Is it worth buying my neighbours double garage?

cliffh

I share a driveway with my neighbour and even though the deeds say that neither of us can park in the entrance way sometimes their visitors do which makes access awkward/ inconvenient (thankfully the neighbours don't do it anymore).

I think they are thinking of potentially moving soon and I didn't know whether to consider offering to buy their garage/ driveway in effect give us exclusive use/ access as the last thing we want is to end up with new neighbours making our lives a misery if they have more than 2 cars and decide not to use the garage (it would also pave the way for us to potentially convert our own internal garage to extra living space which would be a great help).

So I'm just wondering:

1. Is it worth doing?
2. How do I find out how much I should offer?
3. I assume a solicitor could update the Land Registry/ anyone else on the revised boundary to show us owning the drive, etc.

Of course I can see the counter argument being if they try to sell the house without the garage it could affect the selling price and potentially make it less desirable to potential buyers but we do live in a nice neighbourhood where houses don't come up for sale very often plus most people don't use their garages as either they can't fit their car in or they need somewhere to store their stuff.

Any thoughts/ advice welcomed.

Jack_Regan

Depends on the layout and style of house. But it could make their house unsellable.

Post a google link so we can see.

paddyrg

Yes, it sounds worth it. How much is it worth to you? Get an indication of what the house would sell for with and without the garage, and that's the fair price. Add a premium for the fact it'll be a bit of stress and complication over just selling them in a single transaction, and you've got a decent offer to make.

cliffh

I'd rather not post a Google link. Imagine a T on it's right hand side something like --|

The entrance to the driveway is top part of the T facing up to the top of your screen. Our neighbours garage is at the bottom of the T with our garage being part of the T facing left.

There is a wall separating out neighbours garden from the driveway so it would be an easily definable boundary. They also have a part of their garden beside the pavement that is outside of the garden wall that I was thinking could maybe be tarmaced over and used for off street parking without them losing any garden space within the wall (and they could in theory use our drop kerb to access it although if paying to get the kerb dropped elsewhere to give them their own access would be better long term then of course we'd consider it).

I_have_spoken

They'd be barking mad to sell it to you unless you offer ££££s

Prothet_of_Doom

cliffh wrote: »

1. Is it worth doing?
2. How do I find out how much I should offer?
3. I assume a solicitor could update the Land Registry/ anyone else on the revised boundary to show us owning the drive, etc.

4) Of course I can see the counter argument being if they try to sell the house without the garage it could affect the selling price and potentially make it less desirable to potential buyers

Any thoughts/ advice welcomed.

1) Yes, but only at the right price.
2) How much is it worth to you ? What would it add to the value of your house, or how much improvement would it add to your life.
3) Yes - easy.
4) You are basically asking them to take a risk. So you should have made the offer when they were not thinking about selling.
To find out, get 3 estate agents to come and view your house, but tell them that you want 2 valuations. One with the garage, and one without.

http://goo.gl/maps/JLlz7

I've put this link up because this shows my house and the neighbours, and our shared driveway that runs to 2 concrete garages.

Neighbour does not use garage and has no car, but demands that unless we are repairing the car (I negotiated alot on that point) that a car is not parked in the drive - so she can get her green bin past.
I have a vague plan when her executor (I'm assuming I have to wait until that point) puts it up for sale.

That is to buy the place, get the deeds changed, build a garage over the shared drive and 2 rooms above - 1 for each house - one would have a flying freehold.

4 Bed houses at a reasonable price don't come up very often, and almost nobody actually uses the garages anyway, so by knocking down both garages the gardens are almost doubled in size, so either I flog it on, with an extra room, a larger back garden, but no garage, or I rent it out. Either way I get a 40 foot by 11 foot garage / workshop and an extra bedroom, without having to move.

What would I pay for her half of the shared drive way ? Without the rest of her house ? It would be pointless, as there are windows which look out onto the drive, and would prevent any building work.

My point? The only way this will happen for you is if you buy the house.

cyclonebri1

I_have_spoken wrote: »

They'd be barking mad to sell it to you unless you offer ££££s

Totally agree:T
The value is what it is worth to you, plus what they will lose, (It could knock £10-20K off their house value alone), plus, and here I stand on unknown territory, will the local authorities allow this to happen?



They always insist on off road turning, you would be denying that and off road parking if your plan was successful