Buying patch of garden from next door

Buying patch of garden from next door

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Discussion

boyse7en

6,727 posts

165 months

Thursday 1st October 2015
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If it worth something to you, then surely it will add value to your property. If two houses in the same street were up for sale at the same time, the one with the bigger garden will be worth more (all other things being equal).

I sold a single garage-sized plot of land to my neighbour 15 years ago for £10,000 plus costs. It was next to his house, but about 200yds from mine and I had no use for it. If he had offered only £3000 I wouldn't have bothered - too much hassle for the money.

You could always ask if you can just use the land while it is not required by him. Might work

PAULJ5555

Original Poster:

3,554 posts

176 months

Friday 2nd October 2015
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TA14 said:
Remember that it's a risk that way round as well in that if he says he'll sell the land if you offer £3K he might have wanted £10K min but say to you let's settle at £5K or £6K. If he says he want's £15K or £20K he'd come down to the £10K that he wanted but he'd now suffer a huge loss of face to come down to £5K or £6K. The only real advantage in asking him to name a price is if you think that he'd only want less than you're prepared to pay, say £500 - possible but I think that the odds are against you.
Very true, I may slip into the conversation "a few Grand"


SydneyBridge

8,609 posts

158 months

Friday 2nd October 2015
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also emphasise that you will pay all the legal fees, sort all the paperwork and put a nice new fence up etc..
All he has to do is sign on the dotted line and pocket the cash

sideways sid

1,371 posts

215 months

Friday 2nd October 2015
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First thought is that it may be easier to rent it from him for a while, then offer to buy later.

Secondly, if he is nervous of your intentions / you selling a making a profit or whatever, be ready to agree an overage clause whereby if you sell your house for more than x during the next y years, he will get £z. If you have no intention of selling, it will not cost you anything, but may give him extra comfort.

As others have said, make it as easy as possible for him.

was8v

1,937 posts

195 months

Friday 2nd October 2015
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northwest monkey said:
What about offering to rent it off him?
This. Perhaps the rent payment could take the form of doing the rest of the gardening (if its not much more than grass cutting) for him.

If, as you say, it won't add value, then its not really worth buying it.

C Lee Farquar

4,068 posts

216 months

Friday 2nd October 2015
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SydneyBridge said:
also emphasise that you will pay all the legal fees, sort all the paperwork and put a nice new fence up etc..
All he has to do is sign on the dotted line and pocket the cash
Assuming he doesn't have a mortgage secured against the property

FailHere

779 posts

152 months

Friday 2nd October 2015
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C Lee Farquar said:
Assuming he doesn't have a mortgage secured against the property
I'm surprised nobody mentioned this earlier, if there is any mortgage (on either property) it could make things a bit awkward. Building Societies can be funny about selling part of a property, also if you have a mortgage on your house would you be looking to include the land within the title of your house, or as a split title where that bit remains separate owned outright by you, rather than becoming part of the mortgaged property.



PAULJ5555

Original Poster:

3,554 posts

176 months

Monday 5th October 2015
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FailHere said:
C Lee Farquar said:
Assuming he doesn't have a mortgage secured against the property
I'm surprised nobody mentioned this earlier, if there is any mortgage (on either property) it could make things a bit awkward. Building Societies can be funny about selling part of a property, also if you have a mortgage on your house would you be looking to include the land within the title of your house, or as a split title where that bit remains separate owned outright by you, rather than becoming part of the mortgaged property.
Mortgage on my house and I would assume she has one too.

Maybe renting it would be better but I don't want to move the fence, cultivate/turf, move a small shed onto it and the she decided to sell the house, would need to know I had it for 10 years a least.

I think the rent would need to be about £15-20 a month .






TA14

12,722 posts

258 months

Monday 5th October 2015
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So about £2,000 over ten years plus legal agreements, collecting/checking rent etc. Even without the mortgage complication this doesn't sound too attractive to me from her point of view.

sparkythecat

7,902 posts

255 months

Monday 5th October 2015
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PAULJ5555 said:
Maybe renting it would be better but I don't want to move the fence, cultivate/turf, move a small shed onto it and the she decided to sell the house, would need to know I had it for 10 years a least.
Hang on. First you said you just wanted some more grass for your kids to play on. Now you want to build a shed on it?
What next? A bigger shed or noisy workshop?
It sounds more potential aggravation for the neighbour than its worth.

PAULJ5555

Original Poster:

3,554 posts

176 months

Monday 5th October 2015
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sparkythecat said:
Hang on. First you said you just wanted some more grass for your kids to play on. Now you want to build a shed on it?
What next? A bigger shed or noisy workshop?
It sounds more potential aggravation for the neighbour than its worth.
Calm down dear, nobody said anything about building a shed or noisy workshop.

I have a small garden shed that I keep the kids garden toys in, its up against the fence now so it would need to be moved back with the fence to free up the space for the turf to go down.

TA14

12,722 posts

258 months

Monday 5th October 2015
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Sounds like space is pretty tight and as your kids grow you'll need/want more space anyway. Why not just bite the bullet and move?

PAULJ5555

Original Poster:

3,554 posts

176 months

Monday 5th October 2015
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TA14 said:
Sounds like space is pretty tight and as your kids grow you'll need/want more space anyway. Why not just bite the bullet and move?
I wanted to move but the misses didn't so we extended, you do notice the reduction in space more so when the patio went down. Even if next door is a no goer it'll be fine for us.

northwest monkey

6,370 posts

189 months

Monday 5th October 2015
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So have you asked them yet or not?

PAULJ5555

Original Poster:

3,554 posts

176 months

Monday 5th October 2015
quotequote all
The house has just gone up for rent this week after their last tenants who were on witness protection for something got arrested 2 months ago for domestic violence and they got shipped out(that's another story).
So I was expecting to bump into the land lord last weekend as they will come over to clean it.