AIBU - Complain to housing developer that sofa doesn't fit in our house?

[binkyblinky]

Oh wise women of mums net, I need some advice please!

We recently moved into a new home on a brand-new development. It is a three story townhouse and the lounge is on the middle floor.

On moving in day we discovered that our sofa would not fit up the stairs and into the lounge. It is not a large sofa it is a modular sofa, the end units went up fine but the middle section which is a corner unit would not fit. The staircase is so narrow that we had to take apart the tops of our single Ottoman beds to get them up the stairs as well. This is in a large family home.

There are four identical homes to ours on the estate and every other person in those homes has had the same issue, with our neighbours sitting on beanbags for three months. The beanbag neighbours have had three sofa deliveries, all unsuccessful at getting up the stairs.

I feel angry that I had to throw away part of my sofa. The show home has a massive Corner unit in it. We were not advised when we moved in that staircases was so narrow and that we would have trouble fitting furniture up them.

If we were to team up and complain to the housing developer about the poor design, and that four families have been left with no seating, Would we get anywhere? Is there anything that we could do to ask for monetary compensation to buy sofas that you assemble at home? The other three families currently have their sofas in their kitchens while they try to solve this problem. It's ridiculous, being sold a £400,000 house And not being advised of this issue.

I can't see how they should say it is our fault, when they show home clearly written misrepresents the size of the furniture we required. Wisdom needed, thank you

Sorry but first thing that popped into my head was PIVOT
These new homes are so weird, lots of rooms crammed into spaces.
Anyho some sofas the arms can unscrew but it means you buying a new sofa. Have a word with builders, you never know they may take window out for you. Good look

If the living room has a large window then there are companies that will hoist it up through the window for you, it’s a common problem.

If the hall/stairs are smaller than the show home / plans you were shown, then complain. If it matches the plans then it’s on you I’m afraid. Ikea do a wonderful and amazingly reasonable sofa that comes disassembled I think the widest box was 40cm.

Yabu to get to move in day without having measured both the stairs and your sofa.

I used to work for an interior design company who specialised in show homes for the house building companies. We hated being given a townhouse to do! (we did the fit out too) Because they are trying to fit as many houses as possible on the site, the houses are often designed to the minimum sizes they can get away with for building regs (depending on the particular house builder and the sort of developments they do - some were definitely better than your standard box Taylor Wimpey house!) so a dog-leg stairway whilst still actually meeting those regs would usually be too tight/narrow to be practical. However, if we struggled to get furniture upstairs, we were usually fitting out whilst builders were still on site so a window or French doors on the middle floor would be taken out and a cherry picker or similar used to lift it up. Unfortunately, unless your stairs hasn't actually been built to building regs standard then you probably won't have any recourse.

Other things we found were that often the rooms wouldn't accommodate off the shelf furniture so we would have things like sofas and armchairs made-to-measure to still be able to fit the number of people seated as could sleep in the house. Sometimes in bedrooms we would have to put a 4ft double bed in rather than a standard 4ft 6" one.

It was a nightmare!

I understand also that developers use furniture that looks full size but is actually something like 75%. It’s misleading and not fair.

You have nothing to lose by teaming up and complaining - on the basis that their whole marketing approach is misleading. And unless people do something, nothing ever changes, right?
I looked at a new build once, you could drive the car into the garage OK, but once in you couldn’t open the car doors. Ridiculous for so many reasons, or least gay most new build estates have narrow roads and parking is a nightmare, so if every resident has to park on the street, there’s no room for a second car or a visitor. Yet they still sell the houses ‘with garage’.

@Squittly

Did you pivot?

Pmsl one-liner that really cheered me up after a crap day at work.

We have a townhouse but from ‘60s. Spacious bit stairs a pain. We had no issues getting anything in.

Complain.

We have the same style of house (Strata) and the landing bannister is designed to come apart so furniture can go over the top. If that's not the case in your house would it not be worth sacrificing the bannister temporarily to get the sofa in your living room and getting someone to fix it after.

Absolutely.My house was built in 1924.Huge rooms.Proper brick walls.Not crammed in.Backs onto woods.Why anyone would consider buying a new house..I wouldent know.Beautiful fireplaces..and wood floors.New homes are flimsy..and shoddily put up.

@Squittly

Did you pivot?

Shut up, shut up, shut uuuuppppp

@howrudeforme

We have a townhouse but from ‘60s. Spacious bit stairs a pain. We had no issues getting anything in.

Complain.

But complain about what? It’s a case of buyer beware. It’s shit but there it is.

We had this problem. We ordered 2 new sofas which wouldn't fit upstairs. DFS allowed us to order alternative sofas at no cost once I discovered they had a local list of estates where you need to buy a particular sofa ( it can be dismantled and reassembled). They added our estate to the list.

Why are modern sofas so fucking massive?

I mean they are vast.

It's been too long to be fashion so my guess is they're cheaper to manufacture for some reason.

Because they're way too big unless you live in a disused warehouse, or have no desire to be able to fit anything else in your sitting room and are ok with sitting 6 inches from the telly.

Yes it's a bit of a bugbear

We have a Victorian rental. The people that live there had to get a sofa you put together yourself as there is no possible way to get a sofa even in the front door!

@NiceGerbil

We have a massive corner sofa that can be detached..it is about 304cm x 365cm...we wanted something that the whole neighbourhood could fit on at the same time with room leftover for the dog

We looked at a new build 20+ years ago. 3 bed semi, all doors taken off, we looked at the living room, 2 doors, a window and staircase......where was my sofa and 2 chairs gonna go, let alone any other furniture I might like to add?? 1 chair would have to go. The bedrooms were also v tight. We didn't want a 3 bed we wanted a 2 bed as our first home. How much smaller is the 2 bed? We asked. The look on the sales persons face said it all. We then had to refinance to afford a 3 bed, didn't buy there but got a much bigger older 3 bed with bigger drive and space to extend but not lose much of our huge corner garden. They sell these houses as 2 bed 1 box room now. It was a cheek calling them 3 beds.
However even in this bigger 3 bed, the mattress company wouldn't take our super king size mattress up stairs because it would need to be bent and they wouldn't take the responsibility of damaging the mattress. The removable newal post idea will be used when we replace the bannister for next time.

Why are modern sofas so fucking massive?

because people no longer sit on sofas. They slob, collapse, lay down.
People don't need sofas anymore, they need beds.

Added to people generally becoming a lot more lazy: they spend their leisure time plonked in front of the tv looking at their phone.

It's merely an observation. There was a thread (or several) not long ago, where posters discussed how at ease they were with friends, would take off shoes, and put their feet on the sofa etc.
If guests cannot even sit down when they visit friends, there's no way people ever sit down at home.

Those saying this is standard in townhouses, it absolutely is not. It is not unreasonable to expect a house to be big enough to be practical. I live in a 4 storey townhouse and they built the stairs wide enough to be practical. It's not particularly easy getting large furniture up and down but it is definitely possible, and yes, you do have to PIVOT.

@NiceGerbil

Why are modern sofas so fucking massive?

I mean they are vast.

It's been too long to be fashion so my guess is they're cheaper to manufacture for some reason.

Because they're way too big unless you live in a disused warehouse, or have no desire to be able to fit anything else in your sitting room and are ok with sitting 6 inches from the telly.

Yes it's a bit of a bugbear

This. And super king size beds - why? We lose each other in our king size!

Just to clarify, it's not just our sofa. NO SOFAS, AT ALL will fit in this type of house! Unless the flat pack come in a box ones

Showroom furniture is made smaller to make the rooms look bigger... I'd suggest Ikea Sofas as they fold flat and I got mine home in a Nissan Micra! We have this problem with our stairs and doors too but mine is a 125 year old problem.

Ikea for mattresses too. They sell these ones that roll up like a carpet and they'll pack it up for you.

Pivot pivot PIVOT 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

@VinylDetective

You have super duper King size bed so in the mornings your 3 DC and two doggies can jump in for cuddles...there just wouldn't be enough room otherwise

@Sweetpea1532

Thank you >> wanders off looking innocently for a drive

@TeenMinusTests

Does the show home have wider staircases than yours? If so then YANBU.

Otherwise YABU. You bought a house with living room on the middle floor. it is your responsibility to make sure furniture will fit up the stairs.

How do you think they got their furniture in? Did they build the house around it? (Genuine question)

Yes possibly! We bought and renovated/extended a Victorian house with a curved staircase. Before putting flooring in the first floor extension part, the builders lifted some large pieces of furniture onto the existing first floor; wardrobes, bookcases that didn't come apart, and the bedhead for our super-king bed. The bed itself was ok as it unzips down the middle.