Garden extension / parking provision - any advice?

Sghughes42_2

Not sure if this is the right board for this sort of query - please point me in the right direction if not!

A brief summary: Parking on my street is becoming increasingly difficult, especially since the council put chicanes in on the main road we lead off, this reducing the parking available there. I live in an end terrace house and there is a piece of waste ground beside my garden between it and the street that runs at (just about) right angles to ours. (I say just about as the waste ground widens out as you get towards the end of the garden) There is a passageway beside the house over which we have a right of access. I *believe* this waste land belongs to the houses it is behind. There are 5 houses in question behind this land. My house and the houses in question are leasehold on a long-term lease. (About 800 years left I believe)

I am looking in to the possibilities of buying some of this land to provide off-road parking for our cars and to extend my garden. The land itself is about 20' wide at the narrowest point and extends approx 40' but I was only considering buying a 11' strip which would leave plenty of space beyond for access.

Many questions: Firstly, how do I go about finding out who owns exactly what part of this land? Would I need planning permission to do this garden extension? (The local council are trying to get this area made in to a conservation area but this is not enforce at the moment)

The main questions with relevance to this forum though, are how much would I typically expect to pay for this land and would it be possible to do the purchasing myself or would I be better off getting a solicitor to do it, and if so what would I be looking at for them to do the work?

The land itself has just been used as a dumping ground for garden waste so needs clearing - could I use this to get the price down a bit - maybe offer to clear the area I am not buying as well?

Is there anything else I need to consider? How about ensuring rights of access? And can I specify in my offer that I need the agreement of all parties before I purchase the land just so I'm not stuck with a useless bit because one person has refused to sell?

Thanks a lot for any advice!

silvercar

Land registry (online) would be the place to start looking to see who owns the land. If it hasn't been registered you could try the council.

Sghughes42_2

I've looked at the land registry site but can't find any way to search for a specific piece of land - the best I can see would be to buy the information for several properties until I hit on the correct one. Is there any better way to establish ownership?

(BTW, as an aside, my house has three entries, two as freehold and one as rentcharge. I was under the impression it was leasehold so can anyone advise what is going on there?

Also, can anyone answer the other points in my original query - what is a reasonable amount to offer / pay and is it something I can do myself or is it more cost-effective in the long run (despite being more expensive) to get a solicitor to do it and if so, how much would I expect to pay there?

TIA!