Should I sell a strip of land to neighbour

Tempo2010

Hi, this is my first post. My neighbour's family is selling soon but the house is a tiny semi-detatched wooden house on 300 sq metre plot. There is potentially a 3 acre field too but we are sandwiched in between and have 1.2 acres with outbuildings and stables, of which a quarter is our house and garden. We could easily lose a strip to their house site,(without compromising our 40mx 40m front garden) totalling 75-100 sqm, enabling a realistic rebuild for them. What advice does anyone have please as we too are considering selling and dont know how to value the strip?

Pennylane

I think it would be pretty impossible to value a strip of land.

You and your neighbour just have to decide what its worth to both of you and then do the deal (or not) I mean, who would want it apart from your neighbour?

A neighbour approached me a couple of years ago about buying a piece of my garden because they have a tiny garden. We declined because we actually needed it and had plans for it, which we have now done.

DVardysShadow

Why are the neighbours selling? Is it because the plot is too small to rebuild or are they moving anyway? As for the layout, you are sandwiched between them and what?

The value of the piece of land if sold would be the value of the property and what could be built there, minus the cost of the rebuild, minus the value of the property as it is right now. You don't ask for all of this, because there has to be some profit left in it for the neighbour

missile

If you are thinking of selling I would not sell the land for them to start a construction project, which IMHO could have a serious effect on your own sale.

If I were not selling, I would still refuse........... Who wants to live next door to a building site?

DVardysShadow

missile wrote: »

... If I were not selling, I would still refuse........... Who wants to live next door to a building site?

Oh, NIMBY NIMBY NIMBY.

It looks like the neighbour will either rebuild or move out. If you have a good neighbour, it could be worthwhile helping them with the project to keep them in place, particularly if there is a risk their property might go down market to someone who collects rusting immobile cars.

Tempo2010

Hi, thanks so much for all the rapid replies!
Just to clarify, the neighbours have gone into a home and the children are selling the cottage. One of them might be interested if the plot was a bit bigger. So have several people viewing the property. I believe something will be developed anyway as the cottage is rendered wood army hut with asbestos roof! Their plot is 200-300sqm , the comes our property of 1.25 acres, then comes a field owned by the wooden cottage owner. I hope this clarifies things a bit.
If I'd been 20 years younger I would have bought the cottage and their field, combined it with our 1.25 acres and built 2 houses! (our house is also a bit tired and probably does not do the location justice anymore being brutal.
Thanks again all

Lara44

Hi Tempo

I am not experienced in this but if you give/sell them a strip of your land on one side, can they give/sell you part of their field on the other? So you don't actually lose any land? Or am I misunderstanding terribly?