Buying neighbour's land- what order do I need to do things in?

kickinkeli

Hello all please be gentle it's my first time posting. I have seen various posts regarding buying land off neighbour's but not specific to my questions

I am considering looking into buying the end of my neighbour's garden that lines up with my garden. This will make my garden larger and I want to put a summer house on it. 

Can anyone help with the order I would need to do things in. At the moment I dont know if I can afford it so I don't want to pay out too much initially.

The house at the back of me is a rental with fairly new neighbour's who I have never seen. I don't know who owns the house but there have been a few different people living there over the years. 

The garden is very overgrown so is not being used. 

I wanted to find out a guide price before speaking with anyone so I can see if I  can afford to follow it through and see off they would sell. 

I need to keep costs low but do it correctly if I do it. 

I don't have a mortgage and have never looked into anything like this. I don't want to be taken for a ride due to my lack of knowledge. Hence my post to find out more. I live in Nottingham 

Thank you in advance 

K

Slithery

kickinkeli said:

I wanted to find out a guide price before speaking with anyone so I can see if I  can afford to follow it through and see off they would sell.

That's the wrong way round, you need to talk to the owner first as that's the only way to find out how much it's going to cost you and whether or not they want to sell.

You can find out the owner by downloading the deeds for £3 from the Land Registry website.

AdrianC

Step 1. Find the owner.

Step 2. Ask him if he wants to sell.

Step 3. Agree a price...

There is no generic guide. You want this land. Not a similar bit a mile away. This EXACT bit.

paulj2021

Is there some other pretext that you can use for contacting the owner, such as saying you want to access their garden because you want to creosote the fence, for example? Then you can talk to them a bit, be friendly, maybe even invite them for a cup of tea, and sound them out before you drop the big “I want to buy your garden” conversation. I’m not suggesting you engage in some complex deception but if your first communication with them is about buying their land you may well see big pound signs appearing in their eyes…

user1977

Even if the owner is interested, they would need the consent of the current tenant (who would be quite entitled to say no, leaving you waiting until whenever they leave), and also of their mortgage lender if they have one (more likely to be a formality, but they'll have fees to pay, which you'd normally be expected to pick up). You'd also usually pay the neighbour's legal fees (as well as your own of course if this is beyond your DIY skills).

As for the price - how much would the extra bit of garden increase the value of your property? How much would the loss of the neighbour's bit affect the price of their house? Possibly not much in either case.