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Commitments and Contingencies | 12 Months Ended
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Nov. 30, 2011
Commitments and Contingencies and Legal Matters [Abstract] |
Commitments and Contingencies | Note 13. Commitments and Contingencies Commitments and contingencies include typical obligations of homebuilders for the completion of contracts and those incurred in the ordinary course of business. Warranty. The Company provides a limited warranty on all of its homes. The specific terms and conditions of these limited warranties vary depending upon the market in which the Company does business. The Company generally provides a structural warranty of 10 years, a warranty on electrical, heating, cooling, plumbing and other building systems each varying from two to five years based on geographic market and state law, and a warranty of one year for other components of the home. The Company estimates the costs that may be incurred under each limited warranty and records a liability in the amount of such costs at the time the revenue associated with the sale of each home is recognized. Factors that affect the Company’s warranty liability include the number of homes delivered, historical and anticipated rates of warranty claims, and cost per claim. The Company’s primary assumption in estimating the amounts it accrues for warranty costs is that historical claims experience is a strong indicator of future claims experience. The Company periodically assesses the adequacy of its recorded warranty liabilities, which are included in accrued expenses and other liabilities in the consolidated balance sheets, and adjusts the amounts as necessary based on its assessment. The Company’s assessment includes the review of its actual warranty costs incurred to identify trends and changes in its warranty claims experience, and considers the Company’s construction quality and customer service initiatives and outside events. While the Company believes the warranty liability reflected in its consolidated balance sheets to be adequate, unanticipated changes in the legal environment, local weather, land or environmental conditions, quality of materials or methods used in the construction of homes, or customer service practices could have a significant impact on its actual warranty costs in the future and such amounts could differ from the Company’s estimates. The changes in the Company’s warranty liability are as follows (in thousands):
|  | Years Ended November 30, |
|  | 2011 |  |  | 2010 |  |  | 2009 |
Balance at beginning of year |  | $ | 93,988 |  |  | $ | 135,749 |  |  | $ | 145,369 |
Warranties issued |  |  | 4,852 |  |  |  | 5,173 |  |  |  | 6,846 |
Payments |  |  | (25,024 | ) |  |  | (44,973 | ) |  |  | (24,690 | )
Adjustments |  |  | (6,123 | ) |  |  | (1,961 | ) |  |  | 8,224 |
Balance at end of year |  | $ | 67,693 |  |  | $ | 93,988 |  |  | $ | 135,749 |
The Company’s warranty adjustments for the year ended November 30, 2011 include $7.4 million of adjustments that were recorded as reductions to construction and land costs in the consolidated statements of operations, and mainly resulted from the Company’s assessment of trends in its overall warranty claims experience on homes previously delivered. In addition, for the year ended November 30, 2009, the Company incurred a charge of $5.7 million associated with the repair of allegedly defective drywall. The Company’s overall warranty liability of $67.7 million at November 30, 2011 included $4.8 million for estimated remaining repair costs associated with 87 homes that have been identified as containing or suspected of containing allegedly defective drywall manufactured in China. These homes are located in Florida and were primarily delivered in 2006 and 2007. The Company’s overall warranty liability of $94.0 million at November 30, 2010 included $11.3 million for estimated remaining repair costs associated with 296 such identified affected homes, and its overall warranty liability of $135.7 million at November 30, 2009 included $14.4 million for estimated remaining repair costs associated with 229 such identified affected homes. The decreases in the liability for estimated repair costs associated with identified affected homes during the years ended November 30, 2011 and 2010 reflected the lower number of identified affected homes with unresolved repairs at each date compared to the previous year. During the years ended November 30, 2011, 2010 and 2009, repairs were resolved on 239, 141 and zero identified affected homes, respectively, and the Company identified 30, 208 and 229 additional affected homes, respectively. For these purposes, the Company considers repairs for identified affected homes to be “resolved” when all repairs are complete and all repair costs are fully paid. Repairs for identified affected homes are considered “unresolved” if repairs are not complete and/or there are repair costs remaining to be paid. The drywall used in the construction of the Company’s homes is purchased and installed by subcontractors. The Company’s subcontractors obtained drywall material from multiple domestic and foreign sources through late 2008. In late 2008, the Company directed its subcontractors to obtain only domestically sourced drywall. The Company has identified homes that contain or may contain allegedly defective drywall manufactured in China primarily by responding to homeowner-initiated warranty claims or customer service questions regarding such material or regarding conditions or items in a home that may be affected by such material. Additionally, in certain communities where there had been a high number of affected homes identified through the warranty/customer service process, the Company proactively undertook community-wide reviews that identified more affected homes. The Company completed all such community-wide reviews at the end of May 2011. The Company’s customer service personnel or, in some instances, third-party consultants handled these matters. Because of the testing process required to determine the origin of drywall material obtained before December 2008, the source of drywall for homes that have not been the subject of a customer service/warranty request or community-wide review is unknown. As a result, the Company is unable to readily identify the total number of homes that may contain the allegedly defective drywall material manufactured in China. While the Company continues to respond to individual warranty/customer service requests as they are made, the number of additional affected homes newly identified each quarter has fallen significantly since the third quarter of 2009 to a nominal amount. Based on the significantly reduced individual warranty/customer service request rate, the completion of its community-wide reviews and the domestic sourcing of drywall material since late 2008, the Company anticipates that it has identified substantially all potentially affected homes and will receive at most only nominal additional claims in future periods. During the years ended November 30, 2011, 2010 and 2009, the Company paid $13.7 million, $25.5 million and $1.3 million, respectively, to repair identified affected homes, and estimated its additional repair costs with respect to the newly identified affected homes to be $7.1 million, $22.4 million and $15.7 million, respectively. Since first identifying affected homes in 2009, the Company has identified a total of 467 affected homes and has resolved repairs on 380 of those homes through November 30, 2011. As of November 30, 2011, the Company has paid $40.5 million of the total estimated repair costs of $45.3 million associated with the identified affected homes. In assessing its overall warranty liability, the Company evaluates the costs related to identified homes affected by the allegedly defective drywall material and other home warranty-related items on a combined basis. While the Company has considered the repair costs related to the identified affected homes in conjunction with its quarterly assessments of its overall warranty liability since the third quarter of 2009, the Company has experienced favorable trends in its actual warranty costs incurred with respect to other home warranty-related items. These favorable trends reflect the Company’s ongoing focus on construction quality and customer service, among other things. Based on its assessments, the Company determined that its overall warranty liability at each reporting date was sufficient with respect to the Company’s then-estimated remaining repair costs associated with identified affected homes and its overall warranty obligations on homes delivered. In light of these assessments, the Company did not incur charges in its consolidated statements of operations for the years ended November 30, 2011 or 2010 with respect to repair costs associated with the identified affected homes. Additionally, based on the trends in the Company’s actual warranty costs incurred, the Company’s assessments in 2011 resulted in the recording of warranty adjustments of $7.4 million as reductions to construction and land costs. The overall warranty liability has decreased since 2009 in part because of the payments the Company has made to resolve repairs on identified affected homes and in part due to the decrease in the number of homes the Company has delivered over the past several years. Depending on the number of additional affected homes identified, if any, and the actual costs the Company incurs to repair identified affected homes in future periods, including costs to provide affected homeowners with temporary housing, the Company may revise the estimated amount of its liability with respect to this issue, which could result in an increase or decrease in the Company’s overall warranty liability. As of November 30, 2011, the Company has been named as a defendant in 11 lawsuits relating to the allegedly defective drywall material, and it may in the future be subject to other similar litigation or claims that could cause the Company to incur significant costs. Given the preliminary stages of the proceedings, the Company has not concluded whether the outcome of any of these lawsuits will be material to its consolidated financial statements. The Company intends to seek and is undertaking efforts, including legal proceedings, to obtain reimbursement from various sources for the costs it has incurred or expects to incur to investigate and complete repairs and to defend itself in litigation associated with this drywall material. The Company has not recorded any amounts for potential future recoveries as of November 30, 2011. Guarantees. In the normal course of its business, the Company issues certain representations, warranties and guarantees related to its home sales and land sales that may be affected by Accounting Standards Codification Topic No. 460, “Guarantees.” Based on historical evidence, the Company does not believe any of these representations, warranties or guarantees would be material to its consolidated financial statements. Insurance. The Company has, and requires the majority of its subcontractors to maintain, general liability insurance (including construction defect and bodily injury coverage) and workers’ compensation insurance. These insurance policies protect the Company against a portion of its risk of loss from claims related to its homebuilding activities, subject to certain self-insured retentions, deductibles and other coverage limits. In Arizona, California, Colorado and Nevada, the Company’s general liability insurance takes the form of a wrap-up policy, where eligible subcontractors are enrolled as insureds on each project. The Company self-insures a portion of its overall risk through the use of a captive insurance subsidiary. The Company records expenses and liabilities based on the estimated costs required to cover its self-insured retention and deductible amounts under its insurance policies, and on the estimated costs of potential claims and claim adjustment expenses that are above its coverage limits or that are not covered by its policies. These estimated costs are based on an analysis of the Company’s historical claims and include an estimate of construction defect claims incurred but not yet reported. The Company’s estimated liabilities for such items were $94.9 million at November 30, 2011 and $95.7 million at November 30, 2010. These amounts are included in accrued expenses and other liabilities in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets. The Company’s expenses associated with self-insurance totaled $7.2 million in 2011, $7.4 million in 2010 and $9.8 million in 2009. These expenses were largely offset by contributions from subcontractors participating in the wrap-up policy. Performance Bonds and Letters of Credit. The Company is often required to provide to various municipalities and other government agencies performance bonds and/or letters of credit to secure the completion of its projects and/or in support of obligations to build community improvements such as roads, sewers, water systems and other utilities, and to support similar development activities by certain of its unconsolidated joint ventures. At November 30, 2011, the Company had $361.6 million of performance bonds and $63.8 million of letters of credit outstanding. At November 30, 2010, the Company had $414.3 million of performance bonds and $87.5 million of letters of credit outstanding. If any such performance bonds or letters of credit are called, the Company would be obligated to reimburse the issuer of the performance bond or letter of credit. The Company does not believe that a material amount of any currently outstanding performance bonds or letters of credit will be called. Performance bonds do not have stated expiration dates. Rather, the Company is released from the performance bonds as the underlying performance is completed. The expiration dates of some letters of credit issued in connection with community improvements coincide with the expected completion dates of the related projects or obligations. Most letters of credit, however, are issued with an initial term of one year and are typically extended on a year-to-year basis until the related performance obligation is completed. Land Option Contracts. In the ordinary course of business, the Company enters into land option contracts and other similar contracts to procure rights to land parcels for the construction of homes. At November 30, 2011, the Company had total deposits of $22.6 million, comprised of $20.9 million of cash deposits and $1.7 million of letters of credit, to purchase land having an aggregate purchase price of $345.1 million. The Company’s land option contracts and other similar contracts generally do not contain provisions requiring the Company’s specific performance. Leases. The Company leases certain property and equipment under noncancelable operating leases. Office and equipment leases are typically for terms of three to five years and generally provide renewal options for terms up to an additional five years. In most cases, the Company expects that, in the normal course of business, leases that expire will be renewed or replaced by other leases. The future minimum rental payments under operating leases, which primarily consist of office leases having initial or remaining noncancelable lease terms in excess of one year, are as follows: 2012 — $7.0 million; 2013 — $6.2 million; 2014 — $4.5 million; 2015 — $2.3 million; 2016 — $.2 million; and thereafter — $0. Rental expense on these operating leases was $6.7 million in 2011, $8.5 million in 2010 and $10.3 million in 2009.

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