then call the builder and tell him that unless he gets it down he ain't gonna get paid for a while. it will motivate him to do it, since he knows it is out of your hands.

Are you willing to forego the warranty and let him lay the sod without worrying about having to replace it?

He and/or his landscaper probably don't want to lay sod now and then lose it to winter weather.

If you're willing to absorb the possible replacement cost (and maybe then seed in the spring, which would be cheaper), then he may be willing to go ahead.

Claire

Is there another way to "satisfy" this? I would be buying some grass seed and a few bales of straw ( or some of that new fangled grass seed in pellets) and sprinkling it. I probably wouldn't bother with sod this late in the year and the bank should understand that.

Good Luck.

@davidandkasie: That was the first tactic we tried. We got a lot of grumbling from him about how crazy the lender was, but still no firm "Yes, it will be done asap" or "No, you have to wait" ... we're hoping he sees the business sense of doing the sod asap, but don't know if that translates into "next week in time for closing" or a month from now.

@claire: Yes, absolutely! We'll try telling him this and see what he does.

Our landscaping was not done prior to closing because we closed in January and you can't lanscape in January in Maine. The bank (a large national) had no issue with this. Since the landscaping was less than a certain percentage of the finished value they let us close and didn't hold anything back. If the amount left had been higher they would have held some money back.

Even if the builder will do it, is it really a good idea to do sod now? I thought sod couldn't be put down unless it could be regularly watered and had a change to grow enough to attach to the soil? Sod is pretty expensive, I wouldn't want it to all die.

Does the bank actually require sod or will they be satisfied with seed? I'd rather waste $300 worth of seed than $6000 worth of sod.

Maybe ask your mortgage broker about setting up an escrow account to deposit the landscape $ into. If you default on the loan before a given date, the account goes to the lender. If you don't, it is made available to you on request, along with a submitted bid--or your builder can do it, whatever--for you to install it.

I just converted my construction loan to permanent financing, and the lender (Countrywide) couldn't have cared less if there was any landscaping in (let alone sod!). I suspect your lender requiring it because it is part of the contract, not because they are afraid of what to do if you default on the loan. I know I had to sign a letter to Countrywide stating that everything was done, and they sent out an inspector to verify it.

I agree with the earlier poster who said remind your builder he can't get paid until he's finished -- and since the contract requires laying sod, he needs to do it.

Summer

Gosh I hope this doesn't happen to us. I might go ahead and throw out winter rye right now! LOL! I can see it happening though. I do not remember our bank telling us but you know, she did say something about the driveway and landscaping. Who would landscape at this time of year though?!

Good luck with all of this and thanks for the heads up!!!

Actually, this has been a requirement for a long time with most mortgage companies I am told so it should not be news to your builder. It is also required by code in many areas as well. They may not have been enforcing it for a while but I had a friend who, 18 months ago, got a CO and got to close with no running water in their master bath (fixtures were not in yet) and several items major items not done but he could not get a CO or clearance to close from the MC until the sod was in.

In his case, he put in a minimal amount of sod and not what was ultimately intended. You might see just how much landscaping is req'd but be careful that your GC doesn't try to stick you with the rest later and don't be surprised if he tries.

we closed on our loan this april without any sod or landscaping done. and it was in the contract. but the bank said as long as we were 99% done, that was fine.

Here, the building department requires that a certain distance from the house be either sodded or mulched. It is mostly to prevent runoff erosion, but it can be a nuisance, especially during dry periods. How about the people in Georgia wit the severe drought they are in? What are they supposed to do?

I built in a subdivision that had sod as standard in front and seed in back. There was a drought and they just seeded and houses closed left and right. Then when it was time, they came back and sodded. In this case, it was code to cover the ground with something - obviously to prevent runoff.

They did many houses this way and I never heard of a problem. I can't imagine a lender would be so stupid as to require a product that can't be installed with success for much of the time. I live in the south where we can install all year but if you have watering restrictions - it will all die.

I would like broker/lending institution information so I will know where not to go in the future.

"It's ridiculous. Our builder is contractually obligated to grade and provide sod ... it comes with the house."

You can obligate him till the cows come home, but if he is smart his corporation is obligated, and he can dissolve it at any time.

Escrowing a large chunk of change should satisfy the lender, but you may need an attorney to negotiate with the lender they WILL have an attorney on their side of the table).

A lot of the time all that needs to happen is a proposal on legal letterhead to get things moving.

I agree with the escrow account (a CD account might work too). That should satisfy everyone.
Your lender requiring this is nothing out of the ordinary and I assume is in your contract (if not they most likely have no leverage). Our county required us to put in all trees and plants of types they specified (but no sod). And we had to do that before they would allow our CoO. In fact, they wanted it done before the house was framed. Yep, before it was framed but we ignored that part. Can you imagine GC and his crew trying to tiptoe around the tulips! Literally! Plus the stuff they required was indigenous in a highly fire prone area...morons! Anyway, after we got the CoO we made some changes as recommended by our local fire department.

Next year, I hope, I'll be finding out what we folks in Georgia will be required to do given the drought situation. The area we're building only requires grass seed, though we want sod. There's an earlier thread here, started by me, on what to do in this situation(drought). Recently, one city here ruled that professional landscapers, formerly exempt from the total outdoor watering ban, could not water their new installations. Within a week they backed off a little on that.

We are in Kansas as well and moved into our home in spring of this year. We didn't have sod for about 4 months and didn't have landscaping for at least months after we moved in. Would have loved to had sod and landscaping when we moved in.

We just got a few new neighbors and they moved in without sod. I think around here, one is issued a temporary CO until the sod comes.

The county would not issue the CO until the grass seed was down. And as far as other "planting requirements" they had, I ended paying a bond that I can redeem only after I have planted according to their specs. Can you say extortion?

And I bet the county justified the planting requirements based on unexplained "health and safety" issues.

For us the county justified the design and type of plants based on some desk jockey's concept of what is esthetic. It's amazing to me how so much misplaced power can be generated from a 4'x4' cubicle.

Our lender advised us we would need the yard seeded and landscaped before we close. HOA requires it anyway.
They advised it's pretty common to have it in the contract (though I'm not sure how strictly it's enforced). I'd ask the builder if you could take the allowance out of his contract if he's not willing to do it by closing and sub it out to a landscaper. You may save money in the long-run. Also support the idea of speaking to the lender. If grass won't live through your winter see if you can get away with seed. That's something you can do for

david cary, our lender was wells fargo. they were fine with the grass seed not being in, as per our contract with the builder. as I said, they were only looking for it to be 99% complete for the closing.