Selling part of my garden.

Michelle_Hammond

Hi I have a mortgaged property with my ex husband (divorced 2010) and the garden is big enough to sell to pay my ex off his share, where do I start please? Any advice is greatly appreciated

davidmcn

I'm guessing you mean for development - is planning likely to be granted? Is there a market for it?

Thrugelmir

Have you run the idea past your lender?

G_M

You'll need the mortgage lender's consent. How much is your outstanding mortgage and what is the current value of the property?

Sell to who, for what?

* next door neighbour who wants a bigger garden? Have you found a neighbour who's interested?

* or developer to build? Does the garden have access? Would you (or buyer) get Planning Consent? If you get the Consent yourself the value of the land will be much greaer than if you sell speculatively without consent.

davidmcn

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Have you run the idea past your lender?

Or indeed past your husband - for the meantime it's "our" garden.

marliepanda

Michelle_Hammond wrote: »

Hi I have a mortgaged property with my ex husband (divorced 2010) and the garden is big enough to sell to pay my ex off his share, where do I start please? Any advice is greatly appreciated

You cannot just do that as right now you don't own the property. You jointly own it with the bank. You cannot just sell off half the asset your loan is secured on without permission.

eddddy

Assuming you're thinking of selling the land for development (e.g. building another house) - a good starting point might be...

- Ask your local planning authority what the chances are of getting planning consent

Or

- Ask a local EA who often sells development land, for their opinion. (You probably don't want to ask an EA from one of the big flashy chains - they don't tend to specialise in development land sales. An EA firm that's a member of the RICS might be a good bet.)


I wouldn't worry about contacting your mortgage lender at this stage. That's likely to be one of the smaller hurdles to deal with, and much later in the process. (But bear in mind that they might expect you to pay a chunk of your mortgage off from the proceeds of the sale).

ProDave

As others advise. Start by submitting an outline planning application. That will cost you about £2-300 Only if that is granted will there be any value in the "plot" then get an estate agent to value it. Post your approximat location here and somebody may have an idea.

I would think the mortgage company would agree as long as there is still enough equity in the house. Selling part of the garden will devalue the house but it certainly won't halve it's value. Again an estate agent could advise on that.

davidmcn

eddddy wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about contacting your mortgage lender at this stage. That's likely to be one of the smaller hurdles to deal with, and much later in the process. (But bear in mind that they might expect you to pay a chunk of your mortgage off from the proceeds of the sale).

If there's a transfer of equity going on then the OP may well be switching lender anyway.

Grenage

Wouldn't your husband be entitled to half of the sale?

tykesi

Surely the ex husband's "share" would then be affected by the reduced value of what's left of the property?

Can't see this being the easy fix you want it to be.