Buying 6" of land from neighbours

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

I'd like to know what the cost, logistics and legalities would be of purchasing a thin strip of land (say 6" or maybe 9") from our neighbour so that we can move part of the boundary to give us more space.

Currently we have a garage at the side of our house which is almost useless because the access to it is so narrow. I can just about get my SEAT Ibiza down there, but it's extremely tight and anything bigger would probably be impossible.

This part of the boundary is defined by the wall of the neighbours' garage, which is slightly further forward than ours, and then a fence continues that line forwards to the front boundary of the properties.

The neighbours have just put in a planning application to demolish their garage and replace it with a two-storey side extension on their house, which would then have an integral garage. The resulting wall of the new extension and garage would be considerably further away than the existing garage wall, and they're planning to extend the existing fence backwards to define the boundary. I think they'll be re-laying their driveway as well.

This strikes me as a perfect opportunity to ask whether they'd be amenable to moving the boundary to make it possible to get a larger car down the side of our house. Even just 6 inches would make a difference, and 9 inches would make a huge improvement - or should I ask for a foot? We wouldn't want to move the whole boundary; just a length of about 15 to 20 metres would be enough.

I haven't yet put the question to our neighbours. First I thought I'd find out what the likely cost would be in terms of buying the land and the legal fees (and any other costs you can think of?), and how much hassle it would be. Would we first approach the council, or go to a solicitor first? How would we go about it?

The properties are in Horsell, which is the northern district of Woking in Surrey.

Any thoughts gratefully received! Has anyone done something similar?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Thanks for the replies so far!

We're on friendly terms with the neighbours, so we're inclined to keep it that way. I don't want to approach this in a confrontational way, or make them feel that we've finessed them into it. Also, their plans are an improvement for us, because they are in effect "retreating" away from the boundary.

I know they've had to save for a long time for this extension, so offering them some money would help them and make it a more attractive proposition. For us, having a few inches extra space improves the usability greatly and potentially also the saleability of our house. If I present the idea in the right way, it could be a win-win - that's what I'd like to aim for.

But obviously if I offer them some money then it needs to be done "properly" and formalised in the deeds, otherwise it's not impossible that they, or future owners, could go back on the arrangement. The £700 mentioned for legal fees doesn't sound too horrendous, and would be money well spent for the peace of mind. If we could achieve this for a few thousand (legal fees, purchasing the land and moving the fence) then I reckon it's worth it.

I'll have a chat with the neighbours this weekend. Assuming they're interested, should I go to a firm of solicitors for a rough quote for the work, or should I approach the council first?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Piglet said:

Why do you think you need to approach the Council?

Simply ignorance on my part! If the council are not involved then that simplifies things.

We'll be talking to the neighbours today, so I'll float the idea and see what reaction I get. I have a feeling they'll want the ability to park a car to the side of their new garage/extension, so they might not be willing to sacrifice much space.

I'll consider the idea of not having a fence at all, which would be the simplest idea by far. However it's not a future-proof solution: future owners might put a fence up anyway, meaning that we could no longer park our Hummer there.

There is a potential technical snag too. I believe there's some kind of soakaway running underground along the boundary, which I think our neighbours are currently responsible for. I don't know what the soakaway actually consists of, but I imagine it might make it impossible to move the boundary "only" six inches; we might have to move the boundary to completely include the soakaway and then it would presumably become our responsibility.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

A couple of pictures might help. Our house is the one on the left. The angles are all a bit odd: their house is not quite parallel to ours.

The problem bit is where the front corner of our house makes the narrowest gap with the fence. It goes down to about 2.2m at that point, which sounds plenty but actually their garage is not quite in a straight line with the fence, so you've got to reverse in with half a wheel of steering lock on so the corners of a longer car would be at risk of scraping. Behind that point, there's plenty of space for most cars.

We've just popped round and rung the doorbell but got no reply. Eyeing things up, I'm not sure that they'd be able to get a car down the side of their new garage anyway, because the remaining space will taper significantly. Also, the plastic pipe that I presume is the opening of the soakaway is actually on our side of the fence, so I may be wrong about it being their responsibility!






(I know, sorry, worst "I've got a TVR" thread ever!)

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Just had a chat, which went really well and I think we've got a potential solution we're both happy with.

They are indeed keen to park a car at the side of their new garage, so don't want to relinquish any space at that point. However, they would be willing to alter the angle of the existing fence such that there is no "kink". This would mean moving the front end of the fence by about 8 or 9 inches towards them, and would mean that there's no turn necessary when I'm backing in. The minimum width of 2.2m would remain, but without the kink I think that's wide enough for lots of cars.

This solution is probably doable without involving solicitors etc.

So, in the end this turned out to be simpler than I'd thought. Just goes to show that a quick chat with the neighbours can work wonders!

Thanks for everyone's help.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Yes, that is a possibility. We'll wait until the work is all complete, except for the relaying of their driveway, then decide what to do with the boundary.