Shrubbery

[Geesh]

Hi,

I have been living in my Persimmon Home since June 2006. We bought the house of plans. On the plans it quite clearly showed shrubbery, and we were assured by the salesperson that the front garden will include shrubbery and will be kept in line with the rest of the close.

This is not the case!

I have now been advised that Persimmon are not going to do anything to the front garden apart from laying the lawn.

Does anyone have any adivce on what I can do? I am aware thar the plans can change, but am wondering if there is anyting I can do about it.

Thanks in advance

[Kneejerk]

Do not give up! You must keep at them, did you take a copy of the plans when you were shown them, it is worth photographing every document you are shown when buying the house. If you don't have a copy of the document and its reference it will be more difficult.

[Warwick]

It might be an idea to check with the council as they often stipulate in the planning permission which shrubs should be planted to attract wildlife

[RTFishall]

If your only worry about your new home is the lack of a few shrubs in your front garden, consider yourself fortunate! :whistle:

[willyj]

Just be aware that in some cases there MAY be an issue with planting and soil shrinkage. If there is it would be prudent of the builder to mention this. I only mention it as, in this case, I would have thought that the builder could have used used it as an excuse to avoid planting, but it is something worth checking.

[Geesh]

I wish the shrubbery was the least of my troubles!! It'll be a year on 29th June since we signed of for the keys and pointed loads of snags and still waiting for them to be completed!

And to make matters worse there is now a funny smell inthe house!

[davo38uk]

When they did my garden they put Shrubbery inside and grass on the outside of the wall which was opposite to the plans that we had.

I was told that they would not change it - but I kept on and they changed it back.

They said that the landscaper did it the opposite way around as he thought it looked better.

Just keep on but like other's say if this is the only problems you have you are lucky.

[KatherineParkVictim]

Geesh, here is our landscaping experience with Persimmon (i.e. Keep pushing them, it will happen in the end):

When we inspected our house before moving in, the back garden (due to be turfed by Persimmon) was a rubble field - rocks, stones, bits of plastic pipe and big clay lumps. We asked sales and they told us that the rough ground would be dug out, topsoil put down to a minimum depth of 150mm, rollered and landscaped, before the turf went down.

Guess what - the turf went down straight over the rough ground, no topsoil, nothing. The turf was very patchy, roughly laid, even the edges were resting up the garden wall instead of being cut to fit. There were spaces underneath the turf, and places where later our mower cut slices of turf away where there were raised rocks underneath. Unbelievable.

We bought a hover mower for the new place, but it couldn't hover on the uneven ground - it was a 'drag' rather than a 'hover' mower. The grass quickly died away or was drowned where the rain water pooled when it couldn't soak away.

Persimmon site and above fobbed us off throughout - it will grow back, bed down, fill in, etc, etc. A landscaper friend checked it out and confirmed it was a dreadful job - he was appalled.

We also got leatherjackets in the ground, and Persimmon for a while blamed the failure of the lawn on this – it didn’t stand and we kept on going back to the original problem which was the absolute lack of promised preparation.

A long year later, after pressing directly and through NewBuild, and lobbying ourselves, Persimmon started to take notice. A few meetings at the house with Persimmon and the landscapers for the Katherine Park site, and a miracle happened:

They cam and dug the lot out, dug it right down 7 to 8 inches. 4 tons of bought in topsoil was put down (not some skanky soil from elsewhere on site, which is the usual practice I believe), rollered, and landscaped. Turf that had been cut that morning was brought in and carefully laid with a real professional touch (thank you TW Landscapes for a super job).

That was two months ago, and the lawn is pool table flat and lush green – it was worth every effort over the last year, and we learned here never to give up pressing for what you’re due. We should have had this standard of lawn from the start, but it was bodged, and caused us a year of struggling to get what we paid for at the start.

:cheer: