Accounting irregularities caused Beazer Homes to delay its third-quarter financial report after the company said in a financial filing that it had encountered accounting problems.
The homebuilder's audit committee has been conducting an internal investigation of the company's mortgage origination business, and its legal counsel has retained independent forensic accountants. Beazer said it discovered that its former chief accounting officer may have overstated the amount of reserves and other accrued liabilities in prior accounting periods. The charges related mostly to land development costs and costs to complete houses.
"These reserves and other accrued liabilities, if reversed in subsequent accounting periods, could have been used to reduce the company's operating expenses by amounts that would not have been appropriate under generally accepted accounting principles," said Beazer in its filing.
The company's audit committee was not able to make a final conclusion on the adjustment amount in time to file its quarterly report, but Beazer doesn't expect the difference to be "quantitatively material."
