Is selling your garden off a good idea?

[wateraddict]

Hi wise mumsnetters. I have an older relative who has a huge garden and it's getting a bit much to handle. See 1 in diagram for their house. At the end of their garden is the back of another house with a much smaller plot of land, number 2. The neighbour has written to my relative offering a sum of money to formally buy the end of their garden and move the fence to a new agreed boundary.

They are keen to retain the value of their property but can see the benefit in terms of workload for them. The garden is laid out in such a way that you cannot see the end of the garden as structures half way down block this view from the house, so it would look no different on first glance. Pending formal valuation of the land, if they pay a fair price and instate a fence to a new agreed border as per the diagram, would this be a good idea?

I would be grateful for your opinions and any tips for things to look out for. I think in all honesty my relative will need to move house in the short to medium term so is it better to sell with a garden that matches the immediate neighbours?

Thanks in advance

She can stipulate that a fee, which is usually a percentage, is paid on the value of any house sold on built on the land or part of. If they just want the land as garden it won't come into play.

She can stipulate the height any fence, trees or border to protect her privacy and who is responsible for its maintenance.

She needs to protect herself and the property for the future.

Equally she could rent the land out for £1 or other amount until it is required to sell the house. She needs some advice to safeguard herself and make a formal agreement

*Myomy
*
Why would you not have it for the house if you used it for part of the garden? (Selling the garden first and assuming one home, lives in it etc)?

Because you probably won’t persuade HMRC to let you have it twice on what is essentially the same residence but on which there are two sales. If CGT is payable, pay it on the land, not the main residence, but take financial advice. It could possibly be avoided but it needs to be looked at. This is why renting it or leasing it out it is better.

Ok I'm surprised at that but it's a decade since I practised so will assume you are more recently informed.

AccountingWeb suggests it's likely to be tax free though.

Sounds like the neighbour wants to sell their house but have been told that they would get more money if they had more land. Most people don't go around buying extra garden space so they can have a bit more sunbathing room or plant more flowers 😂.

Wow everyone thanks so so much for all your thoughts, these are so helpful.

I was not on last night as we took a family bike ride for Father's Day so I will read properly today and reply accordingly!

@Auty123

Sounds like the neighbour wants to sell their house but have been told that they would get more money if they had more land. Most people don't go around buying extra garden space so they can have a bit more sunbathing room or plant more flowers 😂.

Of course they do! I’m a keen gardener and already have a reasonably sized garden, but I would love to buy 40-50 feet of the garden behind ours. I’d like a decent veg patch and perhaps another greenhouse. Oh, and chickens.

Their garden is huge, and I doubt it would affect the value of their house.

I wouldn’t consider leasing the extra land as the legal costs and costs of fencing the land in would be quite high and I would be spending money on getting it how I wanted it. I would be happy for a no-build clause being attached to the sale, provided it didn’t exclude greenhouses, chicken coops etc.

I haven’t approached them as I suspect the land would be expensive and the times are somewhat uncertain, but I might in the future.

We bought some land from a neighbour (quite a wide strip along side our garden) and the seller had a covenant in the agreement that in the future it could never be sold separately from our house. I think this was to ensure that we couldn't sub-divide the the plot.

I think some people are jumping to conclusions. From your map it looks unlikely that the neighbours want this for development purposes but rather because their garden is too small for their house. In this case the transfer would probably add more to the value of their house than it would detract from yours and hence a sale might be in your interests. Lots of variables though including possibility of future development, tax and need for money now. A lease might be the safer option you.

There isn't a chance that the interested party have approached other neighbours to try and amalgamate several small pieces of land into a plot big enough for a new house?

A lease is a good idea. Tabling that option as a potential way forward will give an insight into whether the buyer just wants a bigger garden to enjoy, or has other plans.

Good idea if it really is a very large garden IMO, but OTOH I’d def. want a covenant to ensure that they couldn’t build another house on it later.

A lot of old bungalows did have huge plots. A GM of mine had lived since before WW2 in a 1920s bungalow which was sold to developers in the late 1970s (when she was in her 80s). Six or eight - I forget which - fairly substantial houses were quickly built on that plot.

Unless she really really needs the money then I wouldn't do it. If the garden is too much to handle, she could either screen off the bit of the garden which is hard work or offer to let the people behind use it on an annual licence.

Aside the neighbours potentially building on it, what would she feel if it then gave them room for a huge trampoline which would then be so much closer to her boundary.

It completely depends on the size and area.

When I was 11 we lived in a bungalow with a large garden. My parents sold off a section and another bungalow was built on it - they knew it would be built on but the access came from elsewhere and they didn't care about it. It didn't affect the value significantly because it still had a generous garden.

Another example is my mum lives in a small bungalow. She didn't know, when she bought it, that it has a garage in a block around the corner (or only found out when she read the legal documents). She doesn't need the garage so she sold it. The value of her bungalow is unaffected.

You need local estate agent advice.

No.

Leasing may lead to complications if you ever try to sell the house, and you may not like what they do with the land if you sell it. It looks like a prime spot to build something like an outside office or similar. And your parents may not endear themselves to their neighbours if they sell 25% of their garden.

I'd ask an estate agent's advice about how it would affect the value of your home, the neighbours' thoughts about how they would feel, and a lawyer's advice about putting covenants in the sale to prevent any substantial buildings being erected on the spot.

Hi everyone,

Such fab advice here, thanks. Sex pond made me giggle!!

The house at the back is almost as wide as the plot (please forgive my drawing!) and the extra garden would not enable a new house unless the neighbour knocked down the existing one. Not expecting any dramas and the reason they state they want the land is for a larger garden. They are in their 60s and kids all grown up and gone. A covenant is a great thought.

An estate agent valued the property fairly recently and does not consider the sale of the land to affect the value which is interesting. Time to get a second opinion.

We are checking the process that would need to be followed and the current position on fees and capital gains tax before making a decision.

Thanks so much x