider said. "I've paid my dues to society, and I still do. My integrity is very important to me, especially in today's situation."

Inspectors and remediators rely on word of mouth, Internet advertising, direct mail and door-to-door sales to bring in clients. Homeowner Nick DeSola paid $640,000 for a 3,700-square-foot house west of Boynton Beach and then discovered it was built with Chinese drywall. He spotted an advertisement for Abisso Cleanse on the Internet, hired contractors to rip out the wallboard and then hired the company last year.

Abisso Cleanse workers used a fog machine to spread a chlorine dioxide formula called "Sniper" in DeSola's house. DeSola didn't know the company's president, 35-year-old Jason Roach, had been convicted of theft in 2004 and of receiving stolen property in 1995 in Minnesota. "After I got into trouble, I straightened myself out," Roach said. "The focus of our company is to do things right."

When he learned about Roach's past, DeSola said he still was happy with the company's work. "People in life get bad breaks sometimes," DeSola said. "They gave me the option, they didn't lie about it, and they didn't push me."

Others weren't so lucky. Aronberg, the state senator, said he has heard stories from people whose remediators folded mid-job or stopped answering phone calls.

"It was total anarchy out there," said Aronberg, who's running for state attorney general. "There was no government involvement, there were few, if any, rules."

Consumer watchdogs including the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general in Florida and Louisiana have said that even educated consumers can fall prey to scam artists.

"People certainly deserve a second chance, but some people that perpetrate fraud are quite good and keep going back to it," said Mitchell Katz, an FTC spokesman. "They keep changing their methods so they don't get caught."

Staff researcher Niels Heimeriks contributed to this story.

WASHINGTON - Homeowners with corrosive Chinese drywall should remove and replace the drywall, wiring, electrical components and gas-service piping, two federal agencies announced Friday.
But the question of who will pay for what could be billions in repairs to tens of thousands of homes remains unresolved, even as the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Department of Housing and Urban Development offered their advice.

Whoever pays, the agencies' approved procedures are already the industry standard for comprehensive drywall removal, said John Pelland, owner of Accent Construction & Remodeling in North Fort Myers, who does drywall remediation work.

Most of the large homebuilders in Southwest Florida are doing that, and it's the right thing to do, Pelland said.

"I don't necessarily consider that overkill," he said.

Inez Tenenbaum, the safety commission chairwoman, said the federal standards will be a foundation for future policy.

"Our investigations now show a clear path forward," she said. "Our scientific investigation now provides a strong foundation for Congress as they consider their policy options and explore relief for affected homeowners."

The problem is some Chinese drywall emits corrosive hydrogen sulfide and sulfur gases, and potentially represents a fire hazard. The corrosion hurts pipes, wiring, appliances and smoke detectors.

Repairs could cost billions. Enough Chinese drywall was imported in recent years to build 60,000 homes. Contractors estimate it would cost $85 per square foot to tear out all of a house's drywall and replace it, which would total $170,000 for a 2,000-square-foot house. Replacing wiring and appliances would cost even more.

The Florida Health Department found 530 homes in Florida with metal corrosion blamed on Chinese drywall by March 1, with the most - 86 - in Lee County. But county appraisers identified 2,505 homes that had their value reduced because of drywall and another 846 cases are pending.

Fort Lauderdale-based attorney Allison Grant, who represents some Chinese drywall victims in Lee County, said the federal standards are a responsible solution.

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The main issue, she said, is whether to take out the wiring as proposed or just replace some of it - it's far safer and not that much more expensive to remove it all, she said.

A question remains, however, about whether the Consumer Product Safety Commission's remedy is the best one.

Cases in U.S. District Court in Louisiana could decide on remediation to fix the problem. But if the remedy differs from the commission's recommendations, lawyers and analysts are divided on which remedy would prevail.

"This guidance, based on the CPSC's ongoing scientific research, is critical to ensuring homeowners and contractors have confidence that they are making the appropriate repairs to rid their homes of problem drywall," said Jon Gant, director of HUD's office of health homes and lead hazard control.

Gov. Charlie Crist asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency on March 10 for help dealing with drywall problems. But FEMA's regional administrator rejected the request two days later as a product-safety matter instead of a disaster.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission received almost 3,000 drywall reports from 37 states by February. Florida had the most, representing almost 60 percent of the reports.

The safety commission and the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued warnings in January for dealing with problem drywall installed from 2001 to 2008.

Sen. Bill Nelson, who first called for an investigation of the toxic drywall and traveled to China to press the government there to help U.S. consumers, said of the latest safety commission findings:

"The studies find that the drywall is bad enough to require the stuff to be removed from houses.

"Now the question is: Who pays for it?

"The way I see it, homeowners didn't cause this. The manufacturers in China did. That's why we've got to go after the Chinese government now."

The consumer agency's advice stops short of urging the removal of appliances and heating-and-air conditioning equipment, which also might be corroded by drywall. But Richard Kampf, a Cape Coral resident who leads a group of 350 homeowners, said the advice was "excellent news" in setting up a scientific justification for Congress to determine how to pay for remediation.

"This is a significant step forward for the homeowner," Kampf said, because it establishes a federal protocol instead of relying on local contractors to decide what strategy is best. "The only down side that I s
The main issue, she said, is whether to take out the wiring as proposed or just replace some of it - it's far safer and not that much more expensiveA question remains, however, about whether the Consumer Product Safety Commission's remedy is the best one.

Cases in U.S. District Court in Louisiana could decide on remediation to fix the problem. But if the remedy differs from the commission's recommendations, lawyers and analysts are divided on which remedy would prevail.

"This guidance, based on the CPSC's ongoing scientific research, is critical to ensuring homeowners and contractors have confidence that they are making the appropriate repairs to rid their homes of problem drywall," said Jon Gant, director of HUD's office of health homes and lead hazard control.

Gov. Charlie Crist asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency on March 10 for help dealing with drywall problems. But FEMA's regional administrator rejected the request two days later as a product-safety matter instead of a disaster.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission received almost 3,000 drywall reports from 37 states by February. Florida had the most, representing almost 60 percent of the reports.

The safety commission and the Department of Housing and Urban Development issued warnings in January for dealing with problem drywall installed from 2001 to 2008.

Sen. Bill Nelson, who first called for an investigation of the toxic drywall and traveled to China to press the government there to help U.S. consumers, said of the latest safety commission findings:

"The studies find that the drywall is bad enough to require the stuff to be removed from houses.

"Now the question is: Who pays for it?

"The way I see it, homeowners didn't cause this. The manufacturers in China did. That's why we've got to go after the Chinese government now."

The consumer agency's advice stops short of urging the removal of appliances and heating-and-air conditioning equipment, which also might be corroded by drywall. But Richard Kampf, a Cape Coral resident who leads a group of 350 homeowners, said the advice was "excellent news" in setting up a scientific justification for Congress to determine how to pay for remediation.

"This is a significant step forward for the homeowner," Kampf said, because it establishes a federal protocol instead of relying on local contractors to decide what strategy is best. "The only down side that I see here is that there is not a funding source."

He also plans to remove the insulation in his home when the drywall is out.

Replacing switches on the wall for heating and air conditioning without replacing the rest of the equipment could be risky.

"To stop short of that is a safety risk," Kampf said. to remove it all, she said.

A Caution Regarding Chinese Drywall Remediation

Many homeowners have been approached by builders with offers of Chinese drywall remediation. However, it is important that anyone whose home was built with Chinese drywall realize that premature remediation could cause them further damage.

While it is understandable that Chinese drywall victims want the problem resolved quickly, it is important to note that remediation protocols have not been established, and cross-contamination could occur. Even after Chinese drywall has been torn out and replaced, out-gassing of sulfur compounds and other elements continues to occur. Remediation will only further jeopardize public health when it is done without adequate safeguards or by unqualified individuals.

In September, inspections began on 30 homes with Chinese drywall. The inspections were ordered by U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon, who is overseeing the Chinese Drywall Multidistrict Litigation in New Orleans. Judge Fallon ordered that 15 Florida homes, eight Louisiana homes and a total of seven homes in Virginia, the Carolinas and Mississippi undergo inspection. The inspections are being conducted by Crawford & Company of Atlanta.

Following the first 30 home inspections, a uniform protocol for inspections will be established. Once the protocol is established, inspections on other homes will commence. A proper remediation protocol will not be established until those inspections are complete, and the findings analyzed.

Homeowners considering allowing remediation should also be aware that builders may be insisting they agree to stipulations that are not in their best interest. In most every case of a builder-initiated remediation agreement, homeowners are required to give up almost all of their legal rights. These agreements release the builder from all current and future claims of liability. They also assign all of the homeowner’s rights to sue other responsible parties – such as drywall manufacturers – to the builder.

The agreements do not provide for compensation for many of the homeowner’s losses including damage to personal property, reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses, diminution in market value, inability to refinance, detriment to credit resulting from default and/or foreclosure, and loss of enjoyment. And while homeowners are paid a per diem to cover the cost of alternative housing while work is being done, they are not reimbursed for any mortgage payments, utilities, taxes, insurance and/or Home Owners Association fees, or other expenses that accrue during that time.

Builders have also made a lot of empty promises and other oral representations about the scope and nature of the remediation that are simply not reflected in written agreements homeowners have signed. Many homeowners also claim they were told that permitting their builder to remediate a home is the only legal remedy available to them – something that is just not true.

Once remediation is completed under one of these agreements, homeowners may be without recourse should they find that repairs were done in a way that did not conform to the remediation protocol that will eventually be established. For that reason, it is in the best interests of homeowners to delay any Chinese drywall repairs until a remediation protocol has been formulated.

The chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission came to Cape Coral to see problems with Chinese drywall first hand. She promised help from the federal government.

“I think it's terrible people have to live in these conditions and with these health problems,” said CPSC Chair Inez Tenenbaum. “We need to get answers for families who are affected as soon as possible.”

Tenenbaum toured the home of Richard Kampf. All the metal in the Kampf's home has turned brown, his wiring and plumbing have corroded to the point where it's usless. He believes the Chinese drywall is making him sick.

“It's worse than a nightmare,” said Kampf. “We can't live under these conditions much longer, we just can't.”

Tenenbaum told Kampf a government study on Chinese drywall should be done by October. The study will shed light on how the homes can be fixed and how the government may be able to help.

Problems with Chinese drywall have been reported in some 1,300 homes in 26 states. Federal researchers have set up tests in 50 homes. They are looking to see exactly what the Chinese drywall does and how the damage can be stopped.

The IRS announced last week that homeowners who have suffered losses due to defective drywall from China can qualify for special tax deductions.

The announcement came in a letter to Senator Jim Webb, which was sent in response to a recent inquiry by Webb and other lawmakers seeking clarification on whether thousands of homeowners may qualify for Chinese drywall tax relief. The defective drywall has been found to emit corrosive gases that fill homes with a sulfur-like smell, erode and damage electrical equipment and appliances, and is suspected of causing some health problems for residents.

Internal Revenue Service Associate Chief Counsel George J. Blaine told Webb that homeowners affected by the Chinese drywall problems can qualify for casualty loss deductions not compensated by insurance if the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) investigation confirm the reports of fumes, chemical emissions and damages that have been characteristically attributed to the material.

Blaine said in the letter that the amount of Chinese drywall relief would be the difference between the fair market value of the home immediately before and after the damage, limited to the adjusted basis of the home. Secondary costs, such as staying at a hotel while the drywall is being replaced, are not deductible. There are also limitations to the timing and amount of the deductions, as listed in the IRS Publication 547, Casualties, Disasters and Thefts.

Chinese-manufactured drywall came into the U.S. in large amounts between 2004 and 2007 due to a domestic shortage during the peak of the housing boom. The drywall, made from waste material from coal-fired plants, has caused a number of issues for homeowners in recent years, hitting especially hard in the southeastern United States.

The CPSC has confirmed that at least 5,503,694 sheets of Chinese-manufactured wallboard were imported into the country, and expects that number to increase as investigations continue.

A recent status report by the CPSC on July 7 noted that the commission has received at least 608 incident reports from homeowners with Chinese drywall; the majority coming from Florida, Louisiana and Virginia. CPSC investigators are also concerned that the corrosion and damage to electrical wiring and appliances may constitute a fire hazard in some cases.

Many insurance companies have denied coverage for the Chinese drywall damages through homeowners’ policies, leaving homeowners in a difficult position as they are forced to pursue lengthy litigation against the foreign companies responsible for manufacturing the defective drywall, as well as suppliers, distributors, retailers and builders.

Last month, all federal Chinese drywall lawsuits were consolidated and centralized in an MDL, or Multidistrict Litigation, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Chinese drywall Stories

Shortly after buying their home in Cape Coral, Fla., in 2006, Keith and Denise Cramer noticed a peculiar acidic smell they thought was wet paint. The odor never left.

There were other strange occurrences. Chrome-plated faucets and showerheads became pitted or turned black. The central air-conditioning unit faltered and failed. Their baby son, Gavin, suffered frequent ear and upper respiratory infections, and Gavin and Denise got rashes.

The Cramers—along with thousands of other homeowners in Florida and elsewhere—now believe that imported Chinese drywall is making them sick and destroying their property. The drywall, which is used in walls and ceilings, is emitting sulfur-compound gases that homeowners have described as giving off a sour or “rotten egg” odor. Many blame the fumes for eye, skin and breathing irritation and nosebleeds, as well as the corrosion of copper pipes, electrical wiring and air conditioners.

The Cramers say if government tests conclude the Chinese drywall is a health hazard, they will be left with a difficult choice: “We will have to either ruin our son’s life by staying, or ruin our credit by walking away from the home,” says the 34-year-old Mr. Cramer.

Denise and Keith Cramer and their son, Gavin, outside their Cape Coral, Fla., home, which they say is filled with tainted Chinese drywall.

An estimated 100,000 houses across the country, most built in 2006 and 2007, may be affected, based on the 500 million pounds of Chinese drywall—also known as plasterboard or gypsum board—believed to have entered the U.S. during that period. The drywall is being investigated by numerous agencies, including the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with state health departments. Several are due to report their findings later this month or in September.

If the agencies conclude a “substantial” electrical, fire or health hazard exists, they could issue a recall or other action. More than 800 complaints from 23 states have been filed at the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Drywall Information Center.

Experts estimate it costs about $100,000 to pull out bad drywall and replace corroded electrical wiring and appliances in an average-sized home, and the problem is shaping up as a costly disaster for homeowners and the battered housing industry. Many homeowners are hoping the federal government will step in with some sort of aid similar to that provided for victims of hurricanes and tornados, as well as a moratorium on mortgage payments.

Others are staking their hopes on lawsuits against home builders and the drywall manufacturers and distributors. Many of the suits are being consolidated in federal court in New Orleans. But suing foreign-based manufacturers for liability is difficult and complicated, legal experts say.

A few builders are already taking action. Lennar Corp. has set aside almost $40 million to fix 400 houses in Florida and is ripping out the drywall in many homes throughout the state, the Miami-based home builder said in a securities filing last month. Some other builders are making similar repairs.

While Chinese drywall was initially thought to have been used mainly in Florida and Louisiana, complaints have been pouring in from many other states. Colleen Nguyen, 41, of Virginia Beach, Va., says she, her husband and three girls moved out of their waterfront home built in 2006 and into a trailer last April for three months on the recommendation of their pediatrician. Their computers, phones and microwaves kept breaking down, and the circuit-breaker kept tripping, they say. They are suing their home builder and the drywall subcontractor. The cities of Virginia Beach and Norfolk, Va., recently banned builders from using Chinese drywall in construction.

Ms. Nguyen says the family left their belongings behind in the house because the odor had permeated the bedding and upholstery. “I won’t expose my children to it until they can explain what it is,” she says. “We have not had a bloody nose since the day we moved out.”

One major manufacturer of the Chinese drywall, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co., says its tests indicate that its products aren’t harmful. Testing found that carbon disulfide and carbonyl sulfide are being emitted by some of its drywall, but not at levels that would damage health, says Phillip T. Goad, principal toxicologist and partner at the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health in North Little Rock, Ark. The center is a private company hired by Knauf Tianjin that consults and does testing for corporations and government agencies.

David Krause, state toxicologist for the Florida Department of Health, says that the department’s preliminary tests indicated Chinese drywall is emitting sulfur-compound gases, but adds that the tests weren’t designed to quantify the rate of emissions. The Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to measure the amount of sulfide gases emitted by various types of drywall, and will work with other governmental agencies to determine whether they are at harmful levels, Mr. Krause says.

Most of the health symptoms described by homeowners and residents are “nonspecific,” Mr. Krause says, and could be associated with a variety of causes. The health department and other agencies are trying to determine if unsafe concentrations of chemicals are present, which well help them develop public health guidance, he says. “But is it safe to live in these homes until they are remediated? That is what we are trying to address in a thoughtful and progressive fashion.”

Some builders, including Lennar, are suing importers and distributors of the drywall, including Knauf Tianjin and its German affiliate, Knauf Gips KG. Donald Hayden, an attorney for Knauf Tianjin, says the company accounted for about 20% of Chinese-made drywall imported into the U.S. from 2004 through 2007, and didn’t ship any to the U.S. after October 2006. At least one American drywall maker also has been named as a defendant in product-defect lawsuits by homeowners. Mr. Hayden also says that while the sulfur gases are causing metal corrosion, “we do not believe that it is causing corrosion to the extent it would be a fire safety hazard.”

Government agencies are trying to determine exactly why some drywall is emitting the sulfur-compound gases at levels that seem to exceed those of most domestic drywall. A Consumer Product Safety Commission report cited gypsum excavated from a mine in China known for producing a smelly and off-color mineral. Mr. Hayden says the company believes the wallboard that is emitting the smell “is limited to board that contained raw material from a particular mine or mining region in Shandong province.”

Mr. Hayden says that Knauf Tianjin’s wallboard also contains gypsum from flue-gas desulphurization, a process that involves recovering the mineral during the process of electrical-power generation in fossil-fuel power plants. Many other domestic and foreign manufacturers of drywall also use this process, he says, and the company doesn’t believe it is a factor in the current complaints. Knauf Tianjin is working on alternative remedial solutions that wouldn’t require tearing out all the drywall, Mr. Hayden says.

In Cape Coral, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Mr. Cramer, a youthful-looking man in a baseball hat, says he feels trapped. He says he has been unable to get the builder, locally based Aranda Homes Inc., to make repairs. The builder didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

Mr. Cramer and his wife, who is 37, paid nearly $315,000 for the property and home, but similar properties whose owners disclose the presence of Chinese drywall, as required by law, are selling for as little as $19,000 online. Mr. Cramer says he doesn’t have the money to tear out the drywall or to relocate while the home is repaired.

He can’t refinance, and his bank has indicated it won’t allow homeowners with drywall problems to skip mortgage payments while they seek a remedy. Homeowner insurance generally doesn’t cover construction defects. “If something happened and we had to walk away from this home, we’d lose every penny we had,” Mr. Cramer says.

Richard Kampf, 56, a former chief of staff with the Environmental Protection Agency in Philadelphia, retired to Cape Coral in July 2007 with his wife, Patricia, 57, their teenage son and Mr. Kampf’s 96-year-old mother. He says that his air-conditioning unit broke down 15 times in one year and that its coils have been replaced four times, forcing him to send his mother to live with a sister temporarily because of the heat.

“The [air conditioning] company told me they suspected my house was contaminated with Chinese drywall,” he says. He and his family were out of their home for five days while officials inspected it and collected air and drywall samples. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is coming back for further air testing this week.

Mr. Kampf says fear of a fire caused by corroded electrical wire keeps him up at night. “We question every single day if we are doing the right thing by staying. A lot of people are just fleeing. It is a shame,” he says.

About three miles away, Louis Appelman, 64, and his wife, Sara, 65, say their children and grandchildren no longer want to spend vacations with them in their home with its indoor pool and screened room overlooking a canal, because of the acrid fumes and health worries.

“If this is what it is doing to your copper, what is it doing to your body?” Mr. Appelman asks. The couple recently replaced their third air-conditioning unit since moving into the house in September 2006. “My kids are wondering if they ought to bring their children to our house,” he says. “Our family doesn’t even want to visit.”

Get a tax break by proving Chinese drywall is harming your home

A tax break is on the way for homeowners with Chinese drywall.

If you can prove it's harming your house, the Lee County Property Appraiser says you're eligible for a tax break this year.

Starting Monday, a letter will be making its way to some 50,000 Lee County homes built between 2004 and 2007 -- the boom years when U.S.-made drywall was too hard to come by. It was just approved late Friday afternoon, and WINK News found out what you need to know now to get ready.

Tarnished metals, corroded copper and a downright stinky mess. Chinese drywall has robbed Pat and Richard Kampf of their dream home and finances.

"The indications of Chinese drywall are when you have your air conditioner break down three to four times at $1,500 each time you have to have it repaired," Richard Kampf says.

If you too are living with Chinese drywall and have been since at least January first, you could get a big break on this year's taxes.

"I think it could average $100,000," Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson says. Because that's how much, Wilkinson says, it could cost to strip a home to the studs and rebuild it. Each homeowner's claim will be judged on a case by case basis for reassessment.

Kampf says that kind of a tax break is a great start but not enough.

"If I tried to sell my house to you or to anybody else, there would literally be no takers and the value that would be offered to me would be the ground only, which is probably on the order of $20,000," Kampf says.

"If there's going to be an adjustment made, then we need data," Wilkinson says.

To prove it, you don't need a professional. Just send the Lee County Property Appraiser everything you've documented.

"You see how brittle it is," Kampf says as he shows WINK News a piece of Chinese drywall. "It's brittle, it's gray, it falls apart really easily, and it smells."

Take pictures of the destruction and save receipts of any repairs you've had.

"I think we're ahead of the curve," Wilkinson says. "I don't think anyone else it doing this at this point, so I feel very positive about being in front of it, being proactive."

Now the TRIM notice you'll receive in just a few weeks won't yet reflect the Chinese drywall adjustment. That will come by the end of September.

You'll need to fill out the survey attached to the letter you receive or expedite it by filling it out on the Lee County Property Appraiser's website: www.leepa.org. The link should be available by mid-week.

You can mail your survey and documentation here:
Lee County Property Appraiser
ATTN: Field Services
PO Box 1546
Fort Myers, FL 33902

You can fax it to: 239.533.6107

You can email it to: ChineseDrywall@leepa.org.

Expect letters by mid-week.