New Build: Placement of meter boxes - Help

Davesnave

Slithery wrote: »

I'm not quite sure what advice you want, either continue with the purchase or pull out.

All of the plans that you've seen so far will have been 'subject to change' anyway.

Antony09 wrote: »

I think I've made it quite clear what advice I want. I'm not sure why you even bothered to reply?

Slithery replied with a very relevant fact that the builder will likely have a clause in the contract allowing them to make minor changes like this, perhaps to accommodate the utility companies. It's quite usual.

It might not be advice you want to hear, but your post suggests you didn't know it and haven't yet looked carefully at your contract.

So the builder may not need 'excuses,' as you call them, and it might be useful to know if this is the case before you throw demands at them.

Doozergirl

daveyjp wrote: »

Putting them anywhere on the front elevation of a new build is simply c**p design and lacks any attention to detail.

And one is to expect what from a developer who builds identikit lego houses up and down the country that somehow pass the planners as fitting into the local vernacular?

These people don't care about good design and they certainly don't care about attention to detail when they're whopping up dozens of houses in one go.

The house building in this country is a joke, including planning departments where they think pastiche equals sensitive design.

Doozergirl

Davesnave wrote: »

Slithery replied with a very relevant fact that the builder will likely have a clause in the contract allowing them to make minor changes like this, perhaps to accommodate the utility companies. It's quite usual.

It might not be advice you want to hear, but your post suggests you didn't know it and haven't yet looked carefully at your contract.

So the builder may not need 'excuses,' as you call them, and it might be useful to know if this is the case before you throw demands at them.

It would be a good idea to read over those documents because if they are barely out of the ground and if the complaining starts now, it's never going to stop. Slithery is right. The pictures you have seen are a guide only and minor changes, even some that are more important than this, can and will be made. And they, without a doubt, will have reserved the right to do so, because things change from plot to plot and one can't account for every outcome in the initial design.

OP, you have not exchanged contracts and you need to seriously question whether a generic new build is right for you if you're expecting a carbon copy of their pretty watercolour drawings. You're going to get a magnolia box that does not look like the show home inside either, without serious extra cash spending - that they will charge you handsomely for.

This is not a bespoke house. The developers are building a house to their own specification and you do not get to dictate. You get to buy and you get to dance to their tune. Resistance is futile.

To answer your original question, the utility companies don't dictate where meter boxes go, but there are parameters and it's quite clear that the utility pipes have already been laid (the green and yellow pipes in both photos) and were certainly organised and quite probably there before you reserved the house as it's part of the ground works. Yellow is gas, black is electric, green is generic actually - broadband, cable TV etc.

The meter boxes will be, more than likely, brick red and they will be recessed into the wall so the cover will sit virtually flush. It will not stand out like a sore thumb. Pretty planting in pots by the door never goes amiss, and will hide it.

Your house will look like one in an estate of generic new builds and no detail will stand out to anyone but you. Future buyers won't care less.

Sorry if I sound harsh, but people think they're buying something special, but it's just another house to the developers and the builder's job is to get it built quick and efficiently. And to a degree, they're correct that the meter positioning isn't important in the grand scheme - to them it's the best route for pipework to get to the planned fusebox and boiler locations. Which is definitely a key consideration - and definitely THE key consideration if you're project managing. Which you're not, unfortunately. Allowing the buyer to be involved in anything but the smallest of design details (which you will pay for in advance, just in case you pull out) just causes delays, confusion and cost.

Norman_Castle

I've made representations to the building company who tell me "they cannot be moved and are placed by the electricity company".

If the energy supply is already at the property moving where the boxes are sited will involve re routing or extending the supply which can be expensive. The developer should have given instruction as to where they wanted the supply to enter the property.

AdrianC

Doozergirl wrote: »

And one is to expect what from a developer who builds identikit lego houses up and down the country that somehow pass the planners as fitting into the local vernacular?

These people don't care about good design and they certainly don't care about attention to detail when they're whopping up dozens of houses in one go.

The house building in this country is a joke, including planning departments where they think pastiche equals sensitive design.

<shrug> They build what sells profitably...

If you want to protest, do so by not buying them.

kerri_gt

If you were buying this as a non new build and the utility boxes were already in situ, if everything else about the house ticked the right boxes, would you decide not to buy because of the box location?

I do get that it ca. Be disappointing when something is not as expected but I have learned quickly that is the nature of houses, especially when other people are invocled. Even on the entertainment filled 'Grand Designs' with people building their 'dream house' there are invariably compromises that are made or things not quite as they planned / wanted for various reasons.

Is this really important enough to you to pull out of buying? Only you can answer that.

Doozergirl

AdrianC wrote: »

<shrug> They build what sells profitably...

If you want to protest, do so by not buying them.

Do you think that wasn't what I was suggesting?

I've done more than just <shrug> And make snarky comments.

I've been successfully protesting for years by not buying them, and we're doing an alright job of improving the existing housing stock in our small way.

And now we're building our own house. Designed by me with relevant help, it has 210mm of solid insulation, is airtight with managed ventilation so will be very thermally efficient. It's built without ignoring the technologies available to us now - something that our current Building Regs let developers get away with. Regs are good, but good enough, considering what is available to us. We're showing people what can be done.

It is also designed to the mm to fit what we want in it. Not to say that some things haven't altered somewhat during the build. It's me prerogative to change my mind!

The shortest route for the meters happens to be to the side, but distance is a cost consideration.

AdrianC

Doozergirl wrote: »

I've been successfully protesting for years by not buying them

As have I. <group hug>

Now all we need to do is persuade the OP and millions like them...

ethank

When buying a new house, they are supposed to take you through the plans and highlight all these positions using the plans beforehand. I suggest you ask to speak with the site manager and go through the plans so you can make sure you are happy with the rest.

Doozergirl

ethank wrote: »

so you can make sure you are happy with the rest.

Happy as in 'this is where we're putting it' as oppose to 'would you like us to move this?'