Buying a plot of land with potential planning permission

Ozzuk

By penalty I meant if I was the vendor then I'd want some form of compensation should you not get planning - as you'd likely walk away and the vendor has lost months of marketing.

Of course, that is the normal risk when selling a house, the difference this time is you want retain an option on the property until you know if PP will be granted, hence I think you'll need to include a sweetener in the deal.

For example - you'll pay 5k up front to retain right to buy on property for 6 months. Or, you'll pay 5k and pull out of sale if PP not granted.

HouseBuyer77

Ozzuk wrote: »

By penalty I meant if I was the vendor then I'd want some form of compensation should you not get planning - as you'd likely walk away and the vendor has lost months of marketing.

Of course, that is the normal risk when selling a house, the difference this time is you want retain an option on the property until you know if PP will be granted, hence I think you'll need to include a sweetener in the deal.

For example - you'll pay 5k up front to retain right to buy on property for 6 months. Or, you'll pay 5k and pull out of sale if PP not granted.

Could be wrong but I believe that's exactly how an option to purchase works.

You pay the vendor for an agreement that allows you to purchase the property at a given price at any time of your choosing up to some limit (say the next 6 months).

Decide not to buy then vendor is free to sell to someone else after the 6 months elapse.

Vendor is paid up-front, so it's not really a penalty as such. More like a cost of the process to the buyer (like a survey, legal or mortgage fee).

davidmcn

Pythagorous wrote: »

TY (again!). And this could still work, given i also still need to sell my own house?

In theory you could have it conditional on both you obtaining planning consent and concluding a contract for the sale of your house, but are you saying you only want to put your house on the market after you get the planning consent? If so then you're adding to the timescales in a way which may be even more unattractive to the vendor - usually you'd expect a developer to complete their purchase once they get planning, not then have it conditional on an unrelated transaction.

Pythagorous

davidmcn wrote: »

In theory you could have it conditional on both you obtaining planning consent and concluding a contract for the sale of your house, but are you saying you only want to put your house on the market after you get the planning consent? If so then you're adding to the timescales in a way which may be even more unattractive to the vendor - usually you'd expect a developer to complete their purchase once they get planning, not then have it conditional on an unrelated transaction.

Yes, that's the big problem. Basically we don't want to sell our house unless this particular site worked out and it would seem strange/wrong to get to sale agreed position which is contingent on a possibly 50/50 planning decision

Fuzzyness

would you be able to fund the purchase of the site with planning permission via a self build mortgage in advance of selling your own home?

Pythagorous

Fuzzyness wrote: »

would you be able to fund the purchase of the site with planning permission via a self build mortgage in advance of selling your own home?

probably not :-(

Fuzzyness

tricky one. you are then at the mercy of the owner agreeing to either enter into a conditional contract or option agreement with you. tricky one.