Buying a 'ransom strip'

na84

I’ve recently bought an end of terrace house and there is a strip of grass 2.4m wide between the side garden fence and the pavement (tapering at one end, approx. 57msq). This land is owned by a housing association, which they pay to maintain, is regularly flytipped, and is of no use to anyone else. I wish to gain vehicular access across this land and put in a driveway or garage at the bottom of the garden, and also push the fence out to the pavement, enlarging the garden (subject to planning permission). There is already a drop kerb in place. The housing association say that they would be prepared to sell this land, and have estimated their costs which I would incur if I make an offer:

£1000 + VAT for a valuer
£1000 + VAT for their solicitor

They have given no indication of what sort of price they would accept. They’ve asked me to make an offer and they will then ask a valuer if my offer is reasonable, but I have no idea what the land is worth, or if it’s remotely within my budget. I think their costs are vastly overestimated and will generate them considerable profit. Paying their costs would use up a large proportion of my budget, reducing my offer, which would then be turned down by the valuer. I also don’t know for certain that they are prepared to sell the land, or sell it within my budget, they could just turn down any offer I make and pocket the £1200 for a valuer.
Any advice about where I go from here? Any offer I make would be subject to planning permission. Is there any point challenging their costs? If I simply pay their costs, there is no incentive to keep their costs low, devaluing my offer. Someone suggested that I should refuse to incur their costs and make them a slightly larger offer (from which they would need to recover their costs, providing an incentive for them to keep their costs down). Is this a good idea?
Thanks.

na84

Sorry for such a long message! I was so angry when I found out they want £2400 in costs...conveyancing and valuations for my house cost less than half that amount.

Need to think things through carefully. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

chappers

I agree both costs sound well over the top, but do realise that the council is a large bureaucratic machine that likes to waste money.
Have you tried ringing a local land surveyor to get a ball park figure, and some idea of how much a formal valuation may cost. They may also be able to give you some idea on the councils approach too.

abankerbutnotafatcat

Hi, I'm going to watch this thread with interest as we've been approached asking if we want to buy a strip of land next to our drive way. We haven't done anything about it yet other than decide we would be interested and to consider how much we'd be willing to pay.

I do note your post mentions planning permission - this is something I hadn't considered. Our land is currently foot access to a car park not wide enough for a car. We'd like to use it as parking (when combined with our existing drive).

My thoughts on your situation - unfortunately, HAs are not always hugely commercially minded organisations (I deal with them through work) although you may get lucky. It may be that you have to decide how much the land is worth to you (and I don't mean in £s) and if it means a lot then bite the bullet. The flip side of HAs lack of commerciality is that they'll just need the deal to stack up financially and won't look to make a profit or take advantage of the situation i.e. they are unlikely to treat it as a ransom strip - just an asset they own.

na84

That's very interesting about HAs abanker, thanks.

My council (Southampton) has told me I don't need planning permission for a driveway/hard standing, but I do if I want to move the fence next to the highway (if it's over 1m high) or put up a garage. So you should be ok, but do check!

I'm getting quotations for valuation and conveyancing. But a knowledgeable friend warned me not to question them about their costs, as it would be argued for a long time and detracts from the real question: how much they will accept for the land. I certainly don't want to annoy them because if the purchase of the land falls through I'll be asking for vehicular access across it instead.