Can I buy part of a council owned garden??

pappadruid

Hi all,

Don't know if this is the right place to ask this question, but here goes!

My next door neighbour is a council tenant and I am next door (obviously) as a private owner. My neighbour has a large garden, probably about 80ft long, but she does not maintain it at all due to ill health and it is overgrown and riddled with ivy,brambles and the like. It causes damage to the fencing that I have to maintain.

I was wondering if it was possible to approach the council and offer to purchase half of the length of the garden? This would allow me to manage all the weeds so it doesn't make my fencing worse, plus the tenant has a smaller, more manageable garden.

Is this even possible, and if so, how do I get the ball rolling?

Thanks in advance!!

dc197

Purchasing a long thin strip of garden will not remove the boundary with your neighbour. It will just shift it sideways. If she continues to let the weeds grow, you'll shortly have the same problem as before.

So while buying a strip of the garden might be possible, it will probably not cure the problem in question.

glasgowdan

I assume the OP means cut the garden across the length, so he owns the bottom half of her garden, not a side half.

No idea OP - have you asked the council?!

pappadruid

Quite correct glasgowdan - I would look to take over the bottom half, where all the weed problems are. Not approached the council yet - was keen to see if anyone had any experience of this first.

marleyboy

The council are not likely to sell off half a plot of land, particularly connected to a property and specifically one which has a tenant.

Should the Council sell any of the land, it will be sold along with the garden and property residing within the plot..

Bradders72

In a nutshell it won't do any harm to ask them. Write to their Assets/Property management department and ask the question. We are just about to complete on some Housing Association owned land at the bottom of our garden, admittedly it's not attached to one of their properties directly though. If they were willing to consider a sale they would not doubt canvas their local team and tenants to see if their were any objections. You would also have to pay administration fees, independent survey fees, legal fees and a market rate for the land. Also don't expect it to be a quick process.

You won't lose anything by asking them the question....

moneyistooshorttomention

The very first thought the Council would be likely to have about this would be that they would obviously have to charge the tenant less rent - ie because they would have less facilities than currently.

For that reason alone - ie the admin. costs of working out what the tenants new rent would be and the fact that they wouldnt thereafter be getting as much rent on the property = I don't see them agreeing.

Why would a Council sell someone a bit of their land for, say, £2,000 (plus legal costs) if they would have to let the tenant off, say, £5 a week rent and find that, after a certain length of time they had not made any profit at all from selling that bit of land to you?

stator

They might rent it to you

brightontraveller

It will of course depend on local authority Contact them and ask only way to know for sure...

As selling only devalues there asset for ever (with the amount unlikely to be able to build a new school, hospital etc ) I ‘d say it being a garden no chance …
Slightly different (higher) if its amenity type land etc and directly adjoining your property (more so if authority has an obligation to care mow etc) but even this type they often sell only through auction obligation to get full market value etc

daveyjp

In most areas there haven't been Council houses for decades.

Most were transferred to Housing Associations, so the first job is to find out the Landlord of the neighbouring property.

unforeseen

pappadruid wrote: »

Quite correct glasgowdan - I would look to take over the bottom half, where all the weed problems are. Not approached the council yet - was keen to see if anyone had any experience of this first.

I think that would be a definite non-starter.

Leave the tenant with a patch of garden where the only access is through your patch?