Advice on sale of strip of land please URGENT

moneysaverangel

We are selling a strip of land in front of our home to enable a developer to gain planning permission for a development at the rear of a number of houses in our road.

Our problem is that the developer will then own this strip of land and we are worried what the potential pit falls of someone else owning a small strip of land to the front of our home, which will stretch across the entire frontage of our property will be. The developer seems to think there won't be any problem, but we disagree. We are supposed to sign the contract tomorrow :mad:.

Thanks in advance.
MSA

silvercar

Does your mortgage lender agree?

moneysaverangel

Hi

It is not an issue. We have paid the mortgage off. Good moneysavers you see!

MSA

Errata

What advice has your solicitor given you ? You may be able to put a clause in the sale which will not allow the land to be used for certain things. Can't think what they could be and also can't think what the correct term is for what I'm suggesting

moneysaverangel

Errata wrote: »

What advice has your solicitor given you ? You may be able to put a clause in the sale which will not allow the land to be used for certain things. Can't think what they could be and also can't think what the correct term is for what I'm suggesting

He wasn't keen on going through the solicitors again, but we insisted. We have drafted something but wondered if there was anything else which we might of missed. The points we have covered include: developer not to sell or transfer ownership to third party except to the council, and not being able to prevent access or charge for access. We are also worried about when we want to sell up and move house.
Thanks
MSA.

G_M

I don't understand.

Why does the developer need the land and what does he intend to do with it?
If it extends "across the entire frontage of our property ", how will you gain access to your house without trespassing on his land?
What if he decides to build something on this land in the future, or sell it on, or....

If you are "supposed to sign the contract tomorrow" you must surely have considered/discussed all this with your solicitor (or are you DIYing the conveyancing - very unwise given the type of Qs you are now asking).

DVardysShadow

moneysaverangel wrote: »

We are selling a strip of land in front of our home to enable a developer to gain planning permission for a development at the rear of a number of houses in our road.

Our problem is that the developer will then own this strip of land and we are worried what the potential pit falls of someone else owning a small strip of land to the front of our home, which will stretch across the entire frontage of our property will be. The developer seems to think there won't be any problem, but we disagree. We are supposed to sign the contract tomorrow :mad:.

Well, the money saving advice is: Don't sign up tomorrow, it is not urgent, get proper advice and only then, if you are happy, sign up.

Errata

moneysaverangel wrote: »

He wasn't keen on going through the solicitors again, but we insisted. We have drafted something but wondered if there was anything else which we might of missed. The points we have covered include: developer not to sell or transfer ownership to third party except to the council, and not being able to prevent access or charge for access. We are also worried about when we want to sell up and move house.
Thanks
MSA.

Surely it's your solicitor's job to draft the sale document ? After giving you guidance and proceeding on your instructions ?

moneysaverangel

G_M wrote: »

I don't understand.

Why does the developer need the land and what does he intend to do with it?
If it extends "across the entire frontage of our property ", how will you gain access to your house without trespassing on his land?
What if he decides to build something on this land in the future, or sell it on, or....

If you are "supposed to sign the contract tomorrow" you must surely have considered/discussed all this with your solicitor (or are you DIYing the conveyancing - very unwise given the type of Qs you are now asking).

The developer needs the land to knock down and rebuild our wall to comply with the high ways agency - something to do with being able to see clearly from the new road when pulling out.

We did discuss this with the solicitor, some time ago, but it wasn't in the wording of the contract so we raised the point with said solicitor in July/Aug. As we understood it, the land would be transferred to the council, but now he is talking about owning it for 10 years and that the council probably wouldn't want to take it on. The whole process has been going on for a number of years but the developer rang us last week and said he wanted to arrange a meeting (this evening) and now he suddenly wants it completed tomorrow :mad:(actually tonight but we refused until we had spoken to our solicitor - we want it written into the contract.)

MSA

Ulfar

If you are that worried don't sell the land.

moneysaverangel

Errata wrote: »

Surely it's your solicitor's job to draft the sale document ? After giving you guidance and proceeding on your instructions ?

Well it wouldn't be the first time a solicitor hasn't acted in our best interests.
We are not sure how the alterations/changes are going to be done in time, and properly so that we can sign them tomorrow. It doesn't seem the solicitor has such a stella job, as we have had more meetings with the developer to discuss issues, which doesn't seem right to us.

MSA