Advice on buying land to add a garden to our property

aimeeb1590

This may be a long winded post so please bare with me! 

There is no back garden to any of the 6 houses, however we have front gardens and communal areas to the front that is gated.
Behind our house is a very large field, that is owned by different properties that live on the other side of the field. The field is very poorly maintained, and we have no access to maintain the back of our property other than walking through their (Gated) estate and through their field. We do not currently have any doors or windows to the rear of our property downstairs, and upstairs we have velux windows. 

Basically, we would like to purchase a very small portion of their field to 1) be able to maintain the back of our property- there’s guttering, drainage, and the roof that we can’t currently access easily 
And 2) To give us a back garden that would allow space for our children to play safely 

I know that there are a few issues, the first being the fact that the land is owned by different owners, and therefore we would have to get them all to agree to sell and also on a price, and secondly the fact that our property is in a conservation area which will likely make it even more difficult in regards to adding doors to the back of the property etc. 

If there is anyone that has any knowledge or advice around where we would need to start it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance 

AdrianC

The land is unlikely to be owned by "16 different owners". It's almost certainly owned by one owner, a company, which may well then be owned by 16 shareholders. So you deal with the co.sec of the company, or whichever individual they nominate, and let them get shareholder approval.

All you can do is ask.

Do you have a figure in mind that you'd be willing to pay?

greatcrested

aimeeb1590 said:

This may be a long winded post so please bare with me! 

Underpants are off - I'm with you all the way........

Have you checked the Land Registry to determine who actually owns this field?

Is the field split up, with each of the 16 owning a different portion? (16  registered Titles).

Or one Title owned by a company (perhaps with the company being owned by 16 shareholders)?

Or is there 1 (2, 3 or 4) named owners, with the other 15 (14, 13, 12) house-ownrs having a Beneficial interest in the Title via a Deed for example?

Once you've identified the named owner(s), that's who to approach. How they deal with the other owners is upto them.

Check LR address here:https://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/eservices/FindAProperty/view/QuickEnquiryInit.do

If that does not find it, do a 'map enquiry' here:

https://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/eservices/FindAProperty/view/MapEnquiryInit.do;jsessionid=2B0WYvw7CcMB8ruP0JpYRmtedeKr0C2pJ1jqyUHr.eff97e6b:frontend-web-0

Slithery

aimeeb1590 said:

We brought our 3 bedroom house 3 years ago.

Where did you bring it from?

greatcrested

Has 'the last unit been sold'?

If so, there's no (legal) reason the land cannot be sold provided the shareholders of the managment company agre to the sale.

In terms of price, whilst I understand your thinking (what will the addition of this plot do to increase the value of your propery), I doubt that is going to influence the shareholders to sell. They are only likely to agree if each of the 16 is going to receive a significant figure. They are unlikely all to agree to sell just to do you a favour. They will each want something in return - and not just peanuts....

GDB2222

You’d be offering £1000 each, roughly. That’s not chicken feed, but it’s not a compelling proposition. I suppose it depends whether it would be a majority decision, in which case you might win over 9 out of 16, or it would need to be unanimous.  I wish you luck!

greatcrested

GDB2222 said:

You’d be offering £1000 each, roughly. That’s not chicken feed, but it’s not a compelling proposition. I suppose it depends whether it would be a majority decision, in which case you might win over 9 out of 16, or it would need to be unanimous.  I wish you luck!

Though the OP's suggestion that they might be happy for the money to go towards maintenance rather than into individualpockets might work. Depends on them really, but £20K would pay for several years grass cutting, or for creating a play area or whatever....

eddddy

aimeeb1590 said:

Myself and my partner have said that £20k would probably be around the maximum that we would spend on the plot of land, ..  

It would almost certainly need the agreement of all 16 property owners, plus there'd be a chunk of legal fees to be paid.

I'm not sure that the promise of around £1000 each would be enough to motivate all of them into going through the hassle. Maybe you'd get more interest if you got together with a few of your neighbours, and jointly offered a bigger sum for a bigger chunk of land.

The property owners might feel a bit more motivated to do something, if for example, there was an offer worth £5k+ each on the table.

blue_max_3

Maybe you could lease it? At least it would be maintained that way, so defer a liability to the leaseholders. Then maybe in a few years, you could seek to purchase, once they've got used to seeing it well kept.

martindow

If I were one of the 16, I would be very reluctant to sell in case in the future you tried to develop this land.  The only protection of your outlook is to own the land yourself.

You might see it as unmaintained but a lot of people would like a wild area full of diversity outside their houses.

trix-a-belle

If you offered might your direct neighbours in your converted building feel that they should also be given the opportunity to also purchase part as possible garden space or to maintain their properties? The shareholders of the field may decide to offer it up to those other properties to get the price bid up. (If you do get it you will probably need to allow for some right of access for your neighbours so they can maintain their properties from your new 'garden.)
Also what would you do if you buy it and then can not put in an access through your property wall? (you might need to go back to the original planning documents to see what it says about direct overlooking on this plot to see if this will be blocked, my property for example specifically wasn't allowed any windows/doors on the north side apart from 1 obscured glass velux to satisfy neighbours) Could an alternative access be put in the blank space on your first plan between plot 6 and what I presume is their garage labelled 6?
I believe the general rule in land purchases like this is that you pay the legal fees for the seller for the land transfer as well as your own legal fees so factor all that in to your figures.