Q:I'd appreciate any advice on this one please as I'm now quite dubious about going ahead with the purchase.
We have been only twice to view, the second time Saturday just gone. It was very sunny day. The garden gets no sun whatsoever apart from a small beam of light to the left of us which filters through between houses. We have the shadow of the house on the left hand side falling all over the garden (it is also slightly in front/ahead of our house) if you understand what I'm trying to say? On the right, we have our garage, which is separate from the house/detached. This also throws its shadow onto the garden. Grrrr.
We spent 3hrs there and absolutely no sun. Went outside to assess the situation, grass/turf has not knitted together at all, there are big gaps/lines between pieces. The ground is very squishy and boggy. The garden was laid to lawn in September (I asked the sales office) us now being in February, surely it does not take 6months to see some improvement? My guess is that its because the garden gets no sun at all, nothing is able to dry out. Along the edges of the grass that border the patio'd area, is all wetness seeping over. I have aired my concerns with the sales office and was told that this has been passed onto the construction manager to deal with and that they are considering putting in some kind of drainage.
Now, this house is a new build which is the last one on Phase 5, they are now building Phase 6. This house was 'held' on Phase 5 to use as a 'show home' because they do not have a 'show home' of this type on Phase 6, although they do have about 8 of these houses of the same model to sell (I also think they have sold) on the new phase.
The house is 3 storey. I'm thinking that they knew this all along, that this was the reason why it hadn't sold. That this was the reason they had reduced it 20k from the asking price of today. I mentioned this to the sales office today and she told me that this was not the case at all and it was purely a case of keeping that house on hold for viewings.
The aspect of the garden is slightly north west.
I'm very annoyed having been looking forward to lying in the garden and doing a spot of gardening etc. My 28 days to completion are up today although I have managed to get a further 2wks by arrangement thru my solicior and their legal dept. I'm seriously thinking of pulling out now.
Any views/thoughts would be welcome. Thanks. x
In the Summer, it hardly matters surely as the sun is directly above (appreciating that the further north in the UK you are the more this may be relevant). With larger gardens and neighbouring homes further away, it makes less difference.
I'm not going to sit in the garden in the winter.
Our (small) garden faces East – but only if you take a relative view from the house. If I stand on the north side of the garden and look south, what direction is the garden really facing…?
During the Summer our 'east-facing' garden has the sun up until about 2pm before the shade starts to come round from the house – which is generally welcome. Late in the evening from around 6-7pm, the sun re-appears around the house on the north side of the garden just in time to light up the patio at the north-east corner for those evening G&T's.
If we are desperate to sit in the sun later in the afternoon, we take our deck chairs out to the front of the house and watch the kids play in the street and chat to our neighbours who also have their chairs out front.
During the winter our grass is generally pretty wet underfoot (was returfed a year ago) and looks pretty sgraggy but come Spring it will dry out and grass up, so this sounds normal to me, unless you have a severe drainage problem that could be sorted out with negotiation with your developer.
In light of the above comment, I would suggest that what Clairefun has said will probably be the only way of you having a 'garden' at this house.
To give you an idea, a neighbour of mine (new build estate, we moved in in May last year) had her lawn re-turfed (due to the poor quality job done first time around) in late October, and it now looks great…..even though she has done nothing to it since they laid it. So, going from your comments above, I'd say you were realistically looking at a non-turf garden.
If you feel that the amount of water found in this garden is so much greater than surrounding gardens, make sure that one of your conditions to the builder is that they install a proper drainage system before you move in.
Although, overall your comments do make me question if you really want the house, which if you intend to make it a home, you should. :confused:
Good luck, whichever way you go with it !
I think if you like the house itself then you can work with the garden fine. In fact if you want to pm me at any point and ask for planting advice as to what grows in my garden, feel free!
it will cost you a lot more than £945 if you buy t and then sell it on immediatley with legal and EA fees etc etc
Thanks. I'm not committed to buy although I would lose my deposit of ￡500 and the ￡450 valuation fees I paid (are they supposed to check for these things when they value the property). Sorry to sound thick, I have not got a clue.
I don't think it's the best time of year for wet ground though! I was almost wading in water in the garden of a house we owned last February, but it was absolutely fine throughout the summer.
If you have exchanged and don't complete, you'll lose your entire deposit!