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New built house | Steps to get to front door | Not told abou this

Looking for a bit of advise to see if we can get some compensation from builder.

We reserved a three bed house with the builder in March. We have exchanged last week, and recently we have been to the site to the see the progress and there we noticed the house was on a height which gave us the impression that there will be a few steps to get to the front door.

We then went to sales office to find out. The sales person apologised for her error and said she forgot to mention this at the time of reservation. She said there will be three steps to the front of the house and two from rear garden entrance.

Shall we take this further with the builder head office? We like the house but don’t really want the steps and there is no way they can avoid the steps due to slight down slope on the road. Had we known about the steps we wouldn’t have reserved the plot.

No other plots have the steps but they are different house type. Our one has steps due to its corner position.

What shall we do? :(

Many thanks,
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Comments

  • Thrugelmir
    Thrugelmir Posts: 89,546
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    You exchanged without visiting the site and viewing what you were buying? Albeit in an unfinished state. Puts you in a difficult position and at the mercy of the developer. Probably best to purchase the property and sell as soon as practically possible.
  • davidmcn
    davidmcn Posts: 23,596
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    Do the approved drawings in the planning consent show the steps?
  • Davina_Hart
    Davina_Hart Posts: 75
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    We visited the site but house wasn!!!8217;t enen built at the time. We reserved and exchanged after seeing the site and property plan. The access (where our plot is) was restricted at the time which they recently open and hence we had a closer look recently. There is nothing more we could have done.
  • Davina_Hart
    Davina_Hart Posts: 75
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    !!!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,
  • Owain_Moneysaver
    Owain_Moneysaver Posts: 11,357
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    Do the plans for Building Control show the steps?

    AIUI Building Regulations now require a step-free entrance to the ground floor of a house.
    A kind word lasts a minute, a skelped erse is sair for a day.
  • Do the plans for Building Control show the steps?

    AIUI Building Regulations now require a step-free entrance to the ground floor of a house.

    Ooh...I'd certainly check that to see what the possibilities were there.

    This could be taken in conjunction with possibly telling them to have one of those little mini-slopes instead of steps.
  • comeandgo
    comeandgo Posts: 5,731
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    It means to pass building control there will also be a ramp, ours is at the back door.
  • dunroving
    dunroving Posts: 1,881
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    Not sure I understand what is the big deal with three steps. Even houses on a level have a "step up" to the door, or even more. I just checked the house I am buying, on a level plot, and there are two steps to the front door. I couldn't be less bothered. But then I have 15 + 3 steps to get to my current house.

    But seriously, why do you care?
    (Nearly) dunroving
  • mije1983
    mije1983 Posts: 3,665
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    dunroving wrote: »
    Not sure I understand what is the big deal with three steps. Even houses on a level have a "step up" to the door, or even more. I just checked the house I am buying, on a level plot, and there are two steps to the front door. I couldn't be less bothered. But then I have 15 + 3 steps to get to my current house.

    But seriously, why do you care?




    It's possible the OP, or some other family member, uses a wheelchair. Or maybe due to illness finds it hard to manage steps. Therefore they deliberately chose a house with no steps?


    They are the only practical reasons I can see anyway.
  • Aylesbury_Duck
    Aylesbury_Duck Posts: 13,874
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    dunroving wrote: »
    Not sure I understand what is the big deal with three steps. Even houses on a level have a "step up" to the door, or even more. I just checked the house I am buying, on a level plot, and there are two steps to the front door. I couldn't be less bothered. But then I have 15 + 3 steps to get to my current house.

    But seriously, why do you care?
    I would care because I have a relative and a friend who both use wheelchairs. OP may have similar requirements now or be anticipating the need for a level entrance in future for some reason.
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