Driveway on my £280k home is unusable due to ridiculous design flaw

A furious homeowner has slammed the design of her newbuild worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. 

Helene Thompson said she has been in a battle with property developer David Wilson Homes, a brand of Barratt Developments, for the past three years about the design of her driveway.

Although she forked out £280,000 for the property, she was left with a driveway that she said was obviously 'not fit for purpose'.

Photos show the shocking design floor that means she is unable to open the driver's door to leave her car when she parks it because the driveway is so close to the wall of her home.

The average width of a car in Britain is around 71in. Helen's Nissan Qashqai SUV is just 72in wide.

'It is obvious to all except the developers that the drive is not fit for its purpose,' the fuming homeowner told the Lancashire Telegraph.

She added: 'I have never used the drive since the day I moved in.

'There is insufficient room for a passenger to alight from the car without treading on the neighbour's land, and it is difficult for the driver to exit the vehicle as the car door can't be fully extended due to the wall.'

Although she is able to park the car at the front of her house, the design flaw has rendered her driveway useless to her.

The developer said the driveway adhered to the house plans and Ms Thompson viewed them before she bought the house.

Helen said the developers told her the plans were correct.

She said the firm's customer care chief visited her home after eight months of complaining and said she would look into whether Helen was able to use her neighbour's land. 

However, as the neighbour put plant pots at the edge of her land, the customer care head classed Helen's problem as a 'neighbour dispute', the homeowner said.

Helen said this meant the developer claimed it could not get involved, despite her protestations that she and her neighbour had never spoken about the potted plants they were allegedly having a dispute about.

A spokesperson for David Wilson Homes said: 'We apologise that the boundary fence needs to be moved. We have asked an independent surveyor to look into this matter, so we can resolve this as soon as possible for the residents.

'Separately, we are aware that one of the residents is also unhappy about the size of her driveway. However, the driveway is in-line with planning approval, and the house and driveway were built when the customer viewed and purchased this.'