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O/T Buying disused garden space from a next door neighbour
James - 25/4/23 at 11:30 AM

Greetings,

Has anyone ever bought land/garden from a neighbour?

Background,
All the houses along our road stretch down to the attractive canal at the bottom of the garden- except ours! Our house was built in the corner of another's big garden and they kept the bit 'behind' us so ours goes about 3/4ths of the way to the canal.

We moved there in 2013 and have been asking, gently, to buy the bit behind us ever since. The neighbour has now just agreed verbally.


So...
We have worked out an approximate value based on other land for sale around us and that this is land-locked and as it's next to a canal (and a SSSI the other side of the canal) you'd never get planning.
We haven't yet put the price to the neighbour.


What are the next steps? We spoke to a local solicitor who quoted more than the estimated price of the land to do the work (and more than we paid to conveyance the house!). Is it more complex than a house to deal with? Or just a pricey solicitor?


Any thoughts and tips from the collective? The last thing we want is to fall out with an elderly neighbour or there be accusations of 'taking advantage' etc. so we want to make sure all is above board etc.





Many Thanks,

James


Mr Whippy - 25/4/23 at 12:33 PM

I think I'd be prodding your neighbour for what they thought the land was worth first so you have an idea of the ball park figure, otherwise your going to be straight on the defensive of why you disagree.

A family my folks were renting the house to decided they would like to buy the house, but epically failed to do so. Their approach was to right out the blue go in with a hilarious unqualified valuation they'd made up from Zoopla! Within seconds of opening their mouths they'd totally blew it. Then went on to further dig a huge hole by pointing out all the negative things they thought justified their valuation, which only further annoyed my folks. Now they don't even live there anymore and my folks will nothing to do with them.


russbost - 25/4/23 at 12:39 PM

Going back a few years, my neighbour & I bought the land that was owned in between our properties from a 3rd party & split it down the middle so's we didn't fight over it as we'd both been trying to buy it. It was woodland in green belt with protection order on it, so, again, no chance of planning lsame as yours

First thing I'd say is get your neighbour who's decided to sell to give you a price he feels it's worth to him, it might be less than you're thinking of offering anyway & you can always increase an offer, you can't really reduce it once made

In my case I'm going back 20 years plus, so memory is a bit hazy, but I think we paid £8000 & therefore £4k each, more than the land was worth, but worth it to us. I can't remember how much we paid solicitor, but the conveyancing cost peanuts, admittedly I was using a solicitor who'd done a lot of other work for us, so we were better treated than his "standard" clients, but I doubt by any more than 10% or so. I can't remember a specific figure, but I know it was insignificant compared to the cost of the land You don't need to have searches unless you choose to (solicitor will want you to confirm in writing if you don't want searches done) & it's fairly pointless cos they'll turn up useful facts like it's within 50m of a waterway etc - as you live there you obviously would know if there are plans to drive a motorway through there etc!

Sounds like you need to have a chat with other solicitors - typical figure for average house purchase now is around £900 - £1100 round here, probably dearer than most areas of the country, I would have thought it should be significantly less than that unless there are weird restrictions/covenants on the land

Good luck with it all - doubt you'll regret it!


tegwin - 25/4/23 at 02:00 PM

Solicitors are a pain in the bottom...they charge the earth for doing very little..

The forms needed for the land registry change can be downloaded here: https://www.gov.uk/registering-land-or-property-with-land-registry/transfer-ownership-of-your-property

Can you do it DIY without a solicitor?!

Double check that you don't become liable for something expensive like maintaining the canal bank or something odd like that!


Rallychris - 25/4/23 at 03:00 PM

If the seller is savvy then the consideration you need to make is what the uplift in value of your property would be to have that extra land, and expect to have to pay say 50% of that to the landowner to secure it. For that you can get local estate agents to assist with a with/without valuation.

You will be extremely lucky to get it for only a nominal X per acre figure that you might justify by looking at other land nearby, particularly if the neighbour has little motivation or need to sell.

[Edited on 25/4/23 by Rallychris]


James - 26/4/23 at 09:35 AM

quote:
Originally posted by tegwin
Solicitors are a pain in the bottom...they charge the earth for doing very little..

The forms needed for the land registry change can be downloaded here: https://www.gov.uk/registering-land-or-property-with-land-registry/transfer-ownership-of-your-property

Can you do it DIY without a solicitor?!

Double check that you don't become liable for something expensive like maintaining the canal bank or something odd like that!



Well we actually did the conveyancing ourselves (well, my Dad did! ) for our first house, and he'd done a few others for himself and family so that's a definite possibility.
That's why I was asking if it was different in significant ways from buying a house.


You're right about the canal complication and after a neighbours Xmas party last year where the canal bank came up as conversation it does indeed appear complicated with every property seeming to have a different view on who owns it!

The bit of garden we want is fenced off from the canal along the entire width of the neigbbours property. However some people appear to have taken/aquired ownership and have built proper 'jetties' with steps etc.

To be honest, boating/falling in canals is of zero interest to me but my children will probably enjoy giving us something else to worry about!
The main interest for me is more space to have a greenhouse, and also build the boys a tree house as our bit has no decent trees in it!

[Edited on 26/4/23 by James]


James - 26/4/23 at 09:47 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Rallychris
If the seller is savvy then the consideration you need to make is what the uplift in value of your property would be to have that extra land, and expect to have to pay say 50% of that to the landowner to secure it. For that you can get local estate agents to assist with a with/without valuation.

You will be extremely lucky to get it for only a nominal X per acre figure that you might justify by looking at other land nearby, particularly if the neighbour has little motivation or need to sell.

[Edited on 25/4/23 by Rallychris]



Thank you.

Well the good news is that when they were looking at selling their house a couple of years ago, they asked their agent about it who told them not having that bit would have no effect on the value of their house.