Query about New Build Driveway …

Grumpy_chap

Deetyler14 said:

It was sold to me as being a double driveway and when I queried it after reserve they said they are always built to double drive spec and had it confirmed by head office apparently. It was already built however always behind gates so we’ve never actually driven on it til now 

The thing is what does "double driveway" or "double drive spec" mean?  Whose "double drive spec"?  Do they mean the Developer's own internal specification?  Or do they mean an independently set specification?

Were the comments verbal, or in a written document somewhere?  Was there a written document that gave dimensions of the driveway?

baser999

Does look tight; the garage door for example seems more than half the width of the driveway. Perhaps it’s intended you use the garage for parking ( yes i know that is a novel idea 😱 ) and park the second car to one side on the drive, yet still allowing access to the garage. Appreciate that doesn’t make it a double driveway but it might be what the developers intend? 

koalakoala

Why do they build these tiny “garages” ?

housebuyer143

You can see what they have done, the driveway is supposed to extend into the garden area but that would be very awkward to build so they have made it narrower. 
If you reverse one right up to the grass side and reverse the other close to the wall you should get in no problem, but your passengers might not be able to get in. 

user1977

koalakoala said:

Why do they build these tiny “garages” ?

Because people long since stopped parking cars even in the garages which could fit them, so why bother pretending it's going to accommodate a car if it's really just for your bikes and lawnmower?

jonnydeppiwish!

koalakoala said:

Why do they build these tiny “garages” ?

Tbf, they’re not that small inside - the Redrow house we’re looking at is 10’ wide, so plenty big enough for a current day car.

peter3hg

koalakoala said:

Why do they build these tiny “garages” ?

Redrow garages are usually about 2.95m x 5.8m internally which is plenty big enough for the majority of modern cars.

Looking at the plan, I believe the issue is the position of the wall to the right of the garage. Measuring the plan, using the given width of the road of 4.8m, gives a rough measurement of your drive on the plan of 4.9m.
However the plan shows the border being on the outside edge of the garage. Because the wall has been built inwards from the outside edge of the garage, you have lost a brick's worth of width, or about 215mm, hence why you are only left with about 4.7m of drive.

The general planning guidance is 2.4m width per car, so you are slightly shy of that. I don't think that guidance is binding however unless it is in local planning documents.

35har1old

peter3hg said:

koalakoala said:

Why do they build these tiny “garages” ?

Redrow garages are usually about 2.95m x 5.8m internally which is plenty big enough for the majority of modern cars.

Looking at the plan, I believe the issue is the position of the wall to the right of the garage. Measuring the plan, using the given width of the road of 4.8m, gives a rough measurement of your drive on the plan of 4.9m.
However the plan shows the border being on the outside edge of the garage. Because the wall has been built inwards from the outside edge of the garage, you have lost a brick's worth of width, or about 215mm, hence why you are only left with about 4.7m of drive.

The general planning guidance is 2.4m width per car, so you are slightly shy of that. I don't think that guidance is binding however unless it is in local planning documents.

jonnydeppiwish! said:

koalakoala said:

Why do they build these tiny “garages” ?

Tbf, they’re not that small inside - the Redrow house we’re looking at is 10’ wide, so plenty big enough for a current day car.

Ideal size of garage is 12ft to allow the door to open fully they are differently not considering any disable drivers are passengers 

Deetyler14

I understand about using the garage however we purchased this plot specifically as it had ‘double’ side by side parking which is what we wanted - not using the garage. When I first raised it they said that Redrow always gives double spaces aswell as garage - all the other plots (albeit different houses) seem to have wider drives than this - just need to know if it was intended to be smaller… the wall isn’t on the plan either so I agree that’s taken some with off. I’ve asked my solicitor to look into it as I can’t see any paperwork to scale 

UnderOffer

Deetyler14 said:

I understand about using the garage however we purchased this plot specifically as it had ‘double’ side by side parking which is what we wanted - not using the garage. When I first raised it they said that Redrow always gives double spaces aswell as garage - all the other plots (albeit different houses) seem to have wider drives than this - just need to know if it was intended to be smaller… the wall isn’t on the plan either so I agree that’s taken some with off. I’ve asked my solicitor to look into it as I can’t see any paperwork to scale 

I’d be disappointed to discover the drive is not as wide as expected, like you say you looked at that plot for a double parking area and it has been very compromised by both the actual width and wall with your neighbour. Hope you can resolve in some way with the developer maybe upgrades/landscaping to garden?