Are builders/developers allowed to do this?

[BooseysMom]

We have a new-build house and a back garden which is mostly filled in with stone and cement. There is about a foot of top soil and the rest is grey stone which is impossible to penetrate without a digger.
My question is are builders/developers actually allowed to hide all the crap they don't need underneath someone's back garden? ! It is going to be very costly to remove. I have heard stories that they sell off the top soil as they can make a lot on it. But is there anything that can be done to get the builders back to remove it?
Anyone with similar experiences?
Thanks.

My house was built in 1906. The remains of the (ironically minimal) work done to it over the course of its lifetime by various owners can be found in my back garden. I've spent years digging up the builders' mess.

To be fair I think shite under the gardens has been going on for a very, very long time.

Never knew this ... shocked.

You could try contacting the builder on social media; it might embarrass them into remedial action, i.e. to avoid negative publicity.

I never knew this. Will need to investigate.

My previous house was a new build (we were second owners after 18 months), I always presumed ours was so bad as our house and the neighbour were the last two plots to be built (was the site office) but it seems not.

Not just new builds but many older houses also. Friend had a 1400s house with 1500 and 1600 additions. Parts of the gardens were full of old Tudor part-bricks and other stuff - and from when bricks were made by hand !
Good luck op. Raised beds may be the way to go until or unless you can afford something else.

Our house is 30 years old and when we moved in our neighbour mentioned that there wasn't much depth to the topsoil. We then got the fence replaced and the guys who did it said that it wasn't an easy job. It's seemingly been common practice for decades.

Our1960s house had a bit of the garden that had mortar, sand and bits of brick about a foot or so under the surface. Talking to residents who'd seen the estate built, they told us that for a while that bit of land was the builder's yard, which explained it.

Thanks everyone . I had no idea this practice has been going on for so long.

When I say theft of the top soil by the builders, I actually mean the owner of the land who would stand to gain from selling it off.

Well we have dug a hole about a foot deep for a pond and DH tried to remove as much of the rubble as he could and we still couldn't penetrate the stone layer. So we have done what we can. I think hiring a mini digger would be an easier solution.

If your new build is on a green field site then I think it’s pretty unlikely that the builders will have excavated out the garden area and back filled with stone.

Have you checked the geology of the area - the planning documents should include the site investigation which should detail the ground conditions.

My family bought a new build in 1990 when I was a child. The garden was just a bed of large, round stones. I distinctly remember walking around the garden collecting them in buckets. This felt like it lasted an eternity. They still live there and have a great lawn now.

My house was built around 1890. I find old bricks in the garden, but not surer when they got put there. It’s a small garden and has had the input of very keen gardeners in the past so I guess most old debris will have gone. Under the house is another matter. We have a cellar that does not cover the full footprint of the house, and there is a cupboard with a nailed up hatch that the previous owner described as leading to a crawl space. Opened it up once and it was indeed about two foot in height, with the ‘floor’ consisting of unidentifiable debris. Some modern-looking plastic balls too. Horrible and a bit creepy, so we screwed it up again.

if your new build is on a green field site then I think it’s pretty unlikely that the builders will have excavated out the garden area and back filled with stone

We are on a green field site which was once an orchard and they have def filled the entire site with rubble and left less than a foot top layer of clay. So I'd like to know where the soil has gone?!

That makes no sense at all, unless ground levels had to be raised for some reason (flood plain for instance) or there were historic contamination issues (unlikely if greenfield).

Digging out and backfilling would be expensive and pointless.

DPiL's 1960s built house had a massive lump of cement dumped in the ground. Obviously had a delivery which was more than was needed so it just got dumped in the back garden.

A neighbour of theirs discovered that their house had no foundations at all, just a raft of cement!

My DParents 1920s built house was on clay near which someone had helpfully planted a row of poplars. DF said (when the house had to be refoundationed) that the internal skin of the house was made up of a mish mash of bricks, stones etc basically anything which came to hand.

There is nothing new in shoddy build practices!

That makes no sense at all, unless ground levels had to be raised for some reason (flood plain for instance) or there were historic contamination issues (unlikely if greenfield

Exactly. I think some 'digging' is required to see what's actually gone on here but I suspect we'll never get to the bottom of it.

There is nothing new in shoddy build practices!

So it seems! I wasn't aware it had been going on for so long.