Buying land from neighbour

thenewbee

Hello

My partner & I bought our house last Feb. It's a mid terrace 250 year old cottage with no garden. Our house was considerably cheaper due to the lack of garden - it's the only 'traditional' house we could afford in our village. Our house is the last of a row of 9 small terraces on our right, & on the left is our neighbours who have a double fronted house which forms the end of the row.

Our neighbours own the land behind their home & it extends behind all the houses in the terrace. We're the only ones with no garden - the rest have a square yard after which the neighbour's land begins. They also own a stone built building which is attached to the back of our house. We have a right of way over their land to get to our coal shed.

Since moving in we've been friendly with them - they are an elderly couple who tend to keep themselves to themselves - tbh much like me & my partner! We know that the previous people living in our house were interested in buying the building and land directly behind our house (not the rest) & were turned down - we suspect part of the reason is because they were tenants & only considering buying. The neighbours said the land is part of his sons inheritance that's why he didn't want to sell.

Ultimately we would LOVE TO buy all of the land. It would give us the opportunity to convert the building into a living room for our small house which is currently top heavy with 3 bedrooms but only a small open plan living/dining/kitchen & would give us a garden which means we could live here much longer than originally planned.

My question is how do we proceed? We're willing to wait it's not urgent, but ideally would happen within the next 5-7 years to coincide with us extending our family & when we'd be looking to move (or stay if we get the garden). I just want some advice on how to deal with this diplomatically - how to initially broach the subject & when. In an ideal world we'd like to secure an option to purchase the land exercisable if/when ownership of the neighbour's property changes hands or sooner if they opt for it. I think this would be the most acceptable to them if they're planning on keeping the land until they downsize or, ultimately, die.

People with advice & experience of similar situations would be welcomed - or anyone with an opinion really! Want to play this right from the start as we love our house & would love to be able to stay here longer than 5-7 yrs. Thanks!

agrinnall

All you can do is talk to the couple, and perhaps to their son too, to try to keep your desire to buy the land at the front of their minds. Personally I'd never have bought a house in that situation, you have no idea what might happen in the future and the uncertainty would be a definite no to me, and I think will impact your ability to sell if you wanted to.

Davesnave

How much land do the neighbours own and what impact would taking a piece away have? Would all the other neighbours have a RoW through it?

These are the sort of questions and issues that arise.

I sold some of my garden at my old house, but I wanted a premium price for it because of the uplift on the value of the other properties whose owners purchased it. Naturally, they wanted to offer me the 'normal' price for garden land, so it took some time for them to understand that wasn't the sort of price I was seeking!

Maybe the people who previously offered were like my neighbours were initially, or maybe the impact on the other couple's garden was judged too severe. Whatever, you can only introduce the subject into conversation and play it from there, politely and without pressure, remembering there would be considerable uplift on your property's value and saleability.

G_M

I really struggle to understand what advice you expect - you are interested in buying some land from a neighbour, with whom "Since moving in we've been friendl".

So next time you are having a cup of tea with them, or whatever, tell them of your interest......