Buying a piece of land adjoining mine

aliasojo

saphydog wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]Improving this piece of land solves many issues and I would strongly recommend you to visit and talk with me personally at my home to discuss the matter further.[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]I look forward to a swift response and hope we can agree on a solution.[/FONT]

Have you sent the letter OP?

If not I would reconsider the wording a little. Given that you are pretty much at the mercy of someone else's decision, I think the tone of certain parts come across badly. I would suggest 'I would request' rather than 'I strongly suggest' and I would get rid of the last part about the swift response. It may be important to you to have this dealt with promptly but it may only be one of many things the other party has to deal with. I think it's important how they see the situation and also you personally. Perhaps they had never considered selling and want to gauge the idea.

As the others have said, it may not have been beneficial for you to go ahead in this manner although I can see why you did.

I also don't think the meeting was suggested with a view to offering to sell to you, I think it will be more along the 'remove' lines suggested by Ceridwen. Clearly it's all suposition at present but it's best to keep all possible aspects in mind.

I wish you luck though, it's clear your only intent is to improve things and that's no bad thing in this day and age imo.

saphydog

Thanks for the responses.

I have not sent the letter yet thats why i posted here first to get opinions and i appreciate the input.

The land is no 'persons' land it belongs to the housing group responsible for all the council properties in the area and is of no use to anyone situated where it is.

A picture would probably help you to understand better.

My house is on a small service road leading to council garages of which this small section of land belonged to. It was avoid piece of nothing filled in with concrete and old rubble and has no use to anyone whatsoever.

The Garages situated where they are have no other access other than this tiny service road and witht he presense of storm drains and sewers, the area is very unlikely to ever be developed.

here is a google maps image of the area before i bought the house, you can just make out the section of concrete behind the grass.

crafty*kate

If you haven't sent the letter, then I think you would be better off sending something very short and brief that doesn't go into the details so much. "I would be pleased to discuss this further, etc" and suggest a date for a meeting.

You are obviously an owner/occupier not a council tenant, but did you ever speak to the council/housing group about the problems with this area? I can see why you made these improvements, but the fact that you spent £2000 improving land that isn't yours, just comes across as quite presumptuous.

Are the garages actually in use? Even if they are, if they have not been maintained it may be that the housing group is considering selling off the whole parcel of land and so your little corner might cause them problems.

I don't want to sound like I'm putting a downer on your project, but I do think the housing group will probably have some concerns.

crafty*kate

saphydog wrote: »

The Garages situated where they are have no other access other than this tiny service road and witht he presense of storm drains and sewers, the area is very unlikely to ever be developed.

here is a google maps image of the area before i bought the house, you can just make out the section of concrete behind the grass.

Sorry just seen this paragraph. I still think you should tone down the letter (and don't sound too keen to buy otherwise they will charge you an arm and a leg)

saphydog

Im planning on going in person on monday and i still havent decided if the letter will actually be passed on yet, it just gives me a better idea of what points i can raise when asked. Im not too great thinking on the spot so if i have a good idea of what i want to say beforehand it will help.

The block paving has only been down 3 days and i havent got around to cutting any slabs yet for the edges so its no biggie to take them up i will use them elsewhere and il still have room to park one car on the piece of land thats mine.

I will also find out if they own the rest of the garages and begin a badgering campaign to get it resurfaced, if you take a look at the street view you will see they resurfaced the road a few years back but never the service road or garages.

lincroft1710

saphydog wrote: »

The adjoining garages are already in an awful mess, as they have not been resurfaced in a long time.

This doesn't make sense

The area was beginning to attract unwanted attention from scrap men and youth’s deciding to hang around in their vehicles of an evening.

The implication is that since you did the block paving, youths and scrapmen have kept away

The access to the garages is a narrow road passing the front of our house and leaves our vehicles in the way of any traffic to the garages and on several occasions resulted in damage to my vehicles.

This gives the impression that your vehicles are causing an obstruction.


The block paving of the area was never intended to be a claim of ownership, just a solution to some of these problems.

That's your story! To me it seems that you are staking your claim on the land.

I would be interested in purchasing this piece of land if it will resolve the issue, as I’m certain it has never served any useful purpose.

Presumptuous, possibly arrogant.

Improving this piece of land solves many issues and I would strongly recommend you to visit and talk with me personally at my home to discuss the matter further.

Presumptuous and high handed

You will be able to see first hand; the improvement it has made to the area, the poor condition of the surrounding garages, and help you to understand the issue better from my perspective.

Again presumptuous, why should they be interested in your perspective?

I look forward to a swift response and hope we can agree on a solution.

Yes, remove the block paving

Although in your own mind you think you've done the right thing, I doubt the landowners would agree and may even feel threatened by your actions and possible response.

If this letter had arrived on my desk, my initial reaction would be "So he thinks that by carrying out works to our land he can persuade us to sell it? Well we'll show him!".

lincroft1710

Complete aside, but in the Google streetview it looks as if part of your first floor is over your neighbour's ground floor. Also the house to the right seems to have restricted the access to the garages by erecting that fence.

saphydog

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Complete aside, but in the Google streetview it looks as if part of your first floor is over your neighbour's ground floor. Also the house to the right seems to have restricted the access to the garages by erecting that fence.

Yes your right, its called a flying freehold.
IN the past there used to be an alleyway for access to his garden through there which was eventually sealed off and the space used.

and yes the other neighbour has also pinched a piece of land in the past and fenced it off completely.

saphydog

Right update:

I had an interview with the woman in charge who is happy for me to put in a bid to buy the land.

She said there is no need to remove said paving it looks great

My application will need to be approved and she has no objections.

Result

So my next task is to ensure i get the best deal on the piece of land.

How doe sit work? Will i be expected to make an offer or will i have to accept their own valuation?

How do i stand with regards to refusing their own valuation if it is too high and do you think there will be room for negotiation as the land is pretty much worthless to anyone but myself.

Again any help appreciated, please if you have nothing constructive to say i ask that you dont clog up the thread.

Thanks

saphydog

Im struggling to find any sites that give a guide to the 'price' put on a piece of land