visibility splay of next door development lying on my boundary

idlegenius

Background:
My next door (a derelict bungalow with a large garden) was purchased by a builder recently for £420k. It has an outline planning permission for demolishing existing building & build 2 new bungalows (which would apprx be worth 500k each in today's market ). The prices in our area have gone up recently due to a lot of development in surrounding areas. Existing bungalow is being demolished this week.

The outline planning permission came with various conditions, one of which was to provide a visibility splay.

I have 2 issues:
(1) One side of the visibility splay falls on my property. I have only just realised that after looking at my land registry papers over the weekend. So according to internet, I presume I can expect some compensation from the developer. Apparently it could be apprx 1/3rd the increase in value.
So is it as simplistic as (500k*2 - 420k)/3 = 193k ? or would that also take into account the builder's costs to build the bungalows?

(2) The driveway to the back bungalow on his plot is actually adjacent to my boundary. I also have a long garden. So the developer, last month, offerred to purchase back half of my garden, so he could build a 3rd bungalow, which could easily be accessed through the driveway of his current plot. I havent responsed to him either way yet.
Simplistically my garden would roughly be worth half of what he paid for the full plot - so 210k.

So, can someone advise me what might be the right figures to negotiate with the developer in 2 scenarios:
- if I dont sell my garden, but just the visibility splay access
- if I sell garden & the also negotiate the splay

I have no experience of anything of this kind. Any advise appreciated. Being a single parent, getting the best possible and fair outcome would help me considerably wrt financial security for myself & my children.
Thanks.

When_the_going_gets_tough

I would consider engaging a chartered surveyor to act for you given the sums involved

Doozergirl

what needs to happen to your land to acheive the visibility splay? I'm not sure why you're thinking a driver being able to see down the street gets you nearly £200k.

The back garden price makes sense on the face of it.

eddddy

Regarding the back garden...

Is it viable as a stand alone building plot with it's own access? Or is it only viable as a building plot if it has access over the developer's land?

If it requires access over the developer's land, you only have one potential buyer - and your negotiating position will be weak.

e.g. If the developer played hardball and said "Either accept £100k or you can keep your garden" - what would you do?

(FWIW, if you did keep the garden, I'd bet the developer would retain ownership of a ransom strip.)

idlegenius

Hi, The area needs to be kept free from obstruction to enable cars to pull out safely.

idlegenius

My back garden is only viable as a plot with his driveway access.

Davesnave

Doozergirl wrote: »

what needs to happen to your land to acheive the visibility splay? I'm not sure why you're thinking a driver being able to see down the street gets you nearly £200k.

I also think the price is very steep, but if the entire development depends on complying with Highways' rules, and there's no alternative, then surely this is a ransom strip too?

It's still better not to kill the Golden Goose....

martinsurrey

Davesnave wrote: »

I also think the price is very steep, but if the entire development depends on complying with Highways' rules, and there's no alternative, then surely this is a ransom strip too?

It's still better not to kill the Golden Goose....

exactly this,

for £200k it would be cheaper to redesign the entire scheme to get better access, not that I think OP is has some value, but not pie in the sky value.

System

It's an interesting one, I had something similar previously where the neighbour was holding out for a huge sum of money for a visibility splay... Problem was the bit of land, although in the neighbours ownership, because of the proximity to the highway, meant the use of the land was already heavily restricted and was worth nothing like the owner wanted... In the end the access was reconfigured and splats negotiated with the highways and the owner of the land got nothing. If you are going to start ransoming people make sure you know what their alternatives are, the land at the back is also not worth what you think, it's landlocked so very unlikely you will get the full market value for it when there's only one potential developer, they will be looking at it as something that would be a nice addition and will lose interest very quickly once they see your figures

eddddy

Doozergirl wrote: »

what needs to happen to your land to acheive the visibility splay? I'm not sure why you're thinking a driver being able to see down the street gets you nearly £200k.

Davesnave wrote: »

I also think the price is very steep, but if the entire development depends on complying with Highways' rules, and there's no alternative, then surely this is a ransom strip too?

It's still better not to kill the Golden Goose....

Presumably, the OP would essentially be saying something like "Pay me £200k or I'll put a 2m fence along my boundary - and you'll have no visibilty splay".

Obviously, if the developer can change the position of the access to get the visibility splay, the OP's strategy wouldn't work.


(Also, having paid £410k for the plot, with a an expected sale price of £1m - an extra £200k is likely to make the project nonviable for the developer.)

System

eddddy wrote: »

Presumably, the OP would essentially be saying something like "Pay me £200k or I'll put a 2m fence along my boundary - and you'll have no visibilty splay".

Obviously, if the developer can change the position of the access to get the visibility splay, the OP's strategy wouldn't work.


(Also, having paid £410k for the plot, with a an expected sale price of £1m - an extra £200k is likely to make the project nonviable for the developer.)

A 2m high fence to a boundary adjacent to the highway would need planning approval!! Going into negotiations when you don't know the rules is a sure fire way to walk away with nothing