Topography of the Land

[cammytkd]

Hello,

Since moving into my property in mid June 2014, I have had a major issue with the layout of the land of my rear garden.

I informed Harron Homes as soon as I saw the land during our demonstration (2 days before moving in!). The land to one side of the garden drops off in a steep slope and the wooden fence panes follows this drop. It is very easy to look over the fence panels whilst standing on the patio. Also I feel that the land is unsafe for my toddler to play in. In addition to this, there were several raised pipe and metal work protruding from the land, which were dealt with during my complaints.

After a few weeks of back and forth emails and the turffing of the land; The Customer Service Manager visited us with a group of surveyors and site managers. One of which informed that the "land was sold as described" - making alot of effort to show me a topographical drawing on his phone - showing the elevations (above sea level) of various points of the plot.

This showed a vertical drop of almost a metre across a horizontal distance of about a metre, between my rear patio (which is the same level as the base of the house) and to the land on the edge of my property. They even said that they had done us a huge favour by reducing the vertical drop from 0.8metre on the drawing to 0.4metre physical height (this is probably mostly due to soil, turf and the fact they used a droopey scaffold board to measure this height!).

They insisted that this information and drawing were given to my solicitors and it was them whom should have informed us of the layout of the land.

After speaking with my solicitors and going a mountain of documents from the purchase of the property - we could not find any topographical drawings. So I have gone back to Harron Homes to inform them that I do not accept their excuse.

I know I am not the only one going through this; I know of at least two other families who have/had issues with their land.

Has anyone else been through / going through something similar? Does anyone have advice on how to proceed?

Cammytkd

[Rich]

I can only help by confirming that we didn't receive any detailed drawings of the land either. Certainly not to the extent of showing elevations. We were only able to see our land by sneaking through some gates whilst the house was knee high, but we'd signed the contract by then anyway.

There should be no excuse for such an elevation change. The ground should have been leveled out before building commenced. Seek advice from NHBC. They were very helpful when I called them for advice although they weren't needed in the end as the threat of action seemed to do the trick.

Good luck.

[chris1983]

Barratt's showed us all that info before we completed. In fact it was within a week or so of us agreeing to buy the property that we had a meeting at the sales office and they went through everything including where street lamps would be, future planning permissions, even the route and turning points for the bin lorries.

Although for us some of it was a bit pointless as our house was built and ready to move into so we saw the garden before agreeing to buy. But we had to go through it all as it was their standard procedure, but targeted to those buying off plan.

Maybe be not a great deal of help but none the less if barratt's show this information then surely the other developers should as well. And if they didn't then I would stick to your guns.

Thanks

Chris

[nicro]

Tw did in the 'meet the site manager ' stage

[cammytkd]

What is this Customer Care that you speak of?!

It seems to me that Harron Homes go by the philosophy that the higher quality of your homes, the less customer care you need to provide! They are shocking! Just have a look at the Harron homes thread!

This is an issue that I fighting and am constantly reminding Customer Services that I am still waiting for a response from them. Round Two!

Edit: Thanks Rich for the advice of contacting NHBC. I will see what advice that they might have.
Out of interest, what issue did you have with your land / house?

[Rich]

I had drainage issues in the back garden. I had to put up with water coming from 3 houses which are higher than mine and with nowhere to go. With the clay being impermeable, I felt they needed to do something about it and re-route the water elsewhere. We were not able to do any work on the garden in that state so I contacted that NHBC and they said I could make a claim on the basis that the garden was un-usable.

[nicro]

Tw and Barrets are national house builders whereas Harron are more your local builders which is probably why the bigger builders have more features in their selling process , but don't take this as me saying HH are not as good , no I'm saying because tw and Barrets do it on a much larger scale they probably have more processes to customer service. Who knows , just offering a theory that's all

[p99ull]

Good point nicro...

[richardlisa]

In my experience Harron Homes customer service doesn't exist, we have had to report them to the NHBC to try and get our leaking house sorted after 11 months of asking! We are now waiting the response from Harron in which they 10 days to reply

[Deleted]

Its the attitude of the Customer Service team at Harron which grinds my gears ... not overly happy about the quality of workmanship on repairs to snagging issues either.

[cammytkd]

Sept 6, 2014 9:58:57 GMT @anonymous said:

Its the attitude of the Customer Service team at Harron which grinds my gears ... not overly happy about the quality of workmanship on repairs to snagging issues either.

I have actually found the opposite - the workmen team have been excellent, (when they actually turn up, unannouced!) They have been really good; doing a jobs all around the house and offerring advice on many aspects of the house. I have even collared them in the street and they have been very approachable, although very busy!

[cammytkd]

I have finally had a reply from Harron Homes about my garden;
Still waiting to hear back from the NHBC about this issue.

"Finally I have been looking into your garden question, and I'm afraid the answer remains the same.

I understand from sales that as part of the sales process garden levels would have been discussed albeit not formally documented, as there is no requirement for this.

As per the previous meeting, the levels cannot be changed as this is the natural lay of the land, and the levels are dictated to us by planning and position of adjoining land.

Unfortunately the original decision has to be upheld, no further action will be taken on this issue. My apologies I cannot help any further with this."

[p99ull]

:-(

[cammytkd]

We had our visit by the NHBC Claims assessor and Haron Homes last week.

According to the Assessor, the garden meet all of their 'Technical Requirements' - it is Cultivatable, stable and is not on an angle greater than 45Degrees!!!

Additionally, I am not allowed to touch the fence as it is the standard height above ground level.

It would seem that I have to live with issue and make any alterations off my own back and not touch their stupidly low fence!

[p99ull]

That's pants! :-(