New build garden size inaccurate/too small

[ShezK21]

We are buying a new build and the developers took forever to get back to us on the measurements for our garden. I thought in the meantime I could roughly work it out from the site plan, given that we had all the measurements of the house. So the house is 30 feet from front to back and the plans showed that the garden is the same length. So I estimated it was hopefully at least 25 feet long and as its wider than it is long, and based on house measurements, I estimated it was 30 to 35 feet across.

I know they aren't completely accurate, however when we finally did get the measurements back they have told me the garden is 17 feet long by 20 feet across.
The plans actually show the garden being almost twice the size it actually is! Are they allowed to be this far off and what can I do about it?
Lastly for a 3 bed, 3 storey house, housing 2 adults and 2 kids, is a 17 by 20 foot garden big enough?

Ok where did they tell you that.? Do you have that detailed somewhere or did you just assume?

In the first plan the whole area (pink and green) is intended to be house P45's garden. The label is right in the middle like the other gardens and the boundary "T" marks are all round the edge indicating responsibility for the fence. The garden has a slope down to the fences shown by the tadpole marks. Even your bin store is in the green area. Someone at the developers has messed up, they need to show you an up to date plan with garden dimensions marked.

Ask for an onsite meeting with the surveyor to explain it to you, can you withdraw if it's not what you were initially told? The garden is a deal breaker if it was wrongly described.

Also, ask for the largest dimensions in metres. The plans are metric don't risk someone converting it wrong.

Even if there is a barrier (fence) round the pink bit the green bit could/must still be your plot. But a verge rather than enclosed. Presumably you are responsible for it but maybe cannot put a high fence on the true boundary there? Why is there a black line and TS around the green bit on original plan?

It may be level to the edge of blue bit then the green bit is a bank but still "yours".

13ft wide house?

Think of the angle from the front door for getting furniture in. I am picturing one of those homes made from a shipping container!

@StandingSideBySide I know: but you can certainly see proportions which would (if the sizes OP was given are right) have shown the garden as looking wider than the house and ought to indicate a pretty small garden even by modern standards. I wouldn’t have tried to zoom up the LR plan of our plot to get the precise size but I could work out that the garden was bigger than the foot print of the house, that there would be room for a small shed down the side and so on - it was pretty much identical to the builder’s marketing materials so everything was as expected. Something sounds off from @ShezK21 ‘s description.

Why does a 3 bed house need 3 bathrooms plus an extra toilet? What a waste of space...

Its a small house. The garden is small, but relative to the house.

Honestly this is why we looked at Post War... more space.

Definitely ask. On my new build they had to move my side garage door otherwise it would have opened in my neighbours garden! They bricked it up and cut a new opening in the bricks. They will try to correct things if it’s still a building site.

Are you looking at the pink bit or the black perimeter around the pink? The pink is the adjusted scale I drew once I got the actual measurements. The black around it is their original on the plan

Sure
but even looking at things proportionally is irrelevant when it comes to developer plans.
Although agree, who’s to know that
Its really up to the purchaser to get assurances on sizing prior to committing.

You need to check it onsite. If you are near exchange your solicitor should have definitive information on the boundaries for land registry and whether there are restrictions on its use. It could be that the enclosed garden is as you mark in pink and the green included as yours but otherwise designated. Is it a fence or brick wall?

Agree The number of bathrooms is an overkill but that’s what everyone wants these days.
The ground Floor WC is required by building regs.

@ShezK21 are you sure yours isn’t the bit ai’ve shown outlined red? The T marks look like they indicate the ownership side of a boundary fence, e.g. you (excuse my wobbly line but you get the idea)

The pink might be your back garden and the green outside your fence you might also own.

Developers have to have so much greenery to get through planning.

We have a strip of land outside our wall which belongs to us.

A lot of houses applied for planning and moved their wall/fence to encompass the strip of land that they own after the estate was finished.

You would have to see what the planning rules are at the time if this is the case on your plot.

Can you get to your plot as the garden wall was put up quite early on when our house was built (but I am talking over 20 years ago now) as you should be able to get a rough idea of the layout if there are roads paths etc or even driveways of surrounding buildings.

Our first house also had this, and it was a huge strip on the other side of the wall that we owned.

They rarely put turf in the back garden unless you come to a deal with them, but there are always different trades around who you can get to do jobs done cheaper, get to know the site manager they know everyone.

Sorry, I've attached another pic. So the house is the blue part and the orange outline is the garden. Then they gave me the measurements for the garden, so based on the measurements for the house I drew roughly in pink how big the garden actually is in relation to the house.
The plans they gave me make it look almost twice the size.
Also if the house is 13ft wide that only leaves 7 foot for the garden to go past the house. The parking space has to be at least 6ft wide based on the average width of a car. Yet the original plan shows it comes well past the end of the parking space. I just can't make it make sense.

@ShezK21 Can you post the map that you got without your drawing on it? I wonder if the circle with the house number in the garden also has the square area on it?

Here’s a relatively standard layout these days showing garden sizes. The green properties at the top are all 3 bed 3 story properties.
Just to show that these smaller gardens are quite normal these days.

That's the perimeter of the garden from their plans. After they gave me the garden measurements I measured out how big the garden is in relation to the measurements of the house, and that is what the pink is. So the garden is almost half the size of what the plans show.

It doesn't. Just has the plot number and house number. 🙂

NB gardens are generally smaller but then again, I remember my parents saying exactly the same about a new development near them back in the 70's, those (village location) gardens are only the size of a modern NB garden (although not the OP's).

Clearly being a townhouse makes a big difference as by there very nature, those houses are narrower and taller than a 2-storey house.

We moved into a NB house 3-years ago and the size of the garden was a real concern for me (less so my OH who appreciated we are getting older and a smaller, well laid out garden would be easier to maintain than the one we used to have).
The need for a driveway & garage were non-negotiable but the back garden at 12m (40ft) x 13m (43ft) was only just acceptable to me but now it is properly landscaped I can appreciate it is probably more than adequate (and yes it did need work to tackle some drainage issues).
We have friends in a townhouse on the same development and their garden does feel much narrower (as it would) but it is a similar length to ours.

When we were buying (off plan) we scrutinised the developers site plans and there is no dispute that the apparent dimensions were indeed correct.

Your internal dims of 13ft plus standard bregs size of parking = 21.5 ft ( I’m converting from metres so may be a tiny bit out ). Plus the average size of wall thicknesses ( no idea of the construction just looking at averages )
= 23.3 ft.

If any of that helps OP

They are saying that the your red bit is our garden and the T's are our boundary line. My confusion is that if you measure the garden in relation to the house the size of the garden is actually the bit I've highlighted in pink. So imagine moving the T's to the same place on the pink bit.

I’d ask them to peg it out on site OP so you can look at what you’re getting.
If it’s at that construction stage