House noisily sinking, expert says

An attorney agrees to represent a couple whose house is cracking and whose insurance company is not renewing.

By THOMAS C. TOBIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 27, 2000

CLEARWATER -- The cracks continue to widen and spread in the modest home they bought 22 years ago. The sounds of it slowly splitting apart still haunt and frighten them.

[Times photo: Jack Rowland] A hydrogeologist says soil under the home of Robert and Susan Holmes' house appears to be spilling into one or more sinkholes.

But now, the problem is starting to make sense to Robert and Susan Holmes.

A hydrogeologist has found three places on the Holmeses' property where soil appears to be "migrating vertically," meaning it is spilling into what the expert believes may be one or more sinkholes.

The house near downtown is "not only dropping," said the expert, Sandy Nettles of New Port Richey. "It's rotating outward."

In a story last week, the Times detailed the Holmeses' plight, which began in early 1999 when cracks began to appear along their home's concrete-block facade. The couple contacted their insurer, Sunshine State Insurance Co. The company hired an expert who drilled on the property and blamed the problem on routine settling -- a problem not covered by their policy.

As the cracks grew deeper and longer, and began to show up inside the home, the company contested the couple's claim that a sinkhole was the cause.

Under Florida law, homeowners' insurance companies must pay for sinkhole damage.

Then, earlier this month, Sunshine State notified the Holmeses that their policy would not be renewed in September. The company cited other reasons besides the settling.

Robert Holmes says his nerves are frazzled from battling the company, based in Ponte Vedra Beach. The couple contacted a Clearwater attorney, but he would not proceed unless they paid a consultant to contest Sunshine State's expert.

Holmes, who is disabled, said he and his wife earn about $19,000 a year and can't afford even a small legal battle.

Through media coverage of their story, however, they became aware of Alan Marshall, a Palm Harbor attorney whose practice consists solely of sinkhole cases. He says he handles about 100 claims at any one time.

As with all his clients, Marshall agreed to represent the Holmeses on a contingency basis. "Unless I win," he said Friday, "(Holmes) doesn't owe me a penny."

Marshall works with Nettles, who tested the Holmeses' property for about 10 hours Thursday using a process called "electrical resistivity."

Nettles uses a small computer, a switch box and two 50-meter cables with electrodes. The cables are laid across the ground, electrical currents are sent into the soil and the computer measures underground resistance to the currents.

The result is a map of the geological landscape under and around the Holmeses' house. Nettles' system casts a broader net than the targeted drilling used by the insurance company's expert.

Nettles said he was able to rule out other possible causes for the cracking walls, such as buried debris or poorly compacted soil. If either of those was a factor, he said, the cracks would have occurred years ago.

Another potential cause -- the clay layer -- is too deep to be the source of the problem, Nettles said.

The house at 1378 Admiral Woodson Lane is 53 years old. It is part of a subdivision north of Drew Street and Highland Avenue.

Marshall said the next step is to file a lawsuit challenging Sunshine State's decision.

Sunshine State has declined to comment on the claim, noting the Holmeses have spoken with lawyers. The company did say, however, that non-renewal of the couple's policy was not related to settling but to the Holmeses' failure to document updates to their home.

Robert Holmes said he has informed the company of the updates, adding they are easily verified through city permits.

Meanwhile, his home continues to weaken. On Thursday, he said, he heard two more of the eerie cracking sounds to which he has grown accustomed. One sounded like it came from the attic, the other from the wall behind the couple's bed.

And when summer rains begin, the problem could worsen, Nettles said.

The house is "going to start moving very rapidly, is my guess," he said.

Holmes is relieved, but only "in the sense that I knew I was right from Day One," he said. "I still have to live here. I still have the fear."

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