Ransom strip value

discotroll

Or, as they say, How long is a piece of string....

Any thoughts/input would be appreciated on this one.

I recently bought a small plot of land and the owner insisted that they off-load some other tiny bits of land in the same deal, as they all came under the same Land Registry number. It's clear that these tiny bits were retained to stop (or cash-in on) the development of properties around the village as they were neatly retained when other houses and fields were sold-off over the years.

One of these bits is the end of a driveway, where it meets the road, which now serves 2 large properties - it's about the last 5 metres or so. I don't want this bit but what kind of value should I put on it if the house owners would like to buy it off me? I'm not interested in playing the land-owning b*stard but also don't want to just give it away...

Any thoughts on this?

Many thanks,

DT.

HouseBuyer77

I'm not interested in playing the land-owning b*stard but also don't want to just give it away...

I suspect anything other than giving it away will make you appear to be a 'land-owning' b*stard.

Does their drive way run right over it? Presumably it's what gives them vehicle access to their drive? How long has it been like this? They may be able to claim adverse possession or at the very least a right of way over the land.

stator

You could get an independent land surveyor to put a value on it.
If you're talking about a small piece of land that is only used by someone else as a right of way then it's value will be quite low as you couldn't develop it without interfering with their right of way. But there will still be a number put on it as it will benefit the person who owns the right of way and make it easier to sell their property.

davidmcn

If they have the right to drive over it then there's not much ransom value, until such time as someone wants to develop the land.

eddddy

discotroll wrote: »

I don't want this bit but what kind of value should I put on it if the house owners would like to buy it off me?

If you were to ask a land valuer, they would say it's based on the marriage value. In simplified terms (assuming the strip is worthless to you) :

1. How much is the neighbour's property worth without the strip of land?

2. How much is the neighbour's property worth with the strip of land?

Subtract 1 from 2 to get the marriage value.

If you want to be 'fair', set the price at 50% of the marriage value (i.e. you share the profit 50/50)

If you want to be less fair, set the price closer to 100% of the marriage value.


But if the neighbour already has a right of way over the land, the marriage value is likely to be negligible.

AnotherJoe

If you are getting these for free, then in the interests of decent relations with neighbours, I'd let them know if they want to buy the plots they can for a reasonable contribution to a charity of your choice and them paying all the legal fees.

discotroll

Thanks for the input -

The small piece of land is the only vehicular access to the 2 houses - the house that owns the rest of the drive bought it from the same seller (that I bought from) as one of a number of plots he sold by auction a number of years ago and is clear from the land registry details that he wanted to retain some kind of 'control' over how this area was developed.

I had a full search done on this piece (even though it wasn't the main plot I was buying) and there were no covenants regarding access over it - not sure if right-of-way is covered by that sort of thing.

As touched on by Stator, it's more likely to be a spanner-in-the-works when they come to sell their property if the end of the driveway isn't theirs so a small price to have complete ownership would be good for all concerned....

discotroll

AnotherJoe wrote: »

If you are getting these for free, then in the interests of decent relations with neighbours, I'd let them know if they want to buy the plots they can for a reasonable contribution to a charity of your choice and them paying all the legal fees.

Nice thought - this fits well with me and well worth considering... Thanks!

theartfullodger

The price is whatever you both agree.

The value is another number, probably much lower.

Clue: In the name: Ransom....

G_M

discotroll wrote: »

One of these bits is the end of a driveway, where it meets the road, which now serves 2 large properties - .

So are the owners of these 2 properties currently accessing their homes over your land?

If so, are you prepared to take out injunctions to prevent them continuing to do so?

I also seem to recall a statute that grants home-owners a right of access to their own home even where that would involve a trespass.

moneyistooshorttomention

G_M wrote: »

I also seem to recall a statute that grants home-owners a right of access to their own home even where that would involve a trespass.

I think it's "easement of necessity" you're thinking of here...

That being people cannot be either trapped in or locked out of their own homes and if there is only one way to get to those homes - then the law will accept they have the necessity to use that way (regardless of what the owner of the land thinks about it basically).

In OP's position I'd just leave that drive access as is - after all there are two houses using (not one). If it had been just the one - then okay sell it for a nominal sum - but with two using it best to "let sleeping dogs lie".