Complete blank canvas, need advice on drainage

Hi We have just bought a new build house in Houston, its a corner plot and the back yard is just all grass. There is a part of the grass which needs something to help with the drainage. Standing at my back door looking out, to the left is the street and to the right is neigbours, along the bottom of the yard runs next doors side of their house and front garden.
Gate to the front of the house from the back yard is down the left hand side of the house. When it rains the water sits down the left hand side of the house from the bottom of the yard to the front of the house, the water eventually runs away but it takes a while, what should I use to help with the drainage. The grass is laid on a bed of sand, which is on hard solid clay.

What can I use to help with the drainage? Any help would be good.
Many Thanks

First thing I would do is call the builder, if this is a newly built house they should be responsible for making sure your yard has adequate drainage. Without a picture it's hard to tell if this is something that can be solved be regrading, or if it's something where you need an actual drainage system. Either way, the builder should be the first people you talk to.

I will see if I can take a picture and post it. We already had the builder in and they say its suppose to be like that, we kinda gave up on trying to get them to see sense or trying to get them to work with us.

Depending on the situation, you may have legal recourse against them. A lot of people/companies will try to duck out of their responsibilities like this (after all, a lot of people will do what you're doing and just give up, then they're off the hook!) But if you play hardball by contacting a lawyer, etc you may find them all of a sudden being more cooperative! The key thing is to figure out how the laws work in your area, then get some estimates on how much it'll cost to fix it. If the builders are supposed to be responsible and the amount to fix it is low enough, you can take them to small claims court, or if it's a larger amount then you can sue them for it. If it's a case where they graded the property wrong and that resulted in water collecting in an area, then I think pretty much anywhere they'd be held responsible and forced to fix it. If the ground naturally sloped that way and they just didn't do anything to fix it, then it's more of a gray area whether they should have done something about the drainage or not--if the water is collecting around your foundation because of the way things are sloped then they absolutely should have done something about it, but if it's just collecting out in the yard somewhere that it can't hurt the house then it's more questionable.

You can also try to make lemonade from lemons, and put in a rain garden. They can work even over clay, although that is a bit more work than well-draining soil. Think of it as an opportunity to grow plants that need more water than you otherwise would be able to grow without supplemental watering. Native species work best, as they are deep rooted and help the water drain. You will also be cutting down on non-point source run off in your community's sewage system (& therefore helping to alleviate the dumping of raw sewage into your local rivers), replenishing your local aquafer, and supporting wildlife (like birds and butterflies). Here are a couple web pages with links to lots of info on them:
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/water/wm/nps/rg/links.htm
http://www.raingardens.org/Index.php
http://www.rainkc.com/home/index.asp

I feel for you in your situation, of cource the builder has the responsibility to get the water shed from your yard into a safe place, he is trying to tell you this is natural, well if it is, how did he build a house there in the first pace, he should have built you an ARK. I would say your best bet would be to get a structural engineer in to give a report as he will be profesional at how this will over the years effect the foundations of your property, at worce you can get some land drains layed and the engineer should be able to advise you on where and how the water should run off and into what, or use his report to take legal action against the builde who is obviously trying to cut cost, save time which is more money to him and should not be allowed to build on this type of clay till he assures people their homes will be safe for the lifetime of the property, you have to look at it this way, your home is proberbly the most expencive item you will ever buy, so naturally you dont want to be spending extra cash every year for flood damage to you or your neighbours if the water sheds into their homes or yards, you could end up being liable for the builders mistakes.
The last thing I need to say is that before you go planting trees to soak up some of this water, be sure they dont affect the foundations in time with their roots growing, trees that can withstand all that water can be dangerous, because when there is no water in say the hot dry times, they go seeking water from whatever source they can and sometimes it's the house drains that get broken up by the roots over the years, so tread with caution what type of trees you plant close to any property. try send in picture of the house and yard layout so we could maybe help you better. Good Luck. WeeNel.

Here in Cypress texas, they dont build houses with foundations, the houses are built on concrete slabs. I have no claim against the builder, I had 2 other companies ( one of which the builder uses) come in this week to check out the garden for me, they say the builder has done the garden correctly.
However the companies told me that the grass is very compacted and this could be the problem, so I called the builder back in at the end of the day and we sat in the garden to talk about it, I gave the guy a beer and then another, finally he agreed to send someone in to, cant remember the name but to spike the ground something like that to loosen it up a bit and we can see from there. at least he is willing to work with me.
The water does drain away but very slowly and most of the time it's quite hot, dry and humid here, but just of late we have had quite a few thunderstorms and when the rain comes down it comes down.

Thanks for your help.

A concrete slab is still a foundation and you still don't want water puddling up around it. Hopefully aerating the lawn will help, but if it doesn't and you've got water up around the house you'll need to consider having a drainage system of some sort put in.