New build poor lawn, advice please?

monsterlane

Hi there I bought a new build house a year ago and have been unhappy with the back lawn as it’s uneven and full of stones and rubble and the grass is terrible which I know most do this. My daughter had a really nasty scratch from a peice of pottery in the soil that has left a scar. 

The issue I have is in the original advert it’s promised you’d get a turfed lawn and they just put seed on it. My neighbours have complained and haven’t got far but the other day were offered £150 to sort it by the developer which I think they know they are liable. I have saved the advert where it says turfed garden. I was just looking for advice on how to challenge them to sort it, ie mention to them trade discription acts etc, my neighbour has suggested we all band together and make a joint no win no fee claim? Any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you. 

oldernonethewiser

Did you complain about the lack of a turfed lawn when you moved in?

Unless it is a very small garden £150 won't get your neighbours much.

Brie

If there is pottery and rubble in there you will probably want to pull up whatever grass is growing, sieve the topsoil at the very least before laying turves.  I needed to do this with our garden as well as the lawn as there was always chunks of pottery and glass turning up.  And that's after no building having been done for about 3 decades.

user1977

Normal consumer rights don't apply when you're buying property (on the basis you had the opportunity to take legal advice and negotiate), what you get is what the contract said. Probably better on the House Buying board, but to be honest it's pretty normal for you to have to sort out lawns yourself.

Nearlyold

Its a bit sneaky I guess but grass seed sown on soil results in 'Turf', so by definition you actually have a "Turf Lawn" as advertised, albeit not a very good one. The dictionary definition of Turf is not restricted to the rectangular slices of Turf you lay on bare soil as a way of creating an instant Turf Lawn,  it also simply means soil with grass growing in it. 

Aylesbury_Duck

I'm intrigued about a joint NWNF claim.  How does your neighbour propose pulling it together?

oldernonethewiser

Nearlyold said:

Its a bit sneaky I guess but grass seed sown on soil results in 'Turf', so by definition you actually have a "Turf Lawn" as advertised, albeit not a very good one. The dictionary definition of Turf is not restricted to the rectangular slices of Turf you lay on bare soil as a way of creating an instant Turf Lawn,  it also simply means soil with grass growing in it. 

If the house was sold with a "turfed lawn" that is quite different from soil with grass seed in it. 

The details of what was agreed at the time of purchase are important if the OP is to get anywhere. 

Nearlyold

oldernonethewiser said:

Nearlyold said:

Its a bit sneaky I guess but grass seed sown on soil results in 'Turf', so by definition you actually have a "Turf Lawn" as advertised, albeit not a very good one. The dictionary definition of Turf is not restricted to the rectangular slices of Turf you lay on bare soil as a way of creating an instant Turf Lawn,  it also simply means soil with grass growing in it. 

If the house was sold with a "turfed lawn" that is quite different from soil with grass seed in it. 

The details of what was agreed at the time of purchase are important if the OP is to get anywhere. 

Yes I was about to edit to say the same, though I guess they could still argue that they'd "Turfed" it by sowing grass seed, thus changing the bare soil 
 the grass was sown in into Turf.

On a lot of the new builds I see they just bung the Turf on top of what's there with virtually no ground preparation or after care anyway.

Most of the blurb that house builders put out have "specifications may change" disclaimers. The terraced new builds across the road from us were originally advertised as having a stream running alongside the front of the houses at the bottom of some landscaped banks that would feature bullrushes etc. However when the builders finished they had far more piles of  spoil etc left over than expected that was going to cost to remove from the site. So they put plastic pipes in the bottom of the banks for the stream to run in then back filled with all the unwanted spoil cos that was cheaper than moving it off site.

IvanOpinion

In these instances it makes me question what other corners may have been cut in the house build if they penny-pinch on a bit of turf.

Hoenir

If you want a decent lawn then it's worth doing the job yourself properly.  Turf can cover a multitude of sins. Also the soil tends to be compacted down due to the heavy machinery on site during construction. 

Aylesbury_Duck

IvanOpinion said:

In these instances it makes me question what other corners may have been cut in the house build if they penny-pinch on a bit of turf.

The answer is almost all of them.