Narrow building plot next door
Discussion
I live very close to a town centre in a 4 bed detatched, the road has similar sized properties on either side, each with 40 to 50 feet boundary with the street. Next door to me is a strip of land, currently only used by me for access to a garage in my back garden. The land is 28 feet wide and 200 feet long.
The housing association owns the road and freely admit they want to develop this strip of land, possibly building a single house on it, however they realise that I have right of way and they would have to 'buy me out' of the easement.
Just wondering what peoples thoughts where, I cant see that you can build a house that sits in a 28 feet wide plot without it looking ridiculous....especially when all other houses have twice this width.
Also, if they wanted to proceed I would have a new neighbour but would get compensation for losing my right of way, to be honest I hardly use it but it would make the garage at the end of the garden redundant so I feel like asking quite alot of money to give this up...
Anybody on here have experience of this type of development or other advise to give me?
The housing association owns the road and freely admit they want to develop this strip of land, possibly building a single house on it, however they realise that I have right of way and they would have to 'buy me out' of the easement.
Just wondering what peoples thoughts where, I cant see that you can build a house that sits in a 28 feet wide plot without it looking ridiculous....especially when all other houses have twice this width.
Also, if they wanted to proceed I would have a new neighbour but would get compensation for losing my right of way, to be honest I hardly use it but it would make the garage at the end of the garden redundant so I feel like asking quite alot of money to give this up...
Anybody on here have experience of this type of development or other advise to give me?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366480/7f...
28 foot is relatively spacious for a two-up-two-down bedroom place to be built.
28 foot is relatively spacious for a two-up-two-down bedroom place to be built.
Whether it would look ridiculous or not is a question I couldn't answer without seeing the site in context, but 28 feet is actually enough frontage width to get a single HQI-compliant ('affordable') 4 bed, or potentially a pair of 2 bed maisonettes in, with frontage parking.
ETA: How wide is your 'easement' (shared right of access along the edge the neighbouring land, I assume)? If it's only a single drive width of about 2.5-3 metres, I could probably fit something on there without worrying about the easment too much...
ETA: How wide is your 'easement' (shared right of access along the edge the neighbouring land, I assume)? If it's only a single drive width of about 2.5-3 metres, I could probably fit something on there without worrying about the easment too much...
Edited by Sam_68 on Tuesday 30th August 12:31
Sam_68 said:
Whether it would look ridiculous or not is a question I couldn't answer without seeing the site in context, but 28 feet is actually enough frontage width to get a single HQI-compliant ('affordable') 4 bed, or potentially a pair of 2 bed maisonettes in, with frontage parking.
ETA: How wide is your 'easement' (shared right of access along the edge the neighbouring land, I assume)? If it's only a single drive width of about 2.5-3 metres, I could probably fit something on there without worrying about the easment too much...
My easement doesnt state which part of the 28 feet I can use, therefore I have access to 100% of it and they realise I would have to sell this easement to them otherwise they can do nothing with the land at all. Gives me a strong position to either do nothing or make some money out of it. The only reason why I would want to do anything is because at present the land is not secure and we have had lots of trouble with people going down it and stealing stuff from our garden etc so its more of a liability to me with it being undeveloped!ETA: How wide is your 'easement' (shared right of access along the edge the neighbouring land, I assume)? If it's only a single drive width of about 2.5-3 metres, I could probably fit something on there without worrying about the easment too much...
Edited by Sam_68 on Tuesday 30th August 12:31
If you have a full ransom, you could start by applying the legal precedent of Stokes vs Cambridge which would realise a ransom value of circa 30% of the developed value. So if the house built is worth £100k the value of the ransom is worth circa £30k.
But in reality its a negotiation. Where I have the ransom I start at 50% with the aim of getting 30%, but it is never guranteed.
Things that can affect the value of the Housing Association plot are as follows:
Covenants eg is it only for social housing?, limitations as to occupants or use etc
As Sam says, he can easily get a 4 bed house on that plot width (he does site layouts etc for a major developer) so he should know. Personally I never develop detached house plots at less than 10m frontage but I am a snob
Other pertinent questions
who owns the land?
who else has easements?
But in reality its a negotiation. Where I have the ransom I start at 50% with the aim of getting 30%, but it is never guranteed.
Things that can affect the value of the Housing Association plot are as follows:
Covenants eg is it only for social housing?, limitations as to occupants or use etc
As Sam says, he can easily get a 4 bed house on that plot width (he does site layouts etc for a major developer) so he should know. Personally I never develop detached house plots at less than 10m frontage but I am a snob
Other pertinent questions
who owns the land?
who else has easements?
blueg33 said:
If you have a full ransom, you could start by applying the legal precedent of Stokes vs Cambridge which would realise a ransom value of circa 30% of the developed value. So if the house built is worth £100k the value of the ransom is worth circa £30k.
But in reality its a negotiation. Where I have the ransom I start at 50% with the aim of getting 30%, but it is never guranteed.
Things that can affect the value of the Housing Association plot are as follows:
Covenants eg is it only for social housing?, limitations as to occupants or use etc
As Sam says, he can easily get a 4 bed house on that plot width (he does site layouts etc for a major developer) so he should know. Personally I never develop detached house plots at less than 10m frontage but I am a snob
Other pertinent questions
who owns the land?
who else has easements?
Thanks for all your replies. But in reality its a negotiation. Where I have the ransom I start at 50% with the aim of getting 30%, but it is never guranteed.
Things that can affect the value of the Housing Association plot are as follows:
Covenants eg is it only for social housing?, limitations as to occupants or use etc
As Sam says, he can easily get a 4 bed house on that plot width (he does site layouts etc for a major developer) so he should know. Personally I never develop detached house plots at less than 10m frontage but I am a snob
Other pertinent questions
who owns the land?
who else has easements?
The land is actually owned by Southern Housing Group a charity that provides affordable housing, there arent any covenants on the land at all and I am the only person with easement. So as you say I have full 'ransom'. I appreciate your advice, I can imagine that the value of the finished product could be fairly high, as houses in the road are worth c.£500k but Im not so sure they would put affordable housing on this plot rather they would sell to another developer to put a detatched private house there. Anyway its all speculation until they come back to me with their 'offer'
MJG280 said:
When they come back to you tell them that you are not sure and need the advice of a Chartered Surveyor and get them to agree in writing that they will pay for it and any abortive costs you may have. Then you are not out of pocket if they decide halfway that the don't want to do it.
Great advice I wouldnt have thought of doing that.Does anybody know how much it would cost to build a house on a level plot approx 150m2 4 bed with garage?
mgtony said:
Wouldn't the ideal situation be for the build on the adjacent plot to be approx 21ft wide, leaving a 7ft wide access road between the properties to allow access to your garage and and a possible rear garage for the new property?
Just what I was thinking. I doubt very much if the OP has the right to 'all' of the width.W1TAK said:
Great advice I wouldnt have thought of doing that.
Does anybody know how much it would cost to build a house on a level plot approx 150m2 4 bed with garage?
$950-1000 per square metre assuming nothing untoward in the ground, no long drives or larged paved areas, standard materials, available services and drainage.Does anybody know how much it would cost to build a house on a level plot approx 150m2 4 bed with garage?
boy said: why not buy the plot off the housing association yourself.
I am open to buying the land myself to increase the size of my garden, the owner told me if they sell to me they would put a covenant on it to stop me building another dwelling and hence make money out of it. Its certainly an option as it would make my garden 1/3 acre however I dont really need the extra space and Im not sure how much they would want to charge me. With regard to what part of the land I have access over, the owner clearly admitted that because it isnt specified I can use all 28 feet and they couldnt restrict my access to just 7 feet for a driveway so them building and asking me to squeeze down an access road I would be able to challenge.
I guess the owner cannot do anything without me being involved and I could potentially ask for silly money to give up my easement, therefore making it uneconomical for them to develop or sell which would make the land cheaper for me to buy as extra garden.
I guess I could try and buy as building land and develop myself but this doesn't make sense if I could get paid a similar amount to give up the easement as I could make profit out of developing myself...
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff