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NewBuild 7 month Garden Problem

gmbunn
Posts: 50 Forumite
Hi all, I'm looking for some advice on an ongoing issue with a new build property I purchased 7 months ago. I won't name the developer on here as I'm worried it may prejudice their efforts (if they ever bother!).
I purchased the new build house from a national developer for approx £1000 more than the identical property next door as it had a reasonable sized garden. This was given as the reason for the price difference. I have a little girl so stretched to afford the garden so that she had room to play. Within a few months we realised we still couldn't walk on it without sinking about 5 inches in and finding water pooling just below the surface despite a period of 4 weeks hot weather and no rain. The problem was reported and the developer literally couldnt have done less to help. They dug a small trench and said wait another few months. Nothing changed at all. When it rains the garden and pation slabs flood completely and I cant leave by the back door because of 4 inches of water against the step. The developer has agreed its a problem and state they will correct it but as its an expensive job, it needs to be 'signed off' at a director level. I was told to wait a few weeks for this to happen. It's been almost 20 weeks of letters and calls but I continually get fobbed off. The NHBC are now involved but are being given the run around too. I saved for years and years to get a deposit that was enough to get a home suitable for my daughter, so I'm really stressed and frustrated with this.
I've been told by a legal executive who lives nearby that it might be worth taking them through the small claims court eventually, but I have no idea what would be reasonable -
I've been without the use of my garden at all since June 2012 - 7 months.
It cost me an extra £1050 on the house price just because of the garden.
The developer charged £695 to turf the property before we moved in.
They've made 2 appointments to visit which I've taken time off work for, which they failed to turn up at all to.
Not to mention the increased laundry costs of having to use a tumble dryer continuously as I cant get to the outside line at all, countless phone calls and letters.
Two questions, is it reasonable to ask for costs (or damages) and what would be a reasonable amount to claim? I have no experience with this and would appreciate any insight.
Thank you!
I purchased the new build house from a national developer for approx £1000 more than the identical property next door as it had a reasonable sized garden. This was given as the reason for the price difference. I have a little girl so stretched to afford the garden so that she had room to play. Within a few months we realised we still couldn't walk on it without sinking about 5 inches in and finding water pooling just below the surface despite a period of 4 weeks hot weather and no rain. The problem was reported and the developer literally couldnt have done less to help. They dug a small trench and said wait another few months. Nothing changed at all. When it rains the garden and pation slabs flood completely and I cant leave by the back door because of 4 inches of water against the step. The developer has agreed its a problem and state they will correct it but as its an expensive job, it needs to be 'signed off' at a director level. I was told to wait a few weeks for this to happen. It's been almost 20 weeks of letters and calls but I continually get fobbed off. The NHBC are now involved but are being given the run around too. I saved for years and years to get a deposit that was enough to get a home suitable for my daughter, so I'm really stressed and frustrated with this.
I've been told by a legal executive who lives nearby that it might be worth taking them through the small claims court eventually, but I have no idea what would be reasonable -
I've been without the use of my garden at all since June 2012 - 7 months.
It cost me an extra £1050 on the house price just because of the garden.
The developer charged £695 to turf the property before we moved in.
They've made 2 appointments to visit which I've taken time off work for, which they failed to turn up at all to.
Not to mention the increased laundry costs of having to use a tumble dryer continuously as I cant get to the outside line at all, countless phone calls and letters.
Two questions, is it reasonable to ask for costs (or damages) and what would be a reasonable amount to claim? I have no experience with this and would appreciate any insight.
Thank you!
0
Comments
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The costs you would claim are whatever it costs you to put right!
You'll need to get quotes from a relevant contractor (perhaps also a surveyor) for remedial drainage to be installed.
You can add in incidental costs (eg lost earnings from time taken off for abortive visits, stationary/stamps/phone etc etc.)
In your position, I would write to them first, advising them that unless they resolve it by xxx, you will instruct a surveyor to advise on the remedial work required and will pass the cost of the surveyor on to them.
That might just incentivise them to do something......0 -
Hi gmbunn
Leave aside the damages for a moment and get your garden resolved. Your builder is duty bound to comply with NHBC Technical Standards. If he does not, after reasonable written request. get the matter enforced by NHBC Resolution at NHBC expense. If the builder does not comply with the findings (assuming judgement is in your favour) NHBC must appoint a contractor (though whether they do, or if it gets that far is a long story!)
I do not know the geography of your garden and the Standards are written to protect the builder, to an extent.
Clause 9.2 - D4 says garden areas must be stable. Clause 9.2 - D5 says garden areas within 3m of the habitable part of the home shall not be waterlogged. Clause 9.2 - D7 says reasonable access shall be provided to garden areas.
I trust this helps.0 -
I really feel for you as my husband and I had a similar problem and it's very stress full trying to get it resolved. It sounds like you have inadequate drainage in place in your garden.
We bought our new build in 2008 and got the landscape gardener that the developers used to come and landscape our garden. It looked stunning when it was done but over the months we noticed the patio stones were coming loose, you could pick them up and the concrete underneath had all cracked as the garden was moving.
We reported it 6 months after we moved in but the developers weren't interested, so we monitored the garden for the next year or so and took lots of pictures as it deteriorated. We then contacted the developer again and it took a lot of persisting on our part too get them to send an independent surveyor out.
We were never privy to the surveyors findings, we just got an email from the developer saying it's all your landscape gardeners fault as he should of put support beams under the patio to take into account that we have a 6 foot deep retainer wall on one side of our garden.
So my reply to them was, the landscape gardener we used is also employed by yourselves so you might want to check the condition of your show home gardens that he landscapes. I also said small gardens like ours do not require support beams under patio's, my neighbour's don't have them so why do we need them, then I also reminded them that nobody told us that the tiny bit of wall that we can see down one side of our garden is actually 6 foot deep. My final comment was to the person who sent us the email, he worked for the developer as a structural engineer and was commenting on someone else's report, I said with all due respect you have not seen our garden and your making comments on it so I asked him to come and take a look himself, which he did.
When he came round I had my own report and photos ready and he couldn't believe how much our garden had dropped. It hadn't been compacted down properly when they were filling it in, needless to say they admitted liability and I got them to confirm that by letter, which I used against them several months later when they were dragging their heels. I sent an email to the director of the company outlining the problem and gave him a deadline of when I wanted a date for work to start or I would use their letter admitting liability to drag them through the courts. By the end of the day I had a date for the following week.
I waited until they were in the process of digging up our garden and took photos, I then emailed them photos of our garden when it had been landscaped and what it was like now, then asked for compensation. I negotiated compensation with them as they were being very mean, all in all it took about 7 months from first survey to compensation.
The first thing you need to do is to get them to admit liability as soon as possible. Take photos and keep your own report.
Try and find out who the director of the developers is and send them an email.
I wouldn't even discuss compensation with them until you have written confirmation they are liable and they have repaired your garden.
Stand your ground and take them on, it's worth it if you win. Good luck0 -
It is refressing to find people like yourself who are willing to stand your ground and take them on, good for you.
I feel so sorry when innocent homebuyers are hoodwinked with these types of companies who will do anything to make a profit come what may, how many other families have just accepted it as their problem and have been fobbed off with words.
We all wish the OP the very best of luck in getting this stressful problem resolved soon.1 -
It is refressing to find people like yourself who are willing to stand your ground and take them on, good for you.
I feel so sorry when innocent homebuyers are hoodwinked with these types of companies who will do anything to make a profit come what may, how many other families have just accepted it as their problem and have been fobbed off with words.
We all wish the OP the very best of luck in getting this stressful problem resolved soon.
Thank you for your comment.
When it first happened and they fobbed us off I was tempted to give up, they are a big name developer and we thought we had no chance. We were talking about how much money we should put by to repair the garden and it angered me that we had just spent thousands of pounds buying a new house and now we had to fork out for something that wasn't our fault.
I took them on by myself as my husband is in the army and constantly away, which added to the stress. He didn't think it was possible to win and couldn't believe how well I did.
I made sure I was always polite to whoever I was dealing with, the majority of the time it was the same person who was head of customer services. If I didn't get the answer I wanted I found a way to go higher up the chain. I also spent time thinking out my replies to their emails to ensure I was always polite and my facts were correct. Whatever they chucked at me I threw it back to them twice as hard.
From the start I exaggerated about how much it cost us to originally have our garden landscaped, as I new if I won and asked for compensation they would offer me alot less. When it came to negotiating compensation the guy I spoke to did in fact offer less than what I asked for, so he thought he got one up on me, but in fact I got one up on him as what they gave us was exactly what it cost us, thanks to my negotiating skills. So we ended up with a lovely landscaped garden at the developers cost and all our money back that we had paid out to have the garden done the first time around.
It was hard work but I would do it again if I had.0 -
We had a similar problem with our new build in 2007. I too wanted a garden for my son to play in, and we couldnt use it for 10 months of the year! The garden was constantly waterlogged - the worst part being the furthest from the house which is acually higher than the rest of the garden as it slopes towards the house.
At one point I dug a hole to plant a large bush, and the hole filled with water within 5 minutes - before I even managed to get the bush planted! That was in the summer, so it was definately not due to the weather (which is what they tried to say initially)
After much complaining and talking to NHBC, the builder eventually agreed that there was a problem and they dug trenches as the top of the garden up to install 'soakways' which have helped enormously. They then returfed the entire garden and it has been much better.
My advice would be to persevere - you will get there in the end!Sealed Pot no 20110 -
When we moved into our modern house sereval years ago the garden was very waterlogged in places even during the summer.
I went to a local builders supplies and bought a plastic drainage pipe with lots of small holes and dug a trench in the garden from the top to a drain pipe near the house.
this helped greatly in draining the garden and cost me £30 and 2 days digging plus a couple of bags of stones to line the trench.0 -
Hi all, thanks so much for your replies, there's some really helpful pointers here and it makes me feel better to know others have been through this and beat the developer at their underhand games. I'm going to start pushing really hard for a resolution and speak again to the NHBC about having them independantly survey the issue.
Thanks again!0 -
I know of a new development where people had trouble with their gardens being waterlogged as well, built by a national developer. They complained and eventually the builder rectified it. It turned out that some of the gardens had been filled with rubble, so they dug it out and placed some drains in and that solved the problem.0
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In our previous home our garden at the rear was in a terrible state after heavy rain, our dog used to return from the garden in a muddy mess so we had to do something.
What I did was to dig several large pits about two feet deep keeping the soil seperate (top/sub soil) then I linked these pits together with drainage pipes. The final pit was then connected to our local drain.
It took me several days of hard work to finish the digging because the ground was heavy clay, one of the reasons that it was rather poor drainage, then I ordered a ton of 25mm stones fron the local builders merchants and fill in the pits to just below the top soil level, job was successful.
We left the property about 5 years or so later and never suffered from water problems again.1
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