Help buying land adjacent to house from private company owners

Davesnave

You may have alerted the company to the fact that they have what's known as a 'ransom strip' or maybe they already know that. Anyway, it's likely the first bid for such a piece of land would be rejected by an organisation that knows what it's doing and has no immediate need for money.

Some years ago now, four families wanted a piece of land I held, but their initial offer was only £8k so I rejected it. £2k per property was derisory.


A year later they offered £12k after a valuation by a surveyor, but I still rejected that, because the marriage value of land + their property had been deliberately left out.

About 6 months further down the line, one of the 4 told the others he would meet my request for £20k if they didn't come on board. They all did and we became friends ( more or less! )

So, negotiations like this may be a slow process towards something acceptable to all. Or it could be that the company have other plans for the land.

Before you go any further, are you sure you'd get planning for this new development, or is uncertainty there restricting your willingness to offer a reasonable amount? Yes, councils want more homes built, but not necessarily on garden land which is inappropriate for the purpose.

diggingdude

half a million pounds might do it

Nobbie1967

Maybe they're waiting for you to sell and will then develop the site themselves. That would explain the straight rejection.

ChrisNM

Hey, thanks for the responses.

To be clear, the piece they own is just few square meters, they're not using it and it would just be access. It's not used or useful to anyone currently. Access through the land already exists for other properties, so there's been a precedence for it too.

They didn't provide an reasons, but I suspect they just don't need the money (or the hassle). I'll take the advice given here and just continue the conversation. Ask again in a years' time.

AdrianC

ChrisHowell wrote: »

Access through the land already exists for other properties, so there's been a precedence for it too.

Quite probably that RoW predates their ownership, and is written into the ownership of the land, so there's nothing they can do about it.

That doesn't mean they have to grant new access to an additional property.

tom9980

diggingdude wrote: »

half a million pounds might do it

My home town had a planning app 3 years ago for 40 or so houses next to an estate built 20 years ago the new estate uses access created by the older developer who kept ownership of some small key areas a few metres wide, they want £1m to sell a tiny strip to the new developer.