Buying more garden - Where do I start?

waddy80

Hi,

Looking for some advice please.

I have been trying to contact the owner of a property that backs onto my garden for months. I had given up on the idea, but he has finally contacted me, he's a local property developer. He emailed me this reply:

'The land is seperated off the deeds of the house with the intention of selling.
The boundry will finish at the same line as the other cottages which is about 30m2
If you are interested make me an offer and we can negotiate.'

Now, i'm starting to feel a bit out of my depth as I have no idea how much to pay for this or how to go about the transaction. I do know a local estate agent / surveyor so I will ask him to come and look at it for a valuation. It would add value to our house, as it would double the garden space.

I really don't want to pay a vast amount for it though, I was only thinking of max £2000 including costs (less if we can). Is this unrealistic? Is there a realistic price per m2?

Has anyone done anything like this before? I assume I need a solicitor, how much will that cost?

No one else could really want the land, The only other boundries are our neighbours, who already have a larger garden and the council who own a green 'space' to the other side of our garden. I know this can't be developed as there are measures in place.

clutton_2

what size p lot is it ?

tbs624

clutton wrote: »

what size p lot is it ?

Were you in need of a morning coffee when you posted Clutton?

waddy80 wrote: »

......The boundry will finish at the same line as the other cottages which is about 30m2.......

Waddy - As you say, your best bet is to get a surveyor round to talk it through but ring RICS and find someone local who is used to dealing with these type of valuations - not all surveyors are experienced in this area. It's not just about what perceived value it may add to your own property. It's a case of negotiate, negotiate with the potential vendor - you can't get any extra garden from anyone else, and his bit of land sounds like it would have no other bidders ( except maybe the other neighbour: are you sure they wouldn't be interested?) It would be usual for you to pay his costs too. Good luck

waddy80

Thanks tbs624. I've searched and the estate agent / surveyor I know is listed with RICS and regulated by them so I will give him a call.

Re the other neighbours, no I'm not sure if they would be interested or not. In actual fact we didn't want the entire plot that he is offering, and there could be a deal done if we both wanted some. I will discuss this with BF.

Has anyone done this before and would mind telling me what they paid? I've been thinking about it all day and I'm really not sure on the price.

silvercar

I know people that failed to reach agreement, if that tells you what not to do.

Someone flattened and rebuilt a (large) house and then asked the people behind if they could buy some of their back garden as "Now our house is so much bigger than yours, its only right it has the bigger garden". The problem was (apart from their attitude) that their house value gained a lot by having the extra land whereas the now smaller house did have a garden that really was bigger than needed for the house size. So the smaller house gained maybe £5-10k by having a big garden but the enlarged house was now too big for its plot and having an appropriate sized garden would have added 50k+ to its value.

Anyway Mr Arrogant in the big house offered £2k on the grounds that no-one else could offer for it.


They've not spoken since.

waddy80

Thanks Silvercar, I know i've got to be careful. This person is known locally and I really don't want to upset him. We can easily do without the garden but it would be nice.

I'm going to let him know that we will have a few days to think about it and look to submit an offer when we are ready. I think the best I can do is keep communicating with him.

Gorgeous_George

You need to decide how much you want to pay. Or how much you do NOT want to pay.

Somewhere in between what is too much and what is the least you hope to get it for is the area for negotiation. Start at the bottom of the negotiation area and see what he says. A developer is likely to know the true value and will proobably want top dollar. OTOH, he may need some cash quickly and might settle for less.

30m2 is 30m by 30m which is a huge plot (900 sq metres).

30 sq metres is 30m by 1m (or 6m by 5m etc.).

Is it really 30m2? If so, I would happily pay a five figure sum if it was at the back of my house.

30 sq metres would be worth just a couple of grand to me.

GG

waddy80

It's not 30m2 it's 30 square metres! I'm fairly sure it is, Although I've not measured it. Until I properly speak to him (only email so far) I can't confirm this, as it isn't really clear where the boundary would be at one corner. We were originally looking at approx 15 sq metres, but this is what he has come up with.

littlesos

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

You need to decide how much you want to pay. Or how much you do NOT want to pay.

Somewhere in between what is too much and what is the least you hope to get it for is the area for negotiation. Start at the bottom of the negotiation area and see what he says. A developer is likely to know the true value and will proobably want top dollar. OTOH, he may need some cash quickly and might settle for less.

30m2 is 30m by 30m which is a huge plot (900 sq metres).

30 sq metres is 30m by 1m (or 6m by 5m etc.).

Is it really 30m2? If so, I would happily pay a five figure sum if it was at the back of my house.

30 sq metres would be worth just a couple of grand to me.

GG

30m2 = 30 square metres!

The square metre is the SI derived unit of area, with symbol m².

1m² is a square 1m x 1m

therefore 30m² is 30 of these 1mx1m squares.

lincroft1710

Although depending on area of country and how large a garden you will end up with, £2K doesn't sound an awful lot of money.

adaze

Basically you just need to think about what the most you would pay is. Then offer less than this, he'll say no I want lots more, then you can offer more. You would be in a good position if you know how much exactly you will be prepared to spend as if he won't accept you can just walk away and leave it with him... then you may get lucky and accept it.

Also, think about who else he could sell the land to. Is it big enough for a house (obviously not if its 30m2) could it be any use to anyone else. If the answer is no then its value it quite low to everyone except you, so offer with that in mind.

Good luck!