New build after sales: builder made unauthorised changes

moneyistooshorttomention

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

That's exactly why I'd want my own expert, working for me, giving me their professional opinion.

Who ever did the engineering work for the site - & very often it will be an out sourced engineering firm - will have the answers but I would want my expert giving me their opinion first.

May cost you some money but might give you a stronger bargaining power

I'd be inclined to get in my own expert too in your situation - though it's a darn nuisance as being an expense you shouldnt have to pay/havent bargained on.

It may be that they wont charge as much as you fear.

getmore4less

Building regs inspector may be interested if the structural integrity has changed since they signed it off.

EachPenny

getmore4less wrote: »

Building regs inspector may be interested if the structural integrity has changed since they signed it off.

Given the limited information provided by the OP this is highly unlikely. The foundations of the house should be deeper than the lower level of the garden, and the 'structural integrity' would only be affected if the excavation work was very close to the house and of considerable depth.

As ProDave alluded to, the term 'step' could mean the things you walk on to go from one level to another (aka 'stairs') or it could mean differences in level between adjoining relatively flat areas of land... i.e. the top level steps down to the mid-level which steps down to the low level = this garden has 'two steps'.

It might be difficult to argue that what you've ended up with is not what the salesperson promised.

The retaining walls sound like timber crib, which if only retaining a small difference in level will not require massive concrete foundations. Part of the attraction of this kind of wall is that it requires less plant and imported materials (i.e. concrete) to build. Alternatively (particularly given the apparent rapid construction) it may just be wooden sleepers, which again need no massive concrete foundations.

Unless the specific requirements of the OP were set out at the contract stage it is difficult to see what kind of comeback they now have.

Je55lay

Excavations were 8ft from the house and are approx 140cm deep.

The sales representative told us it would have "a slight incline with one or two steps". The original plan for the garden shows a slight incline and two "stairs". It does not show a "stepped" garden. It shows a gradual slope. If the garden was to be "stepped" all along, why did they turf the slope - totally unnecessary cost to persimmon if the plan was to dig it out all along. It also doesn't explain why the boundary fence was built to sit on the slope and still sits at a sloped angle, when the majority of the earth at the bottom of that panel has now been dug away leaving a gaping triangular hole into next door's garden.

The bottom of the garden is 133cm lower than the house.

The retaining walls are wooden logs standing vertically side by side. As far as we are aware, there is no concrete base and the walls were constructed between the hours of 7:50am and 7:30pm while the house was empty. The rest of the garden was left looking like a building site - we even had empty bottles of Mountain Dew strewn around the garden - presumably left by the workmen as we don't drink Mountain Dew.

EachPenny

Je55lay wrote: »

...It also doesn't explain why the boundary fence was built to sit on the slope and still sits at a sloped angle, when the majority of the earth at the bottom of that panel has now been dug away leaving a gaping triangular hole into next door's garden.

The retaining walls are wooden logs standing vertically side by side. As far as we are aware, there is no concrete base and the walls were constructed between the hours of 7:50am and 7:30pm while the house was empty. The rest of the garden was left looking like a building site - we even had empty bottles of Mountain Dew strewn around the garden - presumably left by the workmen as we don't drink Mountain Dew.

But it was a building site, until you instructed the workers to 'stop'. They can only adjust the fence and tidy up if you give them permission to restart the work.

Ultimately you've learned an expensive lesson. Buying something just on the basis of a plan and verbal assurance, not inspecting the work before completing the purchase, both are very high risk things to do. Hopefully your kitchen and bathroom(s) have turned out exactly the way you wanted them though.

harz99

Moral of the story to me is simple - don't buy from Persimmon, and make sure you see the property several times during construction, culminating in an inspection at least a week before completion date whichever builder you buy from.

AdrianC

harz99 wrote: »

Moral of the story to me is simple - don't buy from Persimmon, and make sure you see the property several times during construction, culminating in an inspection at least a week before completion date whichever builder you buy from.

I'm not sure Persimmon are really any different to any other pile-em-high estate developer...

...and I really don't think "See the plot you're buying at least once before you move in" should be a moral anybody needed explaining.

comeandgo

I would have been livid too but I think you now need legal advice. Persimmons should have known NHBC would not help you, they only inspect and can be liable for the buildings. You have been in this mess for nearly a year. Are Persimmons in any other federation you can call? Possibly The Federation of House Builders?
Can you contact your local newspaper? They may be interested.

ProDave

Okay we are getting some details.

"Excavations were 8ft from the house and are approx 140cm deep. "

There's a "45 degree rule" that states if you project a line down from the bottom of the house foundation trench at 45 degrees, is must remain in solid soil. With the house being built close to a slope, I would expect it's foundations to be quite deep anyway, so I can't see this excavation posing any risk whatsoever to the house foundations.

"The bottom of the garden is 133cm lower than the house."

So it takes 2 "steps" to get there so each "step" (retaining wall) is 66cm high. Less if the 3 bits of level garden slope just a little bit a well.

To me this does not sound excessive. I think the only issue is you chased them off site before they had finished so it's no wonder it looks a mess.

Cornucopia

I've bought a number of new-build properties, and in my experience, the OP's situation and account is not only perfectly plausible, but their difficulty in dealing with their builder seems very familiar to me.

The issue is that the major builders are effectively three or four businesses that not only do not talk to each other, but operate inconsistently with one another. There are the Site Sales people, who will tell you whatever is necessary to get the sale, there are the Site Operations people who have the responsibility to resolve issues, but little aptitude for doing so, and there are the Head Office functions who act at a distance, often without knowing or caring about the true facts on the ground.

The NHBC warranty is only of limited use for most people - I have only been able to use them to good effect once, and even then, all they did was require the Builder's contractor to return to my property, and have "another go" at fixing the fault that had already resisted repair on several previous occasions.

Despite all of that, the cheapest, most effective remedy to the OP's issues is to specify a desired solution to the builders and allow them to implement it. If/when that fails, then other more serious measures can be considered. Ultimately, if the geography itself stands between the OP and their desired garden landscape, then no amount of repair work is going to resolve that.