Buying Land off the local Council

Not sure if I'm in the right place, but here goes!

We've rented our back garden off the local council for 9 years (£40 pa). We've tried to buy it on numerous occasions, but this request was always turned down.

Now the council want to sell the land to us for £4,000. The land is tiny (approx 4 x 6m). They are openly admitting that this price is inflated to take in to account the value of our property and that to anyone else the price would be considerable lower. A nearby property bought their land, which is about 3 times bigger for just £500 a few years ago!

I've offered them a lower price, but they flatly refused to accept. Now they are saying that we either buy the land for £4K (which we don't have) or it has to be returned back to the adjoining park, so we lose the option to continue renting it!

We're being held to ransom as home owners. We can't afford the price they are demanding, but won't be forced to pay over the odds either. Does any one out there know if they can do this? Surely, this can't be legal to have one price for us and another for anyone else! Also, what can we do - if we don't pay we lose the garden altogether. :mad:
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Comments

  • WestonDave
    WestonDave Posts: 5,154
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    You might have a chance if you talk to your local councillor, but council finances are extremely pressurised at present so I can understand to a degree that they may be under pressure to maximise sales value.

    If they won't budge you may have to accept that you need to decide whether £4000 is worth paying for having some garden, bearing in mind that having it freehold will add to your property value whereas a total lack of garden (because it is no longer available for rent) might reduce your property value by more than £4000. It may be worth asking your mortgage company if you can extend your mortgage as this amount over a long period should be more affordable.

    Hypothetically they haven't necessarily over valued it - at £4000, £40 per year rent represents a 1% return on investment which suggests its about right given current investment returns. That probably isn't intuitively understandable but asset prices often represent the return that they give. It may be that in the past they were happy to dispose of land more cheaply but maybe they feel they can't do that now.

    Short of any kind of legal challenge (likely to cost more than the £4k), its their land and they can choose whether to keep it as park, rent it out or sell it for a price they choose, unless there is some kind of corruption etc involved.
    Adventure before Dementia!
  • Thanks for your reply. I suppose the really annoying thing is that they've openly admitted that they are charging us a higher price than they would anyone else.

    We know our local councilor fairly well, so might go down that route first.
  • WestonDave
    WestonDave Posts: 5,154
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    The local government ombudsman scheme have a helpline on 0300 061 0614 - they generally only look at things after the council have had a chance to respond to a complaint about unfairness or poor service, but it might be possible to get some advice from them as to whether you might have some scope to complain. However if the land is as I suggest roughly representing a proper asset value its going to be hard in the current climate trying to prove that they should have been generous even if they have in the past.

    Good luck, but I think you might have to swallow hard and find a way to scrape up the cash. (maybe tell them you'll take their offer if their legal department do the transfer for you to save you legal costs on top!)
    Adventure before Dementia!
  • ormus
    ormus Posts: 42,714 Forumite
    they can charge whatever they think they can get away with.
    id just tell em to take it back.

    (im quite surprised at how savvy they are. they are normally thick as planks).
    Get some gorm.
  • iamcornholio
    iamcornholio Posts: 1,900 Forumite

    We're being held to ransom as home owners.

    So, you would like to buy the land cheap, to increase your property value and for this you want the local rate payers to subsidise the loss of income to the council?

    How can that be fair?
  • System
    System Posts: 178,077
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    Community Admin
    why not just get a friend to buy it for the cheaper price and buy it from the friend?!
  • Chick-a-dee
    Chick-a-dee Posts: 6 Forumite
    edited 1 September 2010 at 8:01PM
    So, you would like to buy the land cheap, to increase your property value and for this you want the local rate payers to subsidise the loss of income to the council?

    How can that be fair?

    I'm not wanting to buy it cheap, I'm wanting to pay a fair price for it and not have to pay a premium for owning a house!

    3 estate agents have also confirmed that owning the land, rather than renting it as I do currently will add no value to the property, only make it more salable. The purchase has nothing to do with adding value to my property, it is about protecting the work that we have done to the garden in terms of landscaping and planting.

    Don't judge me by your standards - you know nothing about me, so don't just assume I'm out to get one over on the tax payer!
  • Errata
    Errata Posts: 38,230
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    Ask the EA's to give you a value for your house without a garden and they will tell a different tale. Talk to your local councillor by all means, but you may find that changes nothing. All Local Authorities are cash strapped now and selling off all the assets they can in order to minimise cuts to education, social services etc.
    .................:)....I'm smiling because I have no idea what's going on ...:)
  • Errata wrote: »
    Ask the EA's to give you a value for your house without a garden and they will tell a different tale. Talk to your local councillor by all means, but you may find that changes nothing. All Local Authorities are cash strapped now and selling off all the assets they can in order to minimise cuts to education, social services etc.


    That's exactly what we're doing. We've got a solicitor dealing with this now who has asked for just that info. The solicitor was amazed that they'd confirmed in writing that they were charging us a higher price than they would do to anyone else. Apparently he's seen quite a lot of this recently with local council land sales, so we're not the only ones to have encountered this.
  • Errata
    Errata Posts: 38,230
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    Sorry - what do you mean 'anyone else' ?
    .................:)....I'm smiling because I have no idea what's going on ...:)
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