Purchased a new construction SFR with predetermined layout... and then the builders changed

[Kyle Cabral]

Interesting scenario. My fiance' and I bought a SFR in our home town which is new construction. We went there, picked out the lot, the exact layout of the house (these were predetermined, about 10 selections) signed off, went through P&S, earnest deposit, all the hoops and whistles. They started building excavating and we noticed that it took a while, so we had my fiances father (real estate agent) contact the seller and after some shady digging, they told us that they had to change the layout of the garage from a facing entry to a side entry....

question, can the seller do this? they never spoke to me, telling me about their plans to alter the garage or layout.  I'm bothered by this because the house is oversized for the lot and there is not much lawn AT ALL.  By it being a side entry driveway, more concrete, less grass, and I almost want to say tougher for me to resell the house if I wanted because the lack of a yard.

This bothers me and they are planning to pour foundation this week...

Any suggestions, what do you think about this situation? What type of leverage do I have.

Thanks for the insight as always.

Kyle

[Karen Margrave]

@Kyle Cabral First thing you should do is IMMEDIATELY talk to the builder, take your agent with you. Tell them that is not the plan you agreed to purchase, and you want to buy the model you are in contract for. That is a major change, and they should have discussed it with you. If they won't let you get the model you want on a different lot, tell them you'd like to cancel the escrow and get a full refund. If they won't agree, go talk to an attorney or learn to live with the house. (If you decide to live with it, ask for a discount for the smaller yard)  We are brokers and builders. I wouldn't consider ever doing something like that without talking to the buyer. There may be a legitimate reason they can't do front entry on garage, but, you should have been given the option to stay with that lot or switch to a different one.