Neighbour Wants to Demolish Communal Out House Building

tyllwyd

Simon_G wrote: »

... My main issue with the situation is that demolition of the out house building is of no benefit to me, or three of the other home owners, whereas the owners of the two properties that the out house building sits behind stand to gain additional garden space, and as a result additional value to their homes - at the expense of the other four home owners. ...

On the other hand, if you can't use the building because it is dangerous, and it represents a potential additional cost, it could be argued that if you came to sell your house that this outbuilding would put buyers off so demolishing it would add value to your house (or at least stop this issue dragging the value down).

Simon_G_2

Thanks for all your responses - I'm trying to weigh up the best possible course of action and your replies have given me plenty to think about.

AdrianC

princeofpounds wrote: »

Perhaps my reply is coloured by the fact that I am in the South East, where a derelict shed in the right area can be worth a lot of money.

"But it could be worth..." and "Here's your share of the sale money..." are two very different factors, especially where there's six owners to agree on anything between.

poppysarah

Demolish and have it rebuilt as communal storage sheds again.

ognum

Do you have a mortgage on your property?

If you do then you would need the permission of the mortgage company to give away part of what is in the deeds of your property. Until you own the house outright it is not yours to give away.

You will also come into legal problems when you come to sell if the property deeds have not been bought up to date.

It's not as easy as it seems!

Simon_G_2

ognum wrote: »

Do you have a mortgage on your property?

If you do then you would need the permission of the mortgage company to give away part of what is in the deeds of your property. Until you own the house outright it is not yours to give away.

You will also come into legal problems when you come to sell if the property deeds have not been bought up to date.

It's not as easy as it seems!

Thanks for the reply Ognum. Yes, I have a mortgage on the property. From the initial discussion with the neighbour I've always assumed that there'd either be a demolition cost or a legal cost to sell my share and update deeds etc. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to proceed as I feel slightly backed into a corner.

silvercar

To be clear:

do you own the building and the land it occupies?

or just the building, in which case the group of 6 must have some kind of flying freehold or lease agreement.

do you have access rights to it? If so you could (all) decide to demolish the building and use the space it occupied for storage of eg individual compost heaps/ garden equipment...

Are you being asked to give up access rights as well as accept the building should be demolished.

If you do agree to demolish, you may want to preserve your right to build a replacement at a future date.

greenface

How would you expect your neighbours to act if the building was on your land and not theirs . How would you want to go forward if it was too ? would the person who will gain by the extra land space want to buy the freehold off the others (would that work ?) What would then happen to the empty plot . Ha sthere ever been a finacial gain for you to own a 6th of this place ? would you consider selling your 6th if there was value in it

Running_Horse

If you have access rights, you could offer to give them up in return for not having to contribute to demolition costs. If you are forced to cough up, insist on access to the land in future? Hard to comment without full facts.

Simon_G_2

silvercar wrote: »

To be clear:

do you own the building and the land it occupies?

or just the building, in which case the group of 6 must have some kind of flying freehold or lease agreement.

do you have access rights to it? If so you could (all) decide to demolish the building and use the space it occupied for storage of eg individual compost heaps/ garden equipment...

Are you being asked to give up access rights as well as accept the building should be demolished.

If you do agree to demolish, you may want to preserve your right to build a replacement at a future date.

Very valid points - I'll dig out the deeds paperwork to see if that sheds any light on the matter. I do know that the land my house is on is Freehold, so I'd imagine that the land the out house building is on is the same.