Making an Offer on a small piece of Land

bg101_2

Hi,

I've been searching the internet now for a while for some advice on making an offer on some land next to my property I own, but dont seem to be getting far.

Here are the details I know:-

The land is about 30m x 30m approx.
It starts from street level and rises to 1 storey half way through.
The land is between my house and a garage owned by the land owner.
The land is causing damp in my property by not being maintained.

The advice I am looking for is:-

What is the best method to find the value of the land?
What is the best method to approach the owner to make an offer?
Is there anything I can do if the land is out of my price range or the owner wont sell to force him into maintaining/clean up the land to stop the damp in my property?

Thanks in advanced.

BG

Notmyrealname

bg101 wrote: »

The land is causing damp in my property by not being maintained.

It isn't. Inadequate damp proofing is causing damp in your property.

Strapped

Why do you need to buy the land? Can you not just have a word with the land owner, if you know what the problem is/possible solutions, and offer to maybe share the costs of a solution?

Annisele

How exactly is the land next door causing damp in your property?

If there's a water pipe leaking or something like that, then I can see how that might be the case. Otherwise, I'm puzzled. You may well be able to do something about the damp-causing thing, but that depends very much on what it is.

As to the value of the land - it depends on what a willing buyer and a willing seller can agree between them. It takes into account things like whether it has planning permission, what it could be used for, how much value it would add to your property, and other length of string type issues.

bg101_2

@Notmyrealname - 6 months ago I've had internal Damp proofing put in the full length of my property, new rendering outside and its still happening.
Nothing to do with Inadequate damp proofing.

@Strapped - I want to purchase the Land. Im looking for advise on how to proceed.

@Annisele - The Land is 1 storey higher than my house, coming down to my house level sharply just before. When it rains the land holds allot of water with the mountain behind it running into it. It would need allot of digging out (maintaining) to stop it completely, but its not my land to do so.

and other length of string type issues. what does that mean sorry?

The land would be used for a garden but would first need ALLOT of jcb work to be usable.

What is the best method to approach the owner to make an offer?

Thanks Again

BG

ognum

I would start by contacting the owner and asking whether he is interested in selling.

If the answer is yes then go from there and try to agree a price. You may need a surveyor to work out a price for you. You will need a solicitor probably paid for both sides by you to sort out the legal issues.

If I was the seller I may have covenants put on the land as to exactly what you can do with it if it affected my property.

Not sure if he wants the rain water that you divert on his property!!

Fuzzyness

you could initially speak to a local agent to see what their view is about how much the peice of land is worth. always useful to know to start off negotiations at least when you approach the landowner. i'd make it clear that you arent intending on building a house on it otherwise they will probably start seeing pound signs and you'll end up paying more for it.

Notmyrealname

bg101 wrote: »

@Notmyrealname - 6 months ago I've had internal Damp proofing put in the full length of my property, new rendering outside and its still happening.
Nothing to do with Inadequate damp proofing.

Yes it is. Rendering will soak up water like a wick unless it is a specialist one designed to prevent water ingress.

If you've had damp-proofing on the internal walls and its still coming through, either it wasn't done properly or the wrong thing was used. Google tanking.

In short, if a basement sunk into the ground can be made dry by using the proper damp proofing, so can your house.

@Annisele - The Land is 1 storey higher than my house, coming down to my house level sharply just before. When it rains the land holds allot of water with the mountain behind it running into it. It would need allot of digging out (maintaining) to stop it completely, but its not my land to do so.

You can't just go excavating land. You will probably find if you do what you want to do you, which I think is just to excavate, you'll end up with a serious land slide that'll probably remove your house from the face of the earth. It will cost you tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of pounds to excavate and shore it up properly.

As I said, you've not got the right damp proofing. In your case a trench along the wall needs excavating to several feet below the damp proof course and you need a specialist rubberised coating along the whole wall. The resulting trench needs to have a drain installed and filled with gravel so the water has got somewhere to soak away.

The alternative is to do it internally by tanking. This is typically done by something that looks like a massive plastic egg tray. Its pinned to the existing brickwork and what happens is the water runs down the spaces between the dimples in the plastic sheeting into a soak away. Does mean the interior walls will need all the plaster removing, the tanking installed and then replastered.

DominicJ_2

Find out who owns it, ask them how much they want for it.

lincroft1710

30m x 30m is not a small piece of land, you could build at 3/4 houses on it, if it was suitable for residential development.

If it has "hope value", that is a reasonable expectation that some form of development would be allowed in the not too distant future, then forget it, it's too expensive. If it could be sold straightaway as development land, you could be looking up to £250K maybe more.

If it can only currently be used as agricultural land, you have to obtain planning permission to change to garden land which may not be forthcoming.

All you can do at the moment is find the owner and ask if he wants to sell. If not, that's it.

DominicJ_2

If it can only currently be used as agricultural land, you have to obtain planning permission to change to garden land which may not be forthcoming.

Really?
You couldnt build a "garden" structure on it, but just leaving it as grass is unlikely to present a problem is it?