The Seminole Tribe of Florida is suing Lennar for allegedly building 465 defective homes on tribal land across Florida.
In an amended Aug. 29 lawsuit in Broward County Circuit Court, the Seminole Tribe alleges Lennar, a Miami-based national homebuilder led by Executive Chairman and co-CEO Stuart Miller and co-CEO and President Jon Jaffe, built shoddy houses that have damaged hundreds of tribal members. As a result, the Seminole Tribe is on the hook for reimbursing damages and out-of-pocket relocation expenses amounting to “tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars,” the complaint states.
The Seminole Tribe alleges that houses Lennar developed on Seminole reservations in the state have significant construction issues, including faulty roofing and ventilation systems, leading to potentially hazardous mold growth.
“It is just a huge disappointment for people in the tribe that relied on Lennar,” said Wiliam Scherer, the Seminole Tribe’s attorney. “We were working in good faith, and [Lennar] led us down a garden path. They promised they would fix the homes. The longer it went, our engineers examining the homes kept finding more problems.”
The defects are so serious that the Seminole Tribe has to move families out of the 462 homes into temporary housing, Scherer said. “It’s going to take a few years,” he said. “That is a major undertaking.”
A Lennar spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Seminole Tribe and Lennar entered into a community development agreement in 2019. The two sides attempted mediation in March, but were not successful, the complaint states. The same month, the Seminole Tribe had filed its initial lawsuit, and the case was briefly stayed on April 29, as Lennar attempted remediation efforts on the homes that were unsuccessful, court filings show.
This month, Lennar filed two separate motions to compel arbitration and again stay the lawsuit, according to court records.
Based in Hollywood, the Seminole Tribe owns the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, which includes a guitar-shaped hotel with 638 rooms.
Lennar, a publicly traded firm, is among the largest homebuilders in the U.S. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought more than 7 million shares in Lennar for nearly $800 million in the first half of this year.
Lennar is heavily invested in south Miami-Dade County where the firm has several developments on tap. The company recently submitted plans for Retro West, a 106-townhome development near Homestead. The 10-acre project would include 11 townhomes set aside for workforce housing.
