Buying land off of neighbour

yellow218

Hi all.
I live in a semi detached house, both houses share a driveway. Our neighbour owns the driveway, We have rights via a covenant in the deeds to access at all times.

There have been some disagreements though about access. And although we are doing what we can to resolve in form of writing up a gentlemen’s agreement we have an idea as to how to permenantly remove the issue. (We know we could get solicitors involved to apply our right but below is another, perhaps more appealing route)

Our thoughts are this. Our neighbour buys a strip of land off of another neighbour and turns it into a driveway for their house. In turn we buy the existing driveway from them. Both houses erect a fence along new boundaries.

I have reason to believe that both neighbours might be interested in the idea, depending on price. But not sure how to go about it(I know solicitors would be involved at some point) , or indeed roughly how much the land is worth? The existing driveway is approximately 60ft long and 8ft wide. The proposed driveway would run alongside the existing one, so would be roughly the same maybe another 10 ft longer.

Any ideas? Many thanks.

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I would say the order of things is to agree a price with the 3rd neighbour, the one who is losing the 8ft x 70ft strip and not gaining anything.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Then you and the 2nd neighbour need to price up the works you will need to carry out. Its seems your work is a 60ft fence but the 2nd neighbours work is a 70ft driveway and fence so will be a lot more than you.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lastly you and the 2nd neighbour need to agree how to split all this cost and whether your 2nd neighbour wants anything for their lost land.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Depending on the existing shape and size of the plots the value of houses 2 and 3 might go down.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You will then need three solicitors and involve mortgage co's if applicable.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It could end up costing you quite a lot.[/FONT]

yellow218

Thanks. That mirrors our thoughts.

We are willing to support the initial set up costs with the neighbour for the boundaries, and would pay immediate neighbour so we then own the existing drive.
Aware it!!!8217;ll cost and be a little hassle with solicitors, but we figure it!!!8217;ll be worth it. Although it didn!!!8217;t put us off initially, having a shared drive could put off prospective buyers in the future (we won!!!8217;t buy a house with a shared drive again). Whereas with the proposed solution both houses would have and own their own private drives with no access rights to others.

It!!!8217;s quite appealing.

Any ideas on what the strip of land for the driveway might cost? Would like to go to the neighbours with realistic suggestions and negotiate from there if possible.

moneyistooshorttomention

Will depend on various factors.

First one probably being = what part of the country is it in? That being - is it a dear area/exorbitant area/cheap area?

I would imagine how much you would have to pay the other neighbour for a bit of their garden would also bear some relation to how much of their garden they would have left. So - would it be a large garden, a normal-size garden or a pocket handkerchief size garden they would have left? I'm guessing it would go from passable size to pocket handkerchief size...

DigForVictory

Frankly, once you chaps have thrashed out the finances and all the neighbours are in agreement, blinking well get it nailed down with lawyers at once.

My dad is struggling to sell as the gentlemen's agreement he & a neighbour & a farmer had? Well, two parties are dead, and the current farmer has offspring at university & could seriously use solid cash.
It's been running for 3 years now.

Once you three are agreed, get the lawyers in cooperation & do not lay up mischief for your families in the future. You really do not want this carrying on in another 50 years, so sort it once now almost no matter how much it costs.

Money can be saved, earned, squirreled but land boundaries & rights dickerings can go on for generations. It isn't a gift to leave for another generation.

yellow218

thanks for your thoughts so far

We live in the south east so property prices aren!!!8217;t cheap, but the plot we propose turning into a drive for next door is not suitable for building on, its only good for garden or driveway. As I mentioned, I have reason to believe the third neighbour may be interested. The strip of land I!!!8217;m proposing to turn into next doors drive is a small amount compared to the rest of his garden, and it would still allow him access to his rear garden. He!!!8217;s currently doing up his house, but in phases due to finances, so selling a small proportion of his land may be something of interest.
We won!!!8217;t know for sure until we ask. But when we do ask we want to have realistic figures in mind, ie go with an offer. There!!!8217;s limited information on the internet about these prices, but what I!!!8217;ve found so far is about £1000 per 10m2. We estimate the plot will be about 60-70 m2. So £7-8k. Does that sound right?

Plus solicitors fees, and new fences. Which again we can negotiate as to who should pay what amount.

AdrianC

Remember that if any of the three of you have mortgages, you will need to get your lenders' approval.

So A is currently sharing a drive with B.
B would buy some redundant garden off C, and transfer the current shared drive wholly to A.

A and B are getting benefit. C is not. What effect will this have on the house prices of A and B (increase) and C (decrease)? That's your starting point for the value.

Davesnave

yellow218 wrote: »

There!!!8217;s limited information on the internet about these prices, but what I!!!8217;ve found so far is about £1000 per 10m2. We estimate the plot will be about 60-70 m2. So £7-8k. Does that sound right?

Plus solicitors fees, and new fences. Which again we can negotiate as to who should pay what amount.

In 2012 we sold 130m2 of garden land in a fairly expensive area for £20k + legals, so you seem to be just about in the ball park.

Ours wasn't suitable for building either.

But people's perceptions vary. The grudging manner in which it was purchased indicated that our buyers thought we were screwing them over! In reality, they got a bargain.

ProDave

It could be a lot more complicated.

Do you just want the re aligned driveways to stop at the front of the house, resulting in a dog leg in both boundaries? Or do you want to continue that re alignment right alongside the houses and down the back garden? = more land to purchase and re assign?