Access Road to Garage been Sold!

Glover1862

AdrianC wrote: »

LR do a map search.

Thanks, I think to use the full Map search tool you need to be a business user, doesn't seem to work for standard users.

Just spoke to the agent and he's was quite upset when I said that we've been using it for such a long time that we'll have some established access rights along with the other ten houses. They've been saying if it's not purchased the owner could use it for parking spaces or build a garage, not sure how they would get planning for a garage. Clearly they've been marketing it to the others houses and trying to scare them into buying it.

moneyistooshorttomention

Re any thought of A.N. Stranger Buyer - and building anything (garages or otherwise) on it:

- I and several other houses have got Right of Way to our properties on an unadopted road with a known owner.

Now I've got it down in my paperwork on my house somewhere that no-one is allowed to build on my ROW ever. Not sure if it's on original Deeds or modern-day stuff.

Has your father checked out his paperwork to see whether planning consent for his & the neighbours property got given by the Council originally based on the "owner" of the road not being allowed to build anything on it ever?

EDIT; btw - no-one is legally entitled to stop on a ROW - other than just briefly enough to load or unload people or goods. But parking on a ROW isnt allowed.

I do see my nfh next door parking her visitors vehicles on that bit that is ROW to my house - but it's not that often and I keep it as a "bargaining chip" to tell her that that means mine can too if I choose to. She's never had any of them there often enough/long enough/in the way that I would have to bring into play the fact that I would tell my visitors to park immediately behind them and block them in so they couldnt get out. But I would do that if need be - and I think she has realised that....

Glover1862

Just an update on this thread, the agent finally sent over the paperwork for the land and it has a plan that mentions right of way for ours and the other houses in the road.

My dad is still interested in buying the land, however it's clearly not worth the £12.5k they are asking, I think the land is virtually worthless to any potential buyer as they can't do anything with it, it's in a conservation area, many ROW's exists and we and others have prescriptive rights over the land, I'm thinking of offering £1k!

I'm really annoyed at the agents, they had the info and to advertise it with building/parking potential is clear misrepresentation, also they clearly tried to panic my dad into buying it. I don't want to give them anything, but I've got no idea what it is worth, I've seen land like this sell for a few hundred to several thousand, any idea on a tactic to help buy it for my dad??

moneyistooshorttomention

Start by offering a more nominal figure?

Personally - from what you say - then I'd have an opening figure of a 3-figure amount. Not a 4-figure amount (even if only just so).

Howzabout offering £500 for it then for starters?

With that - you've given the message of "If you want more than that - we will be inching the figure by another 3 figure amount (say another £100), then another 3 figure amount (say another £100)".

Offer £1,000 at the outset and he might think any "next leap" you make would be another £1,000 or 2....

EDIT; But I still favour putting in a communal bid for the land - rather than one person buying it. That way - you don't put other people in the position of wondering whether they will keep their access or no - which I think is fair.

Add that even £2,000 (for the sake of argument) split between that many properties = pretty much peanuts per property then.

Davesnave

Glover1862 wrote: »

My dad is still interested in buying the land, however it's clearly not worth the £12.5k they are asking, I think the land is virtually worthless to any potential buyer as they can't do anything with it, it's in a conservation area, many ROW's exists and we and others have prescriptive rights over the land, I'm thinking of offering £1k!

I'm really annoyed at the agents, they had the info and to advertise it with building/parking potential is clear misrepresentation, also they clearly tried to panic my dad into buying it. I don't want to give them anything, but I've got no idea what it is worth, I've seen land like this sell for a few hundred to several thousand, any idea on a tactic to help buy it for my dad??

Are you sure the agents had the info at the start? Couldn't they have acquired it since? After all, agents don't usually get to see title documents before they advertise property.

In any event, the local market will now decide what the plot is worth. If your father offers a low sum of money for it, there is every chance he won't be taken seriously and it will go to someone else in the immediate locality, so he should consider taking advice before making a bid.

Personally, I don't think 10-12k is out of the way for it. Put it another way, we have a small area of land over which our neighbour has a RoW, on foot and in vehicles. If the neighbour owned that strip instead and offered it to us for £10k I think we'd probably buy it, because although the situation day to day would stay the same, ownership of the entire plot, as we have now, would make a psychological difference and prevent others gaining an interest too.

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

EDIT; But I still favour putting in a communal bid for the land - rather than one person buying it. That way - you don't put other people in the position of wondering whether they will keep their access or no - which I think is fair.

Add that even £2,000 (for the sake of argument) split between that many properties = pretty much peanuts per property then.

Communal bids are hard to organise and will incur more legal charges due to the alterations to all those titles.

I'm not saying it can't be done, because I once sold a plot to owners of 4 other properties, but the buyers pay the legal costs, not the vendor, and my experience seemed to prove the more buyers there are, the more trouble they have coming to an agreement!

Anyway, if they already have incontrovertible rights, why will they wonder whether they'll lose them?

Pennywise

Just be aware that even if he has right of access, if someone buys/blocks it, it could take years of wrangling through legal action to get the access back. In our village, there's been a right of access across a pub car park for decades. Someone bought the pub and put fences around the car park blocking access. That was five years ago and today, the fences are still there, despite council/court action to reinstate the right of way. These things don't happen overnight.

Glover1862

Thanks, the only issue I can see with going too low if that the solicitors cost for selling the land would be more than the the sum offered, so they might as well keep it or wait for a better offer.

I've been told that this small parcel of land was sold as a job lot by the council, it was packaged with other more valuable plots so difficult to know what it was worth, they were not have a specific purchase price from it.

As mentioned, looking at auction sites, prices vary massively. Agents have been chasing after he's obviously had time to think and realise it's not prime land !

ProDave

How about talking to the owners of the other houses it serve and make a joint offer, then you all become joint owners to share the rights and responsibilities?

Glover1862

Davesnave wrote: »

Communal bids are hard to organise and will incur more legal charges due to the alterations to all those titles.

I'm not saying it can't be done, because I once sold a plot to owners of 4 other properties, but the buyers pay the legal costs, not the vendor, and my experience seemed to prove the more buyers there are, the more trouble they have coming to an agreement!

Anyway, if they already have incontrovertible rights, why will they wonder whether they'll lose them?

My dad wants it just for completeness really, we won't be doing it jointly as he wouldn't want that, more hassle than it's worth.

The agents must have known as they mentioned about the electric board having rights, that was mentioning in the same document which mentioned out ROW.