Bought a new build off plan but couldn't access driveway!

DoaM

"Off plan" means exactly what it says ... you're buying based on a plan drawing rather than seeing a physical object.

Starbabe6

ElephantBoy57 said:

You would have inspected the plans before buying, seen the size of the rooms, the garden and the drive. You would have known the measurements were tight?

Yes, but the plan they have provided shows a vehicle that is bigger than ours getting on and off the drive, and yet our smaller car was unable. It may have worked on paper, but didn't work when built. 

Starbabe6

DoaM said:

That's my point ... you have no garden now as it is, so what difference would it make to move the lower step to the left of the upper step (as you exit the house) and put a slab/paving to reach the road? That could give you a little more room to manoeuvre when reversing into your drive.

We may end up doing something like this, but a) should we have to pay to rectify their planning error and b) we lost the garden already, to rectify a planning error. They won't admit to any error. 

AdrianC

Starbabe6 said:

Yes, but the plan they have provided shows a vehicle that is bigger than ours getting on and off the drive, and yet our smaller car was unable.

Are you referring to a different plan, because I don't see any dimensions at all, let alone for the car... But doing a bit of very crude manual scaling from on-screen measurements, the proportions seem to be similar to yours, and most car widths are fairly consistent. What's the width of your house? If it's about 5.5m or so, then the car definitely seems to be similar scale to yours.

Starbabe6

AdrianC said:

Are you referring to a different plan, because I don't see any dimensions at all, let alone for the car... 

The original plan provided was of such poor quality we couldn't make out the measurements. This is plan they provided when they took away the front garden to make the turning space, which shows the size of a vehicle etc. The original one was worked out on an estate car, and this one on a van. Again, the vehicle has no wing mirrors and appears to touch the neighbouring house. 

AdrianC

Starbabe6 said:

AdrianC said:
Are you referring to a different plan, because I don't see any dimensions at all, let alone for the car... 

The original plan provided was of such poor quality we couldn't make out the measurements. This is plan they provided when they took away the front garden to make the turning space, which shows the size of a vehicle etc. The original one was worked out on an estate car, and this one on a van. Again, the vehicle has no wing mirrors and appears to touch the neighbouring house. 

So they've worked it on a nominal vehicle that's just half a metre longer (but wheelbase just 200mm) and the same width, and a pretty similar kerb-to-kerb turning circle (11.4m on their dimensions, 10.9 for your Focus).

Not exactly a huge difference.

princeofpounds

Starbabe6 said:

Correct, now the front garden has been removed you can indeed drive in front of the house and reverse in, our point is that to accommodate their planning error we had to lose the garden with no apology or even acknowledgement of an error from the builder. It is still tight, but doable. 

Oh, I thought it was still impossible to actually enter the driveway, the way you were talking about it.

This has changed my opinion. There is no front garden on the plan. I can see why they developer is taking the stance they are now.

Starbabe6

princeofpounds said:

There is no front garden on the plan. I can see why they developer is taking the stance they are now.

I am not understanding your comment. There was a front garden, a lovely one with turf that is now tarmac; with the nice front garden (I posted a picture of it), the driveway was inaccessible. Now they have tarmac'd over the front garden, although it is tight, you can now get on and off the driveway, but the front garden had to be removed to allow access. 

MysteryMe

Making best of a bad job it might be improved with the steps being changed?  It's difficult to judge accurately just based on an image but the top step seems to be quite large, perhaps if this was made smaller and the bottom step put at the side rather than in front of the top step?

Sistergold

blue_max_3 said:

That plan looks crazy tight from the outset to me. Are there dimensions (hard to see) and are they correct in reality?

Yes plan looks tight right from start!