Private land - looking to buy

[anonymous-user]

Hi All

We live on a narrow country type lane. Our house is on one side and facing the property is a very large section of land that is brownfield - overgrown with bushes and trees etc.

We are incommunicado with the owners of the land who are considering selling us a strip directly in front of our house - not much; about 8m wide and 8m deep. We are going to gravel it and use it as additional parking

A few questions if I may

- If we do go ahead and the land is ours, how do we go about stopping people parking on it or blocking the entrance to it? Our neighbours are great and won't be an issue, just more the general ability to mark it out as ours etc

- As the land is brownfield; if we bought it and later down the line wanter to build a garage or similar would this be something that requires planning permission or could it just be built as long as it is less than the 2.4 m in height (or whatever the restriction is)?

Many thanks

[CAPP0]

If you're incommunicado with the owners, how are you going to negotiate the sale/purchase?

[anonymous-user]

for stopping people parking on it, if its your land i'd imagine you could have those foldable bollards rammed into the ground or put a chain between two posts.

[gshughes]

CAPP0 said:

If you're incommunicado with the owners, how are you going to negotiate the sale/purchase?

I thought the same thing, it is one of my favourite albums though!

[anonymous-user]

gshughes said:

CAPP0 said:

If you're incommunicado with the owners, how are you going to negotiate the sale/purchase?

I thought the same thing, it is one of my favourite albums though!

Sorry, predictive typing - 'In communication'

[Tom_C76]

Overgrown isn't brownfield. It only counts as brownfield if it has previously been built on, otherwise it's greenfield scrub. I suspect that you'd need planning to build on it, and possibly even to change the use from arable to residential amenity land.

[anonymous-user]

Tom_C76 said:

Overgrown isn't brownfield. It only counts as brownfield if it has previously been built on, otherwise it's greenfield scrub. I suspect that you'd need planning to build on it, and possibly even to change the use from arable to residential amenity land.

thanks for the reply.

I'm pretty sure it's brownfield - it did used to have buildings on it; it was originally owned by the MOD and was an army training camp just after WW2. It was flattened after the sale and it's just overgrown now. It still has the buildings original foundations and drainage.

It is owned by an investment company now and has been for the last 30 years - luckily the owners of said company lived on our street up until recently so we are familiar with them.

I just don't want to lunge into the sale only to find there is no way of actually utilising it or stopping people obstructing it

[Riley Blue]

Is parking already a problem? You mention that it's a narrow lane and I would therefore imagine not but if it is, keeping clear an 8m stretch of former parking space may be difficult.

[caelite]

I have Marillion stuck in my head now. I need one of the SPL legal bods to help me seek costs from the OP for the mental anguish this has caused.

[Rangeroverover]

Have a chat with highways and have a chat with your planning or if applicable conservation officer they will answer questions for you, which county are you in