Land dispute!! Cheeky offer?!

Obviously I can’t put a value on something I haven’t seen. For context, I’ve just agreed the sale of 0.12acres of former allotment to the neighbouring property for £12k + legal and professional fees. £200 is utterly ridiculous for any land transaction which is not nominal in definition. I generally advise clients not to bother selling anything for less than £10k and that’s where there are more complex issues at hand, this is registered to the OP with the land registry; it’s really very clearly owned by them.

Obviously you need legal advice but if it's not her land, why can't she just sell the property she does own and leave that off it?

Land has intrinsic value determined on use, potential, size, condition, impact on property and a whole host of other factors.

saying land is worth what someone is willing to pay for it is an over simplification.

what do you think is closer to the mark? That £200 offered of the 80k suggested on this thread?

Land is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, I’m a land agent.

In this case, the OP has stated that the prospective purchasers will pull out of the sale if the land is not included, which suggests that its value is significant.

The reference to values on a £/acre basis is really silly in this instance when you are looking at small garden parcels. If this is a third of a property’s available outside space, it has a significant impact on the value.

No chance. It’s the size of the land that matters. You’d need to be talking about 1 acres before CGT even becomes a consideration and even then there are many caveats to stop it from being applied.

Please keep us updated

@Westernesse why is OP supposedly greedy to want land that is indicated as hers in the deeds, the mortgage company lent on basis of it being hers, just because it is overgrown so she hasn't known that the boundary was in the wrong place?
Why is her neighbour not greedy when either it is overgrown in her side too and she also didn't realise boundary was wrong, or it isn't and she realised and kept deliberately quiet about it? Neighbour also ought to have properly checked deeds and realised she was occupiying land that wasn't hers. So if someone is 'greedy' because they didn't check the deeds and boundaries properly both are equally so.

In any case - it's totally irrelevant to talk about greed. The land belongs to OP. That's the beginning and end of it.

I think you may have misunderstood the value stated in the deeds for that bit of land. Did it say it was less than £80,000? If so, it simply means a precise value wasn't given but was confirmed as less than £80K. So could easily only be worth a few hundred pounds.

There is zero prospect of any tax being applied to an area of land so small.

Not if it's worth £200, but if it's worth several thousands, which seems far more likely, then there is a high chance of tax being due.

That will just be related to the fee paid when the land was transferred. The minimum scale 1 fee covers the value of land up to £80,000. That's all the Land Registry are interested in.

the sale is lost for your neighbour anyway... land sale through the proper channels takes weeks if not months.

You might have trouble selling in the future if you do not claim this land back.

There is zero prospect of any tax being applied to an area of land so small.

They can’t sell without the agreement of the mortgage compant.

When I was trying to sell my house, I found that the deeds I had showed a different boundary to my neighbours deeds. Hers was a straight line separating the garden. Mine went more of a diagonal up to her shed door. She'd built a fence (with my permission) which more or less followed her deeds (and made the most sense) to separate the gardens but then the subsequent aftermath of sorting out the boundaries was a nightmare as it only then came to light there was a massive discrepancy. The area of land was only a few square FEET (not meters) but we still had to get my mortgage company involved to release the land from the deeds and change the boundary officially the land registry. My buyer pulled out as it was too complicated. It was a complete nightmare over nothing!

OP - do not give/sell them the land. Especially not for £200. Your mortgage company WILL need to be informed. Tough if the neighbour loses their sale.

We have a set up like you where the neighbours land ended in a point, and ours is wider. Before we moved in (probate) there was only a half built fence because the neighbour didn't want to have a garden that was contained so she used our garden for her views (funnily enough also East Midlands and backs into trees lol) ... we fenced it off because we had a baby and wanted a secure garden for her as she could run onto the road as it was, neighbour was livid but she got over it.
Wothnyour garden though it pinches the end of the garden so it's giving her better land and you worse land IMO.
Whatever you do, listen to the solicitor above and seek advice via mortgage and local solicitor

OP - if you have a mortgage not only will you need their permission to sell, if they grant it they may require you to use some or all of the sum you receive to pay off the principal since your property will be worth less, they may change your terms or increase your interest, you will have to pay tax - possibly capital gains tax on the sum, or if not then at least income tax. I don't think your partner has really thought through the implications. Even if you charge a fair whack you could well end up barely gaining or even worse off, with a devalued property. Your neighbour really is the only one with anything to gain here.

I hope OP can convince DH to keep not sel. It sounds like a lovely area of garden.
Unfortunately neighbours may loose their sale but not OP's fault. Neighbours could have known about this for years and have been keeping stum hoping it would never come to light. CF indeed trying to minimalise the situation and intimidate OP into accepting £200

I wouldn’t sell it. Looking at it again, it would be detrimental to your own sale and garden. Imagine if the new buyers took all the brambles down and built something there. It makes the boundary look uneven 😂 and it takes a whack of your garden! They’d be right at the back of your garden. I’d think about privacy as well. No way.

Land Registry do not give valuations. They only hold previous price paid information. Some one has misinformed you as to where the figure has come from.

It’s very unlikely that the solicitor made a mistake as they never check that what’s on the ground matches the plans. The onus is on the buyer to make sure that the plans they are asked to approve when purchasing match what they’ve agreed to buy. How can the solicitor know where the physical boundary on the ground is?

Land Registry gives out quotes for pieces of land? If so, I would doubt the accuracy.

in the OP’s case, the actual sliver of ground itself is worth about £50 at £11k per acre. It’s 0.0049 acres That’s the price for land which can’t feasibly be developed.

if a small bit of land, even 0.15 of an acre, and there is the prospect of building a house in it then 80k is about right. The OPs piece of land is much, much, much smaller than this and cannot be developed.

if you have a mortgage you would need agreement from the bank to sell as well...

@Westernesse we were looking to buy! We weren't selling (we could do with 80k). We were shocked too but land is very expensive.