Planning Permission Query

getmore4less

You need to check carefully what is happening, 

If there is no other access the plot becomes useless if they have sold you that access with the garage along with your house purchase.

Be sure they are not changing the boundaries.

cheeky-peach

Thanks all. 
I must admit, I don't think the vendors have thought this through. By the sounds of it, they have hit a bit of financial woe so are keen to get assets sold.

I must admit, I don't even know where to go next. Ideally, the access road & new garage would need to be in place prior to the sale of the empty plot and the existing plot. I doubt the vendor is in any financial place to enable that himself.

I guess my other option is just to forget it and move on but I can only imagine that other buyers would have the same 'issues'.

AdrianC

cheeky-peach said:

I must admit, I don't think the vendors have thought this through. By the sounds of it, they have hit a bit of financial woe so are keen to get assets sold.

There y'go, then. They're flogging it off as-is. The other plot has PP, but not in a way that'll be buildable when the two plots are sold into separate ownership.

Ideally, the access road & new garage would need to be in place prior to the sale of the empty plot and the existing plot.

Remind me - you want to buy the existing house? So once you do, the new neighbour would need to buy part of your plot off you to build what's got PP currently.

PP does not give them carte blanche to demolish your garage and tarmac a strip of your garden...

mrschaucer

If they are keen to get their assets sold then you could be on to a winner here IF they sell you the current house "as is" and there's nothing nasty lurking in the contract.  

AnotherJoe

mrschaucer said:

If they are keen to get their assets sold then you could be on to a winner here IF they sell you the current house "as is" and there's nothing nasty lurking in the contract.  

Great point. And, if the owners screw it up and sell the house to OP with no nasties in the contract, then they are in a very strong position when it comes to selling the second plot.

cheeky-peach

Apologies for asking to be 'spoon fed' here, but just want to think about the right questions to ask or indeed, what questions not to ask. I don't want to be in a place where, a few months down the line something is in the contract and they pulling out will cause a further delay and may cause our buyers to want to look elsewhere then too. Or is this a risk we will have to take? 

eddddy

cheeky-peach said:

Apologies for asking to be 'spoon fed' here, but just want to think about the right questions to ask or indeed, what questions not to ask. I don't want to be in a place where, a few months down the line something is in the contract and they pulling out will cause a further delay and may cause our buyers to want to look elsewhere then too. Or is this a risk we will have to take? 

Essentially, it would work like this...

You and the seller have to reach an agreement between you about what you want to happen, and if necessary, you instruct the solicitors to write up a contract stating whatever you have both agreed.

The seller might already have a firm idea about what they want in the agreement, so you either have to agree to the seller's ideas, or persuade them to change them.

I guess the agreement written up in the contract could be any one of the following (or something completely different) :

• The seller demolishes the double garage and rebuilds a single garage before you purchase
• The seller demolishes the double garage, but doesn't rebuild a single garage, so you have to do that after you purchase
• You have to demolish the double garage after purchase (and rebuild a single garage if you want to)
• The buyer of the other piece of land has to demolishes the double garage
• etc, etc, etc

Plus, you have to agree where the new boundary of your property will be. (Again, I guess the seller might already have some firm ideas on this.

(What I've described is a very high-level, simplified view.  There will be many fine details to consider.  A good solicitor and a good building surveyor will help you with these.)

If you can come to an agreement between yourselves quickly, the sale will move quickly. If you spend weeks or months arguing, and/or if you and the seller keep changing your minds etc, it could take much longer.

If you find that you can't reach any agreement that is acceptable to both of you, the sale won't happen.

cheeky-peach

Thank you all for your comments!

getmore4less

I would be thinking buy both then you get to decide what is built and when.

Is this garage the only structure across the proposed boundary change to create the access road to the rear?

cheeky-peach

getmore4less said:

I would be thinking buy both then you get to decide what is built and when.

Is this garage the only structure across the proposed boundary change to create the access road to the rear?

If we could afford to do so, I think we would! The property is £370k and needs renovation in the tune of new kitchen, new bathrooms/WCs, new flooring, skirting boards, ceiling work, new windows. It's a sizable property and we are happy to do the work as it would then be, as we want it and we have costed this into our budget. The land is up for £200k. All in all, we would be able to go to £460k but this would then leave no budget for renovations.

Yes, the garage is the only structure. There is a sizable gap between the existing garage and the house so the current vendor's idea would be to essentially, close that gap and have a single garage instead of a double. There is adequate off-road parking anyway so whereas a double garage would be great, we would be happy with a single as it would mainly be used as storage/workshop area for my husband.