Buying land without a solicitor?

Foochester

First post so hello to all!

We have been in discussion with our neighbouring farmer about buying a small strip of land next to our driveway so we can widen it enough to turn our cars round. We have agreed on price, borders and there appears to be nothing of any concern.

We are not going to build on the land and we would happily have this in any contract.

My question is, do we need a solicitor? Having being quoted around £500 I am inclined to see if it can be done without.

Any advice will be much appreciated

RAS

Have you checked with the planning department? It is currently agricultural land and they may not permit it to be used as garden?

silvercar

There was a thread on here this week about someone who moved into a home only to find a neighbour claiming that they had bought a strip of land off the previous owner. This hadn't been entered on the deeds properly and the new owner knew nothing of it.

Best to do things properly.

vetfred

I would do it properly so that what you own is reflected in your deeds in case you sell or have any dispute over the land in the future.

If your neighbour sells and the new owner has an issue, I'm not sure what good a contract between you and the farmer would be if the land change is not reflected in his deeds - what your new neighbour thought he bought wouldn't be quite "all there" so to speak.

PasturesNew

I agree with what the 2 above said.

The land might be a change of use, requiring planning permission. And it needs to be done properly in case there are issues in the future.

dekh

I believe there are a couple of solicitors lurking around here who will correct me for being wrong. You might have to wait until Monday

I think HM Land Registry will only allow Solicitors/Conveyancers to change the title of the land in question, and both you and the other party will need separate Solicitors/Conveyancers. 2 sets of fees. Though as there is no mortgage involved there is less work for them to do but if it is a lease you are buying rather than the freehold their will be more work. There may be more to it as you are likely to be creating a 'new' parcel of land so it will need deeds registered and if as you say - no buildings - then that would have to be recorded into the deeds.

I could be taking a load of balls here - but I would say both of you need to do the solicitor thing for your own mutual protection. He won't want you to build a bugalow over the extra bit, you want to assure yourself of access.

Hope that will do until you get a proper answer

Foochester

Thanks for all the replies, inclined to think that solicitor could and should be the way forward :T

SouthCoast

solicitor could and should be the way forward

Agreed.

Any problems will only come to light when one of the parties try to sell their property and the legal costs could be much more than £500.