By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Robin Lumbert works on a banner that reads "Ask me what Ryland knows about lead" Thursday. She says her yard is contaminated. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

LIBERTY TWP. - A Lexington Manor couple sued The Ryland Group Inc. Thursday after company officials did not respond to their demand that the builder buy back their home, which has potentially dangerous lead levels in its yard.

Robin and Ed Lumbert asked Ryland Homes on Jan. 13 to purchase the $275,500 home they bought in February 2002. High levels of lead have been detected in five lots in the upscale subdivision off Millikin Road, which is under development.

The couple say they do not feel safe in Lexington Manor, especially after two recent soil samples from their yard came back with higher lead concentrations than specified by the most stringent federal and state levels. They are afraid to let their three small children play in their back yard.

"Ryland is playing with our children's health," Ed Lumbert, 34, said.

"We should have been told of the lead, then we could have made the decision whether we wanted to live here or not. That decision was taken away from us."

The suit, filed Thursday in Butler County Common Pleas Court, alleges fraudulent misrepresentation and breaches of warranty of good workmanship, contract and the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act.

The suit asks the courts to rescind the purchase contract on the Lumberts' home, more than $25,000 in damages to pay moving and legal expenses, and unspecified punitive damages.

Ryland spokeswoman Anne Madison said the company needed more time than two weeks to consider the Lumberts' offer.

"It's an unusual request," Madison said.

"We don't have a system set up for this."

She declined to comment on the specific allegations in the suit Thursday, but did reiterate that Ryland is doing everything possible to remedy the problem.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the lead levels at Lexington Manor.

The Lumberts claim Ryland never informed them the subdivision was built on 25 acres that used to hold a clay pigeon shooting range. Lead shot that fell into the ground is the cause of the problem, OEPA officials say.

The developer of Lexington Manor buried the lead-impacted soil and treated it with lime to render it nonhazardous, records show.

"This is every homeowner's worst nightmare," Robin Lumbert, 35, said. "You should not buy a house and then have to hire an attorney to get out of it. Why should we have to be the ones to incur this financial loss when we didn't get the option?"

Ryland officials have conceded they did not tell homeowners of the land's past use or lead content. It wasn't necessary, Madison has said, because Ryland received assurance the property was safe from an environmental firm before the homes were built.

But Robert Croskery and Devon Moser, the Lumberts' attorneys, contend in the lawsuit that Ryland was obligated to inform the Lumberts of the lead - particularly after the family asked about "bury areas" on the subdivision's layout plans before they bought their home.

A Ryland construction superintendent told the Lumberts the bury areas contained underground wires, the suit states.

The Lumberts now believe those bury marks are where the lead was buried.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.