BY MATTHEW WINTER
SALISBURY POST

ALBEMARLE – Federal inspectors say they found improperly built walls, faulty wiring, even ceiling mirrors that might fall in hundreds of mobile homes manufactured at the Imperial Homes plant here.

Inspectors with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced this month they had completed a three-year investigation of the Albemarle plant. HUD fined Southern Energy Homes – which bought the Imperial plant in 1994 – $150,000. That fine could double if Southern Energy, headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., does not follow through on an agreement to fix safety violations found in 275 homes and inspect about 600 more homes for possible additional violations.

‘‘It’s a significant fine,’’ HUD spokesman Lemar Wooley said this morning. ‘‘The fact that we’re talking about a civil fine at all is significant, because we’re usually able to settle without taking that step.’’

Southern Energy Homes is blaming poor management at the Albemarle plant for the building defects.

The ‘‘vast majority’’ of the manufactured homes in question were sold in North Carolina, according to Southern Energy attorney Dan Batchelor of Birmingham. The company already has completed most of the required repairs and inspections, he added.

Southern Energy Homes’ repairs and promises of heightened production standards may not be enough to satisfy local manufactured home dealers.

Rick Timmons, regional sales manager for Affordable Custom Living on Ridge Avenue in Kannapolis, said many other dealers voiced frustration with Southern Energy at a trade show in Myrtle Beach in February. His company has a dozen Southern Energy homes on the lot.

‘‘There were lots of heated conversations, mostly about service,’’ Timmons said.

One common problem seems to have been loose ceiling mirrors and easily-cracked walls, Timmons said. Most home manufacturers will repair cracked sheet rock if it arrives that way from the plant, yet he and other dealers have had trouble getting Southern Energy to fix the problem, he said.

‘‘We’ve got a number of homes out that we’ve already sunk a lot of money into, in terms of sheet rock,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve got a couple of complaints about sheet rock stuff we’ve had to go out and deal with.

‘‘I’m not so sure my owner may not drop this line,’’ he added later in a phone interview this morning.

Southern Energy is the ninth-largest manufactured housing maker in the country. Batchelor, the company attorney, said manufacturing defects were isolated to the company’s Albemarle plant, the only one of Southern Energy’s nine manufacturing facilities that it acquired from another company. The problems in Albemarle began to show up shortly after Southern Energy Homes bought the Albemarle plant from Imperial Homes Corp. in 1994.

‘‘We now realize, or did realize not long after we got into this matter with HUD, that there were problems,’’ Batchelor said. ‘‘We took the proper steps to handle it. Upper-level management personnel were replaced. Service personnel were substituted for those who had been at the Albemarle plant, and the facility has been for quite some time a first-rate manufacturing facility.’’

Consumers who bought a manufactured home with the brand name Imperial or Southern Energy – the two brands produced at the Albemarle plant – can call the plant at 800-922-5935 if they discover defects, Batchelor said. Home owners also can call Southern Energy’s corporate office, 256-747-8589, and speak with Randi Cheek, director of consumer affairs, he said.

Batchelor also said federal officials exaggerated the extent and frequency of defects.

‘‘From 1994 through the time HUD made its investigation, there were almost 3,000 homes manufactured there’’ in Albemarle, he said. ‘‘Of that number, HUD found defects or problems in 112. Some of the defects that were determined by HUD’s investigation were as relatively minor as a squeaky floor.

‘‘Some of the defects they found were, on the overall scale of things, very nominal.’’

The Department of Housing and Urban Development reported this month that its investigation revealed numerous violations of federal safety standards, including:

- Ceiling mirrors that may fall.

- Loose or faulty wiring in electrical outlets, furnaces, range hoods and panel and junction boxes.

- Plumbing vents that did not go through the roofs.

- Walls that were not properly glued to studs.

- Vinyl siding improperly installed.

Southern Energy Homes sells manufactured homes in 21 states under five brand names.

The HUD investigation has caused waves in Alabama, according to an Associated Press report.

The Alabama commission overseeing the mobile home industry has been marked by controversy in recent months. Gov. Don Siegelman said last month that he wants to restructure the agency’s six-member board, which has five members with industry ties. Commissioner Billy C. Ford, a former Winston County probate judge, has worked as a consultant for Southern Energy’s transport company, MH Transport, the Associated Press reported.

A Montgomery County lawsuit filed by mobile-home buyers claims the commission has ignored their interests and catered to the industry.