Four locals of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) said they will honor their own extended electrical system warranties for homeowners who purchased Hemphill homes before the company ceased operations Sept. 22.
Home by Hemphill Inc., a 67-year-old home building company based in Northfield, ceased operations after several years of heavy losses.
The collapse left the company unable to honor any warranties on 140 homes in various projects that had been delivered over the last year.
For all homes built by Hemphill in DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake and McHenry Counties, Local Unions 701, 461, 150 and 117 will honor first-year and extended five-year warranties on materials and workmanship, protecting electrical systems in new homes for six years from the date of completion.
For all Hemphill homes, the unions took the extra step of adding first-year coverage, which usually is the reponsibility of the builder under the warranty program offered through many homebuilders in the five-county metropolitan area.
“While a homebuyer might feel abandoned by a company that, unfortunately, has gone out of business, we wanted to take that extra step to assure recent Hemphill home buyers that their electrical systems not only will remain under warranty but will be covered during the first year as well by the people who built their home,” said Stan Perry, business manager of IBEW local 701 and board member of the Labor Management Cooperative Committee (LMCC).
The union’s “Plus Five” electrical protection plan, which covers maintenance to the entire electrical and wiring system (exclusive of appliances) of a new home up to $1,000 per year for five years, is a cooperative venture of LMCC, the National Electrical Contractors Asssociation (NECA) and signatory electrical contractors.
Hemphill has yet to comment publicly on its plans.
Calls to the company last week were greeted only by a recording saying the office is closed.
