Land next to council house

LukeCarter

Hello 
I live in a council house on the end that has a bit of grassed land next to it before the footpath. 
Some people have taken to parking cars on it destroying the grass. I was wondering as a council tenant could I possibly acquire this land off the council as technically the house still belongs to them, if I offer to pay for the fencing work needed to make it a bigger garden area for my house? 
All I'm getting up when researching is people that actually own their council house nothing about tenants asking to take over the maintenance and responsibility of the land.

lincroft1710

The simplest way to find out is to ask them. There may be a need to transfer the land from one council dept to another, which may involve you having to pay the transfer costs

notrouble

Are you sure the land belongs to the council?

Do you know if it is public amenity land, or what?

I suspect the bureaucracy involved in getting the land transferred into the Title of your property would be horrendous, even assuming it's posible.

If your concern is the car parking, you'd do better to identify the dept responsible fpr the land (or it's owner) an pursuade them to restrict the parking (eg bollards).

If you just want a bigger garden, swopping properties would probably be easier, or getting an allotment!

MoneySeeker1

Would seem more constructive to persuade the Council to put up something that prevented car-drivers parking there - eg huge boulders on the road edge. That way the grass is preserved for all to use for amenity purposes and not just for car-drivers being antisocial. 

PasturesNew

There is a word for this. Not sure if you can do it but I have seen a private owner who won the land beside his house as it became a gathering area for nuisance teens. 

He wanted to buy the corner from the local Council and found it was still in the hands of the estate developer. He contacted the developer who said they'd be happy to hand it over but he needed to obtain a stopping up order first, which means " The term 'to stop-up' refers to the formal process carried out when applying for closure of a public highway, and once a stopping-up order is made, the land will permanently cease to be a public highway". 

It was achieved. It's quite a process though as the council also had to get involved, with evidences, to prove it wasn't a bad move to let him do that. The Council had to consider if it were surplus to their own requirements. 

bucksbloke

Council's are legally required to obtain best value for disposal of an asset. They would need to advertise the land if it is for sale.