House with a "Communal Garden"?

Smudger78

Hi,


Viewed a house a few days ago which was lovely and ticked a lot of boxes but has an "unusual" arrangement wrt the back garden. The house is in a small development built about 12 years ago and the story goes that there was a low maintenance/gravel "communal garden" running along the back of this row of about five houses. This wasn't fenced off or anything and was just an open space for general use by anyone who lives on the estate. Anyway a few years ago the owner of the property we viewed looked into buying the section of this land directly to the rear of the house to effectively extend their garden. They found out that to do this every other property owner on the estate (33 of them) would also need to agree to buy their portion and have their deeds changed at a cost of £3k. This clearly wasn't feasible so instead they all agreed to portion of land at the back of each property being fenced off to effectively become that properties garden however in ownership terms it would remain owned by "the community/estate". So this is what they did and this now benefits from a large lawn where once there was gravel.


This is not an arrangement I've heard of before but the vendor was at pains to say it is not at all unusual on new developments. They also said that all property owners contribute towards the upkeep of the communal area's (grass cutting etc..) via a £16 per month fee and this is managed by the residents themselves.


So on the face of it, if I'm understanding it correctly, the proposition is one of buying a house with a garden which you wouldn't actually own but which you do have the right to use. Not sure I'm comfortable with this, gives rise to lots of questions like: are there restrictions on it use? Can other people also come and use "my garden"? Shame as the house is lovely......


Anyone got any experience of this?

G_M

It is clearly an informal arrangement (not a common one I would guess).

If it 'works' on this informal basis, great. You have a bit of fenced off land for your private use, + some kind of communal arrangement for grasscuting that saves you the hassle.

If it does NOT work, it could become problomatic:
* half the people stop paying the £16
* some people suddenly remove the fence and start using 'your' garden
* etc

My advice would be to find out if it genuinely works. You will not find this out from the seller!

Knock on doors. Talk to neighbours. See how helpful, amiable, informative they are.

You will then be able to form a view.

propertyman

It is one that was not uncommon in England until the 50's, and has been resurrected as it works well and is common in the US and Canada. Small gardens are part of the title and are open to rear with houses backing onto each other for the children and families to use safely. Each home is responsible for a section mowing seeding etc.

In your case the annexation and division is quite common and Epsom racecourse has a constant battle with garden fences creeping onto its outskirts.

it might be better if all parties agreed to a simple licence to each home to allow them to erect and maintain a fence and lawn etc. That way future buyers have clear documentation.

poppysarah

Is everyone paying £16 a month?

gfplux

So 33 houses £16 per month totals £6336 a year for upkeep.
With this amount of people and money involved there will be simple accounts prepared each year and all 33 householders would get a copy.
So just ask the vendor for a sight of the last few years accounts.
This will tell you ALL you want to know, good or bad.

Smudger78

poppysarah wrote: »

Is everyone paying £16 a month?

Hi,


Yes they do, the fee covers all communal area's and verges throughout the estate so not just the "annexed" gardens at the back of the house we viewed and about 5 others.


This has all been set up by the vendor of this house and a friend/neighbour on behalf of everyone back when the responsibility transferred from the developer to the property owners a few years ago. So in effect they have a community committee except from what we've been told only the two of them actually run this and everyone else is just happy to go along paying the £16 per month. Something about this doesn't quite ring true to me as if I was being asked to pay a monthly maintenance fee I would want to know what was covered, whether it was good value etc.. Maybe I'm just cynical but I can't help feeling there is more to this than meets the eye...

Smudger78

gfplux wrote: »

So 33 houses £16 per month totals £6336 a year for upkeep.
With this amount of people and money involved there will be simple accounts prepared each year and all 33 householders would get a copy.
So just ask the vendor for a sight of the last few years accounts.
This will tell you ALL you want to know, good or bad.

Thanks, good idea, if we do decide to pursue the property it will be the first thing I do.....

G_M

Smudger78 wrote: »

Hi,

This has all been set up by the vendor of this house and a friend/neighbour .........Something about this doesn't quite ring true to me as if I was being asked to pay a monthly maintenance fee I would want to know what was covered, whether it was good value etc.. Maybe I'm just cynical but I can't help feeling there is more to this than meets the eye...

find out if it genuinely works. You will not find this out from the seller!

Knock on doors. Talk to neighbours. See how helpful, amiable, informative they are.

You will then be able to form a view.