URGENT HELP NEEDED buying land

Ragtimeplayer

Our house has a very large farmers field at the back of it, ajoining our property.

We have a very small "yard" which is covered in concrete and have always wanted a proper garden for the children. The farmer said he would sell us some of the farming land so we could have a garden.

How feasible is this in reality? I have googled til I am blue but still can't find out anything meaningful.

I did find out that arable land goes quite cheaply and at the moment, the famer is asking for £5000 for an as yet undisclosed area of land. Time is of the essence as we are meeting him at 3.30 this afternoon to discuss everything and I would like to have a few facts before we meet.

Can arable land be turned into a garden and maybe in the future, have a garage built on it?

I have never done this before and haven't a clue where to start. Funds are very limited so I am trying to find out as much as I can as cheaply as possible.

Any help, very much appreciated.

merlinthehappypig

Ragtimeplayer wrote: »

Our house has a very large farmers field at the back of it, ajoining our property.

We have a very small "yard" which is covered in concrete and have always wanted a proper garden for the children. The farmer said he would sell us some of the farming land so we could have a garden.

How feasible is this in reality? I have googled til I am blue but still can't find out anything meaningful.

I did find out that arable land goes quite cheaply and at the moment, the famer is asking for £5000 for an as yet undisclosed area of land. Time is of the essence as we are meeting him at 3.30 this afternoon to discuss everything and I would like to have a few facts before we meet.

Can arable land be turned into a garden and maybe in the future, have a garage built on it?

I have never done this before and haven't a clue where to start. Funds are very limited so I am trying to find out as much as I can as cheaply as possible.

Any help, very much appreciated.

We have done this before so I can answer some of your questions:

The price of arable land varies depending on where you are and the quality of the land, but it isn't as simple as working out a price per acre. Yes, arable land, in general, goes for between £4000 and £6000 an acre, but down by where we are where a lot of land is owned by the Crown, £8000 an acre is more likely.

That said, you would be unlikely to be able to buy a two acre field for £12000-£18000. Plenty of people want a small patch like that for ponies and a decent 2 acre field in the right location could easily fetch £50000 or more.

The actual transaction of buying land is simple and straightforward, usually, and won't take as long a house purchase, for example. You would normally expect to pay for legal fees and so on for both parties. I'd allow up to £2000 or so for this if plans need to be drawn up for the Land Registry, which is likely.

If the farmer has any sense (and most of them do when it comes to money) he will know that even a small area of land, let alone a couple of acres, added to your house will increase the value of your property out of all proportion to the actual value of the land. Normally a price would be arrived at based on the re-valuation of your house.

If the farmer isn't aware of this or is simply a nice guy, then he may just sell it to you for the actual land price. If he does this you will have an absolute bargain.

Once the land is your you can do what you like with it, subject to normal planning rules. It is possible that the farmer would have a few caveats built into the contract to restrict what you could do in the way of development, or build a clause into the contract to share any profits if you ever built a house on it.If you are seriously thinking about a garage at some stage, then I'd be up front about it and ask if he would have any objections.

I appreciate than funds are limited, but, if it helps, get an estate agent round after you have had preliminary discussion with the farmer and ask what your house would be worth before and after the land is added (say you are thinking of selling and want to know if it is worth your while buying the land) I suspect that you will be pleasantly surprised as well as have somewhere for the kids to play!

Ragtimeplayer

Thankyou very much for your reply, the only shocking thing is the price I might have to pay in fee's!

I googled an acre and although an acre is a measurement of area, an average if you want a square acre is 230 feet x 230 feet. This is way too much for us and I doubt the famer wants to sell that much either. I was thinking maybe half that size.

The trouble is, he has asked us how much we want for the £5000 we will be paying. Ie, he's put the ball in our court. Now we could say a 100ft x 100ft and he would think us cheeky or we could say 50ft x 50ft and he would be taking us for a ride, its a confusing situation to be in.

We haven't even set money aside for fee's as it was hard enough just getting the £5000 together, I was hoping to do this myself but understand that might not be possible.

PasturesNew

Without researching, I'd be surprised if you could turn arable land into a garden.

That would probably constitute a change of use - and require planning permission - which you are probably not going to get.

As for putting a garage on it, I doubt that'd be allowed at all. That would be planning permission, but also that makes the land worth a LOT more as development land.

How about starting a herb farm?

merlinthehappypig

PasturesNew wrote: »

Without researching, I'd be surprised if you could turn arable land into a garden.

That would probably constitute a change of use - and require planning permission - which you are probably not going to get.

As for putting a garage on it, I doubt that'd be allowed at all. That would be planning permission, but also that makes the land worth a LOT more as development land.

How about starting a herb farm?

We bought and sold some arable and pasture land in our last house in Scotland and there was no issue at all in using it however we wanted. We planted a small orchard, used some for garden and put the ponies on the rest. You would lose the agricultural grants obviously.

Nothing came up when we sold it either even though the plans showed one lot of land sold and the other bought.

We may have been lucky, but a fair bit of land changed hands around us when we lived there and we didn't ever see any change of use applications. You may be right, though, and it's something the OP would need to check out with his local planners.

The fee I quoted may be an overestimate, but it's best to be aware. From memory we paid around £750 in solicitors fees to sell and buy two pieces of land. That was just for our own costs, not the other person's and the plans had already been drawn up by the seller for the previous owner.

If you have no garden at all at present, even a small area is likely to make quite a difference to the value of your house. Obviously without seeing your house or knowing the value it is impossible for anyone on here to come up with a figure. That's why you need a proper valuation of before and after.

We sold a very small strip of land about 15 years ago to a neighbour, so small it couldn't be measured in acres, more like square inches! (It was probably around 25ft by 8ft) Even back then this added around £15000 to the value of their house, which was valued at around £75000 then, as they had no garden and this bit of ground was directly behind their house. We sold it for around £9000 as I recall which was a fair price for us both. They paid all the legal costs which we were told was usual.

Strapped

The people across the road from us bought some land from the neighbouring farmer, no problems (and have now had PP to extend their bungalow over what was their garden so it's worked out very well for them). They had to get PP to buy though, as the back of their garden was also a development boundary for the village, which complicated things. (I think they may have bought it first but needed permission to officially integrate it into their garden and move the boundary). Good luck, I'm sure it will be worth doing if you can manage it.

Ragtimeplayer

Debt_Free_Chick

Land is classified for the purpose of what it can be used for. Agricultural land is agricultural land even if it changes hands. If you buy the field, then you've bought a plot of agricultural land.

Agricultural land can not be used for residential purposes, so if you go ahead and create a garden, you may find a visit from the enforcement team at the local planning office telling you that you are in breach of the permitted use of the land.

The field will always have its own separate title (deed). It cannot be absorbed into the title for your property - as it cannot be used as residential (garden).

If you want some/all of the plot to be garden, you will need to apply to the planning office for "change of use".

You most certainly cannot make a commitment this afternoon, so don't.

Your best bet is to get an appointment with a local planning officer and talk it through.

merlinthehappypig

If what DFC says is correct (and I'm not disputing it, she seems to know what she is taliking about) then I apologise if I have mislead you in any way.

Based simply on our own experience, and that of neighbours, in buying and selling land, we have not had an issue with planning or anything else.

We sold 12 acres behind our house in Scotland which was originally shown on the title of the property along with the house, not separately. We bought 6 acres at the front of the house, which was absorbed into the new title of the property, not with a new separate deed. We had visits from planners for an extension which needed the full plans of the house and land as part of the planning permission process by which time we had already created the garden and orchard and nothing was said at any stage. we had no problems when we sold the house either.

Our neighbours bought part of the 12 acres we sold from the new owner and extended their garden and fence to include this new land, again without issue. No planning permission was sought. Another neighbour bought about an acre from the same seller, different field, and extended their garden. All of the bits of land qualified for and received agricultural grants and were registered with the Scottish ministry of agriculture.

I guess we must just have been lucky

PasturesNew

Maybe location is a key point here.
There are a lot of people from Scotland on these boards it seems... and maybe it's easier there.

We've no idea (I don't think) where the OP lives

merlinthehappypig

PasturesNew wrote: »

Maybe location is a key point here.
There are a lot of people from Scotland on these boards it seems... and maybe it's easier there.

We've no idea (I don't think) where the OP lives

Probably just too cold, too windy and too remote for anyone to be bothered to check