I see no pipe.

Is the pipe behind the door? :)

I see no pipe, but I do see a strange warp in your baseboard.

Are you joking?!? They let it get that far and hoped you wouldn't notice?!?

Makes you wonder what else is hidden behind the drywall.

No, you tell them to fix it - now, not later.

If they have to chisel out the concrete and move the pipe - well, that's what they have to do. It's a bitc_, but that's why they should pay attention to these things before it shows up in the punch list.

Or if the pipe absolutely 100% could not be moved (doubtful) they should have packed the wall in 3/4" on the studs to give you a flat wall. I would tell them no soup for you, fix it somehow.

Should we still go to closing or wait until they fix it.

Wait until they fix it.

The pipe is behind the base board. They can’t move it because they’ll have to jack hammer a lot to get to the foundation at this point. They’re trying to say it’s normal and no matter where they live it on the wall it’ll still stick out.

They are saying they’ll start charging if we didn’t go to closing

As mentioned, have them even the wall out. What type of room is this in?

If you're going to argue with the advice give, why ask? You asked should you close, we all said no, and offered ways to fix the issue.

She’s not arguing, she’s telling you what the contractor told her.

OP is just uselessly repeating from original post that contractor said they won't fix it. Trust me, they can if motivated.

We all agree it's unacceptable, so don't accept it. Here are 2 possible approaches:

1. Tell them to fix it. Don't ask them, tell them. Make it clear that refusal is not an option.

2. Get a quote for fixing and have your lawyer withhold the amount on closing.

@Kay Kay

It's not normal. It shouldn't be acceptable to you. (It shouldn't be acceptable to them). @strategery is correct, tell them to fix it or get a quote to fix it and withhold it from closing (it will be expensive).

They can move the pipe, make the wall thicker, etc. Not your job to figure it out - it's their job to fix it. That should NEVER have gotten to this point and should have been fixed much earlier.

Is this a custom home or a tract home?

Something that I noticed is that the door hinge is painted. Must be a tract home. I certainly would not accept either if it were a custom home. And that's certainly not standard practice to paint hinges. Looks more like an older home.

@User, good eye. Painted hinge in a new home. Ughh. OP, you should tell them inspect and replace all painted hinges.

Pull the baseboard, re-drywall over the wall, and reinstall the baseboard. No structural changes required. So your room is a 1/2" smaller. Big deal.

Look again at the OP's photo. Looks to me like the wall is kinda messed up - as if they already tried something, and did a poor repair on the texturing.

Hey folks, let's not go on side excursions - tract house vs custom home, painted hinges, etc. The poster needs our help on what's normal and acceptable with this plumbing - and what's BS.

There are ways of doing this that don't involve moving the pipe, such as furring out the wall a little bit, but the builder knows that as well. They are just trying to BS their way through closing.

Say the only way you will go to closing is with $4k cash back at closing to fix this (or get a bid). If they fix it after closing you will hand them the money back.

Always good advice to withhold money!

Thanks for the advice. They initially said they’ll pull the drywall and extend it 1/2” or so but because there’s a panel behind the door, they can’t extend the drywall as planned. They have made the wall thicker (hopefully that makes sense) in order to even it out. We will see in a few days when they put the baseboard back. This is a new build with Taylor Morrison. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t being difficult by being adamant about getting it fixed.
Side note: why shouldn’t hinges be painted? We’re new to this and appreciate all comments and feedback.

This is in the laundry room @nhb22

@Jake The Wonderdog, "let's not go on side excursions".

You go where you want. The rest of us will go where we want.

"why shouldn’t hinges be painted? "

Why would they? There are different finishes of hinges, and not meant to be painted. Paint can chip off easily. Paint can gunk up the flexibility of a hinge. Painting them is a lazy painters way to avoid having to trim around them.

" This is in the laundry room "

If it were my laundry room, and happening no place else, I'd probably let it go if the task to fix is going to be a major headache. I'd put a small table or something in front of it. And I am usually OTT about even the little things.!

Hinges should not have been painted. Now every time you change the trim color you have to paint the hinges. Adding layers, looking worse each time, and possibly preventing proper operation. It is one of my pet peeves in my circa 1900 house. Luckily, yours won’t be lead paint.

This is a national builder, they are very likely going to have language in their contract that requires you to close even if there are some issues still unresolved. This is a fairly minor cosmetic issue and is not sufficient to delay closing. So their threat to charge you for delaying the closing has some real teeth. You could easily get into a situation where you get a $1,000 of work done and get charged $10,000 in penalties for delaying the closing.

Furthermore, you are probably not going to be able to withhold money at the closing for this. So both of those ideas are out. You are far more likely to lose any monies you have paid thus far than you are to strong arm a national builder at closing.

----

My 2 cents...

This is not a hill to die on.

OP, don’t let @bry911 scare you. “Size“ of builder matters not.

If the OP looks at the contract they will find two important clauses...

"Closing shall occur following substantial completion of the Home and notice from the Seller. Substantial completion of the Home shall be deemed to have occurred when a temporary or final certificate of occupancy has been issued."

and...

"If Closing does not occur on the date specified in the Closing Notice due to Buyer's default, Seller will be harmed, due in part to carrying costs for the Property. If Seller does not cancel this Purchase Agreement on account of such default and exercise its remedies under the Paragraph of this Purchase Agreement entitled 'Default and Remedies', Seller may agree to extend Closing, in its sole and absolute discretion, on the condition that Buyer pay Seller .1% of the Total Purchase Price per day not to exceed $1,000 per day ('Extension Fee') and that Buyer and Seller execute any documentation require by Seller to extend Closing".

Those are excerpts from Taylor Morrison's sales agreement.

Despite @strategery suggesting otherwise there are several difficulties trying to play heavy with a $2.35 billion corporation. The first being they don't need your money like a small builder does. So your threat to not close is just not that threatening. The second being that you are dealing with a bureaucracy implementing policies rather than a decision maker.

Now you can decide whose advice to follow, but remember when your price goes up 1% in ten days, we aren't going to be writing the check.

Actually, bry is entirely correct. Factor in also, that if the OP digs in her heels, the builder really won't have that much trouble keeping her deposit and selling the home to someone else. Often, the buyer with these homes doesn't have much into the house, it's built on the builder's dime until close. Which mean they also don't have a lot of leverage.

An entirely different situation than a small custom outfit that has been getting draws from the owner the entire time. And, if left with a completed house that is not entirely paid for, has the potential for his cash flow to be fouled up.

There is simply more incentive for a small custom outfit to make the buyer happy. And usually less language in the contract to protect them if they opt not to.

What “panel” behind the door? Surely not the electrical panel?