If water repeatedly collects beside your new home, across an access path or against a door threshold, photograph it before it dries and report where it goes. A photo of a wet lawn is useful, but a sequence showing the location, how long water remains and what it prevents you from using gives the developer more to investigate.
Keep a Simple Record After Rain
Take a wide photo from the house or a safe path so the developer can recognise the location. Take a closer photo from the same safe position if you can show a gully, paving joint, threshold or boundary. Record the date, when you first saw the water and when it cleared. Repeat the photos after another rainfall if the problem recurs.
Look at the relationship between the wet patch and the home. Water on the far side of a lawn calls for a different investigation from water running towards the house or entering an opening. Note whether a path becomes unusable, a drain overflows or the same corner remains wet while the rest of the garden dries. If water is entering the house or creating an immediate hazard, report it promptly through the developer's urgent contact route.
Leave manhole covers, excavations and drainage alterations to people with the equipment and permission to investigate. The developer should be able to see the conditions as you found them.
Ask What Was Designed for Your Plot
Request the relevant plot drainage or landscaping drawing and ask where rainwater from the roof and paving is intended to go. If a shared feature is involved, ask who owns and maintains it. Include the location and the practical effect in your defect report so the developer can investigate the cause. A drainage channel, changed paving levels and improved ground preparation address different causes.
Example: After two periods of rain, water stands where the patio meets the rear door. You photograph the same threshold on both dates and record when the paving dries. Ask after-sales to check the intended paving levels, how water is collected at the threshold and whether the installed work matches the plot details.
Know What a Snagging Visit Can Establish
A visual visit can record accessible paving, gullies, thresholds and signs of recurring ponding, such as staining or silt. In dry weather, your photos may be the clearest record of what happened. A visual inspection cannot confirm the condition or route of buried drains. The developer may need a level survey, drain testing or another specialist investigation to establish the cause.
Approved Documents C and H give Building Regulations guidance relevant to moisture, subsoil drainage and drainage of rainwater in England. Warranty standards can also address landscaping and external works where they apply. Ask the developer to identify the relevant design and warranty standard for your plot before assuming a specific garden condition is covered.
For a broader inspection of the home, use Ashbridge's room-by-room snagging checklist. If you want an independent record of the visible issues, share your rainfall photos when you enquire about a snagging survey.