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Note 16 - Warranty Costs

12 Months Ended

Oct. 31, 2015

Product Warranties Disclosures [Abstract]

Product Warranty Disclosure [Text Block]

16. Warranty Costs

General liability insurance for homebuilding companies and their suppliers and subcontractors is very difficult to obtain. The availability of general liability insurance is limited due to a decreased number of insurance companies willing to underwrite for the industry. In addition, those few insurers willing to underwrite liability insurance have significantly increased the premium costs. To date, we have been able to obtain general liability insurance but at higher premium costs with higher deductibles. Our subcontractors and suppliers have advised us that they have also had difficulty obtaining insurance that also provides us coverage. As a result, we have an owner controlled insurance program for certain of our subcontractors whereby the subcontractors pay us an insurance premium (through a reduction of amounts we would otherwise owe such subcontractors for their work on our homes) based on the risk type of the trade. We absorb the liability associated with their work on our homes as part of our overall general liability insurance at no additional cost to us because our existing general liability and construction defect insurance policy and related reserves for amounts under our deductible covers construction defects regardless of whether we or our subcontractors are responsible for the defect. For the fiscal years ended October 31, 2015 and 2014, we received $3.1 million and $2.3 million, respectively, from subcontractors related to the owner controlled insurance program, which we accounted for as a reduction to inventory.

We accrue for warranty costs that are covered under our existing general liability and construction defect policy as part of our general liability insurance deductible. This accrual is expensed as selling, general and administrative costs. For homes delivered in fiscal 2015 and 2014, our deductible under our general liability insurance is a $20 million aggregate for construction defect and warranty claims. For bodily injury claims, our deductible per occurrence in fiscal 2015 and 2014 is $0.25 million, up to a $5 million limit. Our aggregate retention in fiscal 2015 and 2014 is $21 million for construction defect, warranty and bodily injury claims. In addition, we establish a warranty accrual for lower cost related issues to cover home repairs, community amenities and land development infrastructure that are not covered under our general liability and construction defect policy. We accrue an estimate for these warranty costs as part of cost of sales at the time each home is closed and title and possession have been transferred to the homebuyer. Additions and charges in the warranty reserve and general liability reserve for the fiscal years ended October 31, 2015 and 2014 were as follows:

	Year Ended October 31,
(In thousands)	2015		2014

Balance, beginning of period	$178,008		$131,028
Additions – Selling, general and administrative	18,013		18,839
Additions – Cost of sales	15,308		11,115
Charges incurred during the period	(49,131	)	(18,241	)
Changes to pre-existing reserves	(17,125	)	(2,600	)
Changes to reserves where corresponding amounts are recorded as receivables from insurance carriers	(10,020	)	37,867
Balance, end of period	$135,053		$178,008

Warranty accruals are based upon historical experience. We engage a third-party actuary that uses our historical warranty and construction defect data to assist our management in estimating our unpaid claims, claim adjustment expenses and incurred but not reported claims reserves for the risks that we are assuming under the general liability and construction defect programs. The estimates include provisions for inflation, claims handling and legal fees. As a result of reductions in our construction defect claims over the last two years and the impact of those reductions on the actuarial analysis of our total reserves, we recorded a $15.2 million reduction in our construction defect reserves during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015. We also had minor reductions in our warranty accruals based on recent history. These reductions are reflected in the changes to pre-existing reserves in the table above.

Charges incurred during the period noted in the table above include the $21.0 million settlement regarding the D’Andrea litigation discussed in Note 18. Also included is the settlement of several other less significant construction defect claims, in addition to the usual construction defect charges incurred repairing homes.

Insurance claims paid by our insurance carriers, excluding insurance deductibles paid, were $32.0 million and $6.4 million for the fiscal years ended October 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively, for prior year deliveries. During fiscal year 2015 we settled the D’Andrea class action suit with the majority of the settlement being paid by our insurance carriers and we settled the dispute with our XL insurance carrier which resulted in a payment to the Company in full settlement of certain policy years. See Note 18. For the fiscal year ended October 31, 2014, we settled construction defect claims relating to the Northeast and West segments which made up the majority of the payments.