Buying garden land from neighbour

[Simon Waterfall Syman84]

Font of knowledge. 

 

Next door not attached is a private rented property and the landlord doesn't seem to be of the type that looks after the tenants. 

 

We get on with the current renters but they are leaving in July to move into there first owned house. 

 

I would like to buy his half of the strip that runs down the garden in between the houses, I would then have enough width to get car down the garden to a garage. Yay

 

Roughly 17m x 2m.

 

So I have done a fair bit of reading on process but what I really want help with is anyone who has done it and where negotiating started relating to price. I have seen suggestions of £15-50per Square metre. 

 

Probably lots of variables but happy to hear ideas. 

 

Thanks 

[Mark (smokey mow)]

The biggest question is how much would the sale of this land devalue their property by? As you’ll need your offer to be higher than this for it to be worthwhile to to the neighbour. If their property has a mortgage then you’ll also need to factor this in to your offer and negotiations as the lender would have an interest if the value of the property they have lent against would go down.

[Mark (smokey mow)]

The domestic land value estimate for chesterfield is around £970,000/ha but that assumes you’re buying a reasonable amount. In reality I would expect the real value to be more like 5-10 times that so £500-£1000/m2.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/land-value-estimates-for-policy-appraisal-2019

 

[maurici]

I did that with a common area in my estate... i can tell you nothing about the land cost, BUT you are looking at 2, 2.5k in legal fees for starters. I have no clue how it works, but i just know that buying a portion of a property comes out like 3 times more expensive than buying the whole property when it comes to processes...

[Mole]

The value is what you want to pay..what it is worth to you..and that's it...

You don't know the land lords position..he maybe happy with an extra grand for example..

Guy near us bought a strip of land for £1000 as the farmer happy to sell it..

I would say see what you want to pay and try it..but of course allow for solicitors costs etc 

 

 

[Simon Waterfall Syman84]

1 hour ago, Mole said:

The value is what you want to pay..what it is worth to you..and that's it...

You don't know the land lords position..he maybe happy with an extra grand for example..

Guy near us bought a strip of land for £1000 as the farmer happy to sell it..

I would say see what you want to pay and try it..but of course allow for solicitors costs etc 

 

 

thats where i am upto Martin.

 

i think that the extra space and then a garage would onlt add about £10k to the property value so with a c£5k budget for building the garage that leaves £5k for land and legals.

 

obviously the land is worthless to anyone else its just if he will sell for a reasonable price. think i will start at £1k + me coving all the fees and see where we end up.

 

he will probably want loads for the inconveniance of him not gaining anything but a bit of cash so expect it not to go well   

[Blatman]

I'd also be prepared for fall-out! He may be angry that you are trying to "land-grab" or possibly annoyed that he didn't think of it first, or annoyed that he can see a loss of value to his property or anything else that he might conjure up, whether real or imagined. This could cause resentment and make any future dealings with the owner very difficult indeed. I'd make the initial approach as gentle as possible!!!

[Mole]

I agree..

My mum has some land outside her house that she has looked after for fifty plus years.. anyway it was offered to her fifteen years ago but it was too expensive and she didn't need to buy it..

She heard that the owner was selling some other land..so she put an offer in and after a little bit of haggling a deal was done..

So I think it is definitely worth a try..no harm done..and I am sure if you do it in correct matter as Blatters has suggested then definitely worth a go..

[Nemesis]

Hi, If you have room to put your garage up without getting the land maybe explore this option.

 

https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Wayleave 

 

Nem...........

[TAFKARM]

8 hours ago, Nemesis said:

Hi, If you have room to put your garage up without getting the land maybe explore this option.

 

https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Wayleave 

 

Nem...........

That’s what I was getting at the other day Simon, I didn’t realise there was a specific word for it. Thanks Nem

[Jim RS]

Always a tricky one buying land especially if asking landowner before on market and will be down to friendly negotiations. If successful do some research on land registration as there is only a few hurdle to go over and all are very reasonable i.e. Legal bill of sale and then Land registry is only about £50 and just requires letters of agreement from the neighboring properties - which you can do yourself.

[IainCameron]

If he's up for doing a deal but your respective 'valuations' are way off each other, one approach is for both of you to get two valuations (from surveyors/ estate agents etc), take an average of the lot, and see if you're both happy with the outcome.  I've known this approach to work, and I've know it all go wrong!

[stephenh]

What on earth would you want a power of attorney for?

Did it ever happen Simon?

[Kingster]

29 minutes ago, stephenh said:

What on earth would you want a power of attorney for?

Did it ever happen Simon?

The reply was from a mew member on an old (random) thread. This behaviour is typically associated with someone “testing the water” prior to spamming the forum. 
 

Of course the new member may indeed be a westy owner from abroad with a keen interst in law, but my experience as an admin says otherwise and thus they will be on our watch list 😁

[stephenh]

He might have had a keen interest in the law, but he know b****r all about it!!😄