Advice re selling off part of my garden

NorfolkBroad

Hi,

I live in a semi-detached 5 bed chalet bungalow with a fairly large garden that is too big for me to cope with since my husband moved out and is rather overgrown now.

The garden is about 300ft long by around 50ft wide.

The neighbour at the back has just come round and asked if I would consider selling part of it to him. I am pretty tempted to be honest and just wondered if anyone has any advice about how it would affect the value of the house (as I'm hoping to downsize within the next year anyway) plus what steps I would need to take to do this.

Thanks

antrobus

NorfolkBroad wrote: »

...The neighbour at the back has just come round and asked if I would consider selling part of it to him. I am pretty tempted to be honest and just wondered if anyone has any advice about how it would affect the value of the house (as I'm hoping to downsize within the next year anyway)...

Depends on why your neighbour wants it. Perhaps he wants a really big garden. Or perhaps he's worked out that your big garden plus his big garden would make a nice little building plot for a block of flats.

NorfolkBroad wrote: »

... plus what steps I would need to take to do this...

Speak to a solicitor.

G_M

Do you have a mortgage? You'll need the lender's consent. How much equiy is there in the property?

Valuaing land like this is very hard as
a) there are few comparisons
b) there is no competition. The only person remotely intersted in buying will be the neighbour

so a lot depends who is keener: you to sell (lower value) or neighbour to buy (higher value).

Who made the initial approach? Before neighbour came round, had you indicated an interest in selling?

NorfolkBroad

I did enquire about selling the whole plot including the bungalow to a developer a few weeks ago the plot is just under half an acre in total but even though they have built 9 houses on a smaller plot round the corner to us they said it wouldn't be viable.

The neighbour was just fixing his fence, saw our garden was overgrown and came round to ask if we'd consider selling part of it to him - his house has a postage stamp sized garden so I think he just wants a bigger garden as he has kids and pets.

I realise I would have to notify my lender if I sell the land before selling the property itself/paying off the mortgage.

It all really comes down to whether the price is acceptable, we would both get valuations done and he said he would pay any legal fees - I could do with the money to do up the house to sell it

richy999

I would be surprised if selling of a bit of your garden will reduce its value at all... although it may affect its saleability.

Of course, your lender has an interest in your property so I would advise approaching them first to see if they have any objections or stipulations. Also, I should imagine that the land registry will need to be notified.

On the plus side, you could end up with a shorter garden but with a nice new fence at the bottom and some extra cash in your pocket. You could always ask the new owner to tidy up your garden as part of the deal.

NorfolkBroad

Yeah he's responsible for the existing fence on that boundary anyway so it would be nice to have it replaced

Thanks for all the replies

stator

You could post a link to your house on google maps and people could judge the size of the respective gardens for themselves.

If you want to make sure the buyer's don't develop it, which might devalue your house, you could always put a convenant on the land with the benefit going to the owner of your house to stop anything being built on it.

oldbaldman

You really need a view on this from a developer's perspective.

It may be that the neighbour only wants a larger garden.

It may be that with a larger garden he can see his plot as a viable building plot for one or more dwellings?

It may be that with your land attached to his he can create a plot?

Without seeing the land, assessing the likelihood of future developments, looking at what has been going on re infill development locally, seeing the Local Authority planning targets, and many other factors it is not possible give advice that would protect your best interests.

At the very least you should consider an uplift clause for as long as you see fit in your sale to him, which if he has no development intentions would not bother him at all?

You should really take specialist local advice before committing to anything, please.

As an example I knew a chap, lived in a small village in Cambridgeshire with his family. He saw a house with a large plot and checked LR for the owner details. He then approached the lady owner and asked if she was thinking of selling. She asked what his intentions were for the house, he assured her that he just wanted a large garden for his children, he was a local lad staying local. Anyway he got the sale, much to the annoyance of the local estate agents and some builders who had been eying up the plot. He has now got planning applications join to carve out the plot and put up several houses. He will make not far shy of a million. And that lady could have benefited if she had not assumed that he was honest with her.

HTH, but at the end of the day it is up to you.

obm

DRP

Our garden has a bit at the back that the ex-ex-owners of our house bought from a neighbour (used to be part of an orchard).

The land registry title specifies that we can't build on it or use it for anything other than garden or orchard, and not to build/erect or permit to be built/erected any buildings other than sheds or greenhouses.

Ozzuk

I bought some land and it had clauses in it protecting the previous owner - basically they got a majority share of any future development, and also some other clauses protecting their adjoining land. I was happy with that as it was agricultural land and they wouldn't have sold otherwise.

princeofpounds

The clause people are talking about is termed 'overage'.

It's a neat way (sort of - it will still involve surveyors estimates and so on) of selling amenity land without trying to value the development potential at the point of sale.

It's also a bit have-your-cake-and-eat-it if the buyer is intending to take all the planning risk themselves, but if it's not meant to be developed then it should be less contentious.