Buying Land for Resident Community

Seanymph

https://www.gov.uk/government/get-involved/take-part/take-over-a-local-pub-shop-or-green-space-for-the-community

If you have a local Community Action group they can point you in the right direction. Your Parish Clerk should be able to make local suggestions about who can work with you on this.

McTaggus

Thanks all for the guidance and the watch outs - it's really appreciated to hear your experiences.

I understand from another local community collective that went through the same process that the Land Registry only allows a maximum of 4 parties to be named on the deeds, therefore they had 4 investors named on the deeds and the land was put into a trust....

Am going to talk to the Parish Clerk today, and see what we can find out and what support they can lend to the group, thank you!!

lisa110rry

I think what's concerning me about this plan is Public Liability insurance.

G_M

lisa110rry wrote: »

I think what's concerning me about this plan is Public Liability insurance.

Simply a standard part of the ongoing maintenance costs.

Ownership of any land/property involves costs over and above the purchase price.

McTaggus

I realised I never updated this thread to share the outcome, so apologies for the revival but I just wanted to let you know what happened! We actually managed to secure the land via a private deal with the land owner, the day before it was due to go to auction..

Shares were allocated based on the % contribution to the total purchase price, with voting weight subject to the % of shares owned, to a maximum % so that no-one party could have majority voting share.

Shares are not attached to properties but can be offered to new homebuyers when a shareholder decides to move on, to another resident of the lane, or back to the remaining trustees - but no direct financial value is linked to the shares hereafter (i.e. you cannot demand your original investment back in order to leave the Trust).

Share ownership is also conditional on the shareholder being a resident on the Lane.

We have entered provisions relating to non-payment of maintenance fees, and have also put in place a sink fund to cover annual insurance costs, plus additional maintenance fees - which will be topped up by a set amount annually in the event that the fund drop below a certain level.

There are a million and one other provisions that are in place, and that's a very high-level summary, but we spent a long time working through the details and getting legal review also.

We have also managed to get the land to the stage where the maintenance plan (outside of insurance and fencing maintenance) is cost neutral and are currently working with local wildlife trusts to establish a wildflower meadow which uses Site of Special Scientific Interest seed, so that we can gain permanent protection status for the land, and have also consulted heavily with Rural England in relation to the land purpose.

I know it has been a long time since the original post, but just wanted to let you all know the outcome (yes, it took a long time to get here!) and to thank you all for all of your help - your inputs were hugely valuable and greatly appreciated!

G_M

Brilliant!

It's always nice to hear of the outcome of a problem we come accross here, especially a positive one.

Frankly I'm amazed both that you succeeded, and that you achieved so much in such a relatively short time-span.

:T

teddysmum

Though the current sharers/owners may be amicable, what happens if someone new moves in and wants their 'own' part all to themselves ?


My sister is suffering from a communal situation, but not quite like this. Her garage is one of a block of six and the roof, badly, needs doing, but only two of the owners are willing to pay, so the building is deteriorating even more. (I suspect, that some are now no longer car owners, so don't use their garages, which are paired with, but not on the same plot as their bungalows.)

G_M

I don't think your sister's situation is comparable, teddysmum, and it looks in this case like the company provisions have covered off most eventualities.

McTaggus

Thank you G_M, and thank you for all of your help. I won't lie, it certainly wasn't easy in the slightest - there were a few heated disagreements between Trustees, but we got there in the end (even though it was a bit like trying to herd cats at times!!)

We have covered off non-payment of necessary maintenance (leads to expulsion and redistribution of shares after a certain period has elapsed), and any expenditure over and above the basic necessary maintenance goes to vote. However, that's quite a different situation to owning garages