South Carolina homeowners have some of the strongest protections in the nation when it comes to the quality of their houses. The state has strong building codes and licenses its builders. State law also holds builders responsible for major defects for 13 years after a project is finished, one of the longest periods in the nation.

But builders say that law is hurting them, and state lawmakers are considering shortening the period, known as the statute of repose.

A bill in the state Senate would shorten the period of liability to ten years. The bill originally called for just six years, but senators amended the bill.

John Cone, executive director of the Home Builders Association of South Carolina, explains why the change is needed. " North Carolina is 6 years. Georgia is 8 years. And we have 13 years. Well, not a lot of cases are brought beyond 8 years. Almost anything you have wrong with a house, you find pretty quickly."

He says the longer period is making it difficult for builders to get liability insurance. Some contractors are even getting out of the home building business because of it, doing only commercial work instead.

Some insurance companies also refuse to write policies in the state because of the long liability period.

But some homeowners are worried about the change, because it gives them less protection.

Danny Collins, with the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs, says the bill is a trade-off between the needs of homeowners and home builders. "For consumers, they would like it as long as possible. But sometimes there has to be a limit just to make economic sense."

Gov. Mark Sanford can see the economic sense behind it. He says the civilian aircraft industry was driven out of business years ago because of lawsuits filed over planes made 25 and 30 years earlier.

He's not taking a position on this bill, since it hasn't reached his desk and he doesn't know what the final version will look like. But in theory he doesn't see a problem with it.

He told News Channel 7, "Even if you shorten a window like this, anybody can bring a suit in a courtroom against a builder who did something shoddy, was fraudulent, misrepresented. And so people would still have a legal remedy. I guess it's a question of automatic legal remedy."

The bill passed the state Senate on second reading January 21st, but it's now on hold before it gets its third and final reading to move to the House.