New build - garden sloping, not sure of rights?

buel10

RelievedSheff said:

You say that you didn't view the plot in question but surely you viewed an external works drawing that showed the levels that the garden would be laid too?

Unfortunately if you buy a plot on a sloping development then you are very unlikely to get a flat garden unless you are very lucky. There is always the odd one that works out to be fairly flat.

Developers will make the levels work in whatever is the cheapest method for them and adding a small slope as you have at the bottom of your garden is a damn sight cheaper for them than building a retaining wall.

Great post! However, I should have specified that it is the drastic slope towards the fence that bothers me?

buel10

RelievedSheff said:

You say that you didn't view the plot in question but surely you viewed an external works drawing that showed the levels that the garden would be laid too?

Unfortunately if you buy a plot on a sloping development then you are very unlikely to get a flat garden unless you are very lucky. There is always the odd one that works out to be fairly flat.

Developers will make the levels work in whatever is the cheapest method for them and adding a small slope as you have at the bottom of your garden is a damn sight cheaper for them than building a retaining wall.

 but surely you viewed an external works drawing that showed the levels that the garden would be laid too? - Yes, we sure did. I will check.....

AdrianC

buel10 said:

greatcrested said:

So some gardens slope.In fact thousands... tens of thousands?.... of gardens in the UK have slopes, hillocks, ups&downs.

Unless your contract specifically stated the garden would be flat (highly unlikely but by all means read it and check) your concern is misplaced. Do some landscaping if you don't like the design.

As for the grass it does not look that bad, but a new lawn takes time, and care, to get established.

I think you may have missed that the slope increases dramatically towards the fence?

You'd rather it was an even, steeper, slope all the way along from the house to the boundary?

Remember, the house and the boundary are fixed heights on the plot...

Davesnave

buel10 said:

Davesnave said:

The soil retention at the fence is a bodge job, but with probably nothing in your contract specifying how it's to be dealt with you are probably stuck with it. The actual slope is no different than in many gardens throughout the land

The best long term way to retain that amount of soil would be a strip foundation and then a wall of some kind; a significant extra expense to add at the end and much easier to plan-in from the start. However, some builders don't work like that. They do the minimum, which is what you have.After all it won't be actionable within the remit of the NHBC guarantee, or similar.

This is how the British building industry is. It's probably much better than the Nigerian one, but successive governments haven't done much to ensure the consumer has more rights, especially in peripheral areas like this. As we often say here, you have better consumer protection when buying a bar of chocolate than a new house.

This is interesting, thank you. Regarding getting the developers to do something about this, at the moment they are 'our friends', and to be fair, have been great with everything we wanted them to do up to now, so maybe there is some leeway if we ask......

I doubt it. As I said, too difficult and expensive if not planned-in at the start, but the method of soil retention - polypropylene fabric and 0.6 m pegs by the look of it - might usefully be changed. if you want rid of the slope, that's a major job.

[Deleted User]

Speaking as someone who is leveling their tiny garden right now, without seeing the surrounding land its difficult to advise.  But I would go back, and look and see if removing/adding soil will solve the problem without leaving the garden area significantly higher than the surrounding land.  Its a difficulty I am facing and I am just doing some soil movement.

Of course you can ask the developer if they will do the levelling but if they won't its perfectly doable yourself.  If I can do it with various health conditions, anyone can lol.

carefullycautious

I would rather have not had the turf laid so that I could level the ground out with a rake and then used a garden roller over it.

AdrianC

carefullycautious said:

I would rather have not had the turf laid so that I could level the ground out with a rake and then used a garden roller over it.

Turf was probably an extra-cost option.

RelievedSheff

AdrianC said:

carefullycautious said:

I would rather have not had the turf laid so that I could level the ground out with a rake and then used a garden roller over it.

Turf was probably an extra-cost option.

That very much depends on who the developers were. It is only the cheaper developers that charge extra for turf along with other items like outside taps, power to garage etc. which would be expected as standard. That is how they increase their profits by charging for the extras.

suki1964

You would hate my slope, we are 30ft higher than the land around us. I look out of the kitchen window down onto the roof of the barn next door

To give an idea, these trees are at the bottom of our slope and had grown over 100ft



Its cost thousands to put a retaining wall around part of the gardens, here's the front to give an idea



The bits we haven't done ( quite a lot ) have either had trees ( see above ) or the level has slowly over the years been filled in as we have had building works done - our own private landfill -  and now been grassed over to make a more gentle bank down to the boundary planted with meadow flowers

RelievedSheff

buel10 said:

RelievedSheff said:

You say that you didn't view the plot in question but surely you viewed an external works drawing that showed the levels that the garden would be laid too?

Unfortunately if you buy a plot on a sloping development then you are very unlikely to get a flat garden unless you are very lucky. There is always the odd one that works out to be fairly flat.

Developers will make the levels work in whatever is the cheapest method for them and adding a small slope as you have at the bottom of your garden is a damn sight cheaper for them than building a retaining wall.

Great post! However, I should have specified that it is the drastic slope towards the fence that bothers me?

buel10 said:

RelievedSheff said:

You say that you didn't view the plot in question but surely you viewed an external works drawing that showed the levels that the garden would be laid too?

Unfortunately if you buy a plot on a sloping development then you are very unlikely to get a flat garden unless you are very lucky. There is always the odd one that works out to be fairly flat.

Developers will make the levels work in whatever is the cheapest method for them and adding a small slope as you have at the bottom of your garden is a damn sight cheaper for them than building a retaining wall.

Great post! However, I should have specified that it is the drastic slope towards the fence that bothers me?

That is there so they didn't have to build a wall. As someone else has pointed out the alternative was to have a steeper slope along the whole garden from the plot to the boundary.

I doubt the developers will do anything about this without it costing you money. They won't have budgeted for a retaining wall of any kind and to reduce the slope in your garden would also affect the gardens of the adjacent plots so the costs soon start to escalate.

I would be tempted to just plant that end section with some low maintenance plants so that it won't need mowing and will pretty much look after itself.

As for the condition of the grass it needs lots of water in this weather. We were watering ours morning and night when it was first laid to give it the best chance of establishing properly.