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
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.
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!
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!
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]
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!
) for our first house, and he'd done a few others for himself and family so
that's a definite possibility. 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]