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Comments
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There could be a number of reasons why the OP cares.
1st thought would be mobility concerns either the OP, family, visitors requiring no steps or at least just the 1 to get into a door.
This is of course speculation but no more so than suggesting it shouldn't be a problem.0 -
Thanks all for your input. My mother stays with us and she has knee problems so thats the reason.0
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My question was really whether you have looked at the planning permission.Davina_Hart wrote: »!!!8220;Do the approved drawings in the planning consent show the steps?!!!8221;
This is the bit they missed. We were shown how the house is going to look
like, meter location, water, switches, lighting and stuff like that but nothing related to steps,
Your contract (you have looked at that too, right?) almost certainly gives the builder leeway to build something only vaguely approximating to the promotional literature, though they ought to be building it in accordance with what the planners have approved.
Unfortunately, if details like this are important to you then you really should be buying an already-completed house rather than something off-plan.0 -
If the issue is with access, can the steps not be converted to a ramp with a gentle incline? Or is there insufficient horizontal room to do this?
I just looked through several houses on Rightmove that are ostensibly on a level plot and they all seem to have some sort of "step" into the house - surely few houses have a ground floor that is exactly level with the ground outside? Wouldn't that be a risk of flooding during heavy rain?
It just seems that if this were so critical, there should have been some sort of conversation and confirmation in writing - I'd never assume a lack of any steps simply from visiting a plot of land.
Either way, some sort of ramp seems the first obvious solution that comes to mind. I'm assuming your goal is to solve the problem regarding ease of access for your mother because of her knee problems, rather than to "get compensation", as you stated in your original post.(Nearly) dunroving0 -
Will Mum be going upstairs when she stays, or will she spend the whole time on the ground floor?
If she can manage the stairs I would have thought she could manage the outside steps, perhaps with the help of a handrail?0 -
Building regs require new property to be wheelchair accessible, so it won't meet those if there isn't another viable access at the rear.
The OP hasn't said whether there is or isn't, although the question was raised in Post 6.0 -
This is another example of why, historically, buying a new build house was always regarded as something you might have to to do if you couldn't afford anything better.
Developers have managed now to flip this entirely so people are actually paying a premium for new build, as though they were buying a new car.
It just goes to show.0 -
Don't ask don't get is my motto, so there is no harm kicking up a bit of a fuss and asking. I recently got a decent chunk of compensation from TW since we were told down the side of our home there would be a gate in the fence (separating mine and the neighboring flats area) however when we moved in this gate was not there, meaning we have no side access to the garden, and the fence is under management by the MA of the flats so nothing we can do.
Such a minor thing (less annoying than your step issues) and we got a bit back for it so worth a try. What would they have done if you had mobility issues etc.
Complain and see.0 -
Get on the council site planning portal and find out what was approved you will find a load of other stuff there about the site that they won't have told you.
There may also be applications to make new changes to the site you need to keep checking on a regular basis.0 -
Building regs require new property to be wheelchair accessible, so it won't meet those if there isn't another viable access at the rear.
The OP hasn't said whether there is or isn't, although the question was raised in Post 6.
Out of interest:
- when did these regulations come in?
- do they apply across the whole country (or just England)?0
This discussion has been closed.
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