To be annoyed that my new garden isn’t flat?

[CatchingBabies]

In the process of buying a new build, all the site plans, street view diagrams, promotional photos and artist drawings of how it will look ALL show the rear garden being flat. Never has it been mentioned that the garden will not be flat.

It’s finally almost finished and we went to have a look, the rear garden has a significant incline and is fenced on an angle to accommodate this. Even worse is that it doesn’t slope down or away from the house like I’ve seen most sloped gardens but it slopes from right to left so the left side of the fence is higher than the right and the back fence goes up at an angle. They have installed the patio on this slope meaning that I have a patio that is basically a ramp from one side of the house to another and couldn’t actually be used for garden furniture as it’s too steep a slope.

Looking into next doors garden there’s slopes back down the opposite way, the front of the house on the street is flat so it isn’t like it’s a house on a hill where there is no choice. I don’t understand why they have done this and it means the garden isn’t usable as I imagined. They say it’s too late to change and they never said the garden would be flat, they never said it wouldn’t be either however.

AIBU to be making a fuss over this and saying it needs solving?

I wouldn't be completing on your purchase until it had been levelled and they told me where the rain water would drain away from yours and neighbouring properties. You could end up with a swamp at one side of your garden!

Could there be rock under the hump, is that why they’ve left it?
Not that rock can’t be removed.
Could there be a health and safety issue if back door was used by a wheelchair user?

That's rubbish, it must be fixable because presumably your house doesn't slope down! They should levelled/terraced it before it was laid. I suspect very lazy builders.

They have other plans that show the height changes across the plot and should have the slope information available, no idea whether they'd show you these if you didn't ask though! In my experience, they don't level them, they just go with however the land is. Obviously a patio is completely useless if it's sloped, but I suppose it depends on whether they actually sold it as a patio or just as extra paving? I hope you get it sorted OP but honestly I'd be seriously surprised if they level it for you.

Good luck getting it sorted op. Which builder is it with?

We went to see some new builds when we were house hunting, (didn’t actually buy one in the end though), and we were put off certain plots as the sales people warned us that the gardens would be on a slope.

It’s crap they didn’t warn you.

Inconvenient when your table and chairs start to slide away from you, and downright dangerous in the winter with snow and ice. You could go flat on your face!

My garden slopes up away from the house and down to the left. My patio is still flat! A sloping patio is mad - what on earth were they thinking?!

Another one that lives on the side of a hill with a flat patio.
Ridiculous!

Spam88 yes that’s the sort of thing our developer showed us so you could see which plots would have sloped gardens

It’s with Morris. The back door os actually at the side of the house and the patio doors open onto the flattest part of the garden but if you were a wheelchair user you couldn’t get any further than 1 metre out the door before it becomes unsafe. Glad to hear that this can be fixed as that’s what I will be demanding. The house is already 2 months behind schedule and now this!

Kick up a fuss. Tell them you want it levelled. No point to a garden that slopes like that.

They have heavy digging equipment, etc. It shouldn't be a hardship for them to do this..

A patio should be flat in order to be safe and fit for purpose. A sloping patio is utterly ridiculous.

Get your solicitor on to this, especially if it hasn't been made clear before now. Yes to trying Trading Standards too, as someone already suggested.

How close to completion are you? If contracts have not yet been exchanged then threatening to pill out if it isn't rectified might be an option.

Leveling land tends to be very expensive, so it is well worth putting effort into getting them to rectify it. If they offer you a few thousand off the house price, get someone in to give you a quote on leveling it first - it may be way more than the discount and you probably won’t have the same opportunity to roll it into the mortgage.

You're completely right OP. If you can't put patio furniture on it without it sliding down a slope then it's not fit for purpose.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a patio as:
"an area outside a house with a solid floor but no roof, used in good weather for relaxing, eating, etc.:"
So your patio isn't actually a patio - maybe it's a ski slope which isn't part of the deal!!

Threaten to pull out

Have you completed with regards to contracts and payments yet?

Never seen a patio that slopes like that, it’s ridiculous- but not sure if it’s illegal or yiu can make them change it

Morris Homes. Is this in Northants OP?

That’s horrendous. This is the kind of shit developers get up to (and let that be a warning to you all!) and they get away with this all the time.

This is a ballache to fix. They won’t want to do it. God knows what’s under there. Very likely rubble, possibly rock. It’s a big dig out, levelling, sub base and then relaying all the stone. Let us know what they say!

If they agree make sure the stone is laid slightly sloping away from the house for run off. Only need 5 deg slope or so

If you are not too far along threaten to pull out. That should get them moving. It sounds ridiculous. You have to wonder at the logic of the bright spark who thought it would be acceptable.

We have a slightly sloped bit in a patio area outside our house but it’s not an area we use for sitting so it’s not too annoying but annoying enough. And it’s not a big slope.

This would make me very nervous and make me think about pulling out of the purchase because if they think this is acceptable what else have they done/not done that you may not have discovered inside the house? Have you had a full survey carried out?

That looks horrendous! That’s not fit for purpose. The whole point of a patio is so you can use it!

omg what a nightmare! it does make you wonder what on earth they were doing - was it lazy builders? that can be the only thing if the houses are actually on a flat plot (did they just pile up the builders rubble under the upside of the patio?!)

Speak to your solicitor, this kind of crap is what you are paying them for. You are absolutely right op, this is not acceptable at all!

Can you just imagine trying to sit at a sloping table and chairs, cook on a sloping barbecue, lean a sideways sloping ladder against the house, try to eat sloping or tilted food and drink etc.

All could be very tricky, some downright dangerous.