Anyone else had this before? Option agreement to purchase your house

[ParvuliThankYouDebbie]

Has anyone ever had anything like this before? I’ve just received a solicitors’ letter, on behalf of their client, asking for an Option to Purchase Freehold.

Their client is named, and their full contact details are included - I’ve checked and they own a development company, all above board and registered at companies house, looks like a successful business. The solicitor is a well regarded company.

The letter outlines the agreement would be an option to purchase within 12 months and we wouldn’t have to move until we had found and completed on a property, all our fees would be covered by the purchaser and the offer will be a ‘significant uplift’ on the current value.

I’ve had plenty of estate agent fishing letters before, ‘we have people in the area interested in your property’ type letters, and also had a personal letter put through the door expressing a wish to buy our house but never had or seen anything like this. Is it common?

I did spot someone quite clearly scoping out the house a couple of weeks back and I was sort of expecting something like this (or to be burgled 😐) but I thought it would be the usual estate agent letter.

Just interested if this has happened to anyone else and if so, did you go ahead with it?

My parents did this. It worked brilliantly - they hadn’t really thought about moving until they got the letter but it pushed them to downsize at a great time in their lives. They had all their moving costs covered and it was as stress-free a move as I have ever seen. The developer popped a new small house on the end of their garden then resold their house

The PP beat me to it.

Is your house unusual in any way, have a large garden or block the way into an undeveloped but otherwise inaccessible plot of land?

Well we are seriously considering downsizing but only within the next five years. Both our DDs will be off to Uni this year and the house and land is huge and probably stupidly big (and expensive to maintain) for just two of us. But were going to wait til they’d finished Uni to make a final decision. They clearly think they’ll get a few houses built on the land, I’d feel weird about that tbh, but being realistic, whenever we sold that would probably happen in the area we’re in. I don’t think this will prompt me to consider moving sooner because we’ve got a ‘plan’ we’d spent time considering. It has made me think I need to get the house properly valued though, I’ve not really got any idea at the moment of what it might be worth.

It’s a big house and a big bit of land. We’re what I suppose would be called semi rural, right on the edge of a seaside town as it trails off in to farm land. But also we’ll connected as very near to the major A road and walking distance to the train station that has a fast line in to London. Everywhere around here is rapidly being developed (local plan is for 33,000 more houses before 2040) so planning wouldn’t be an issue for them.

My husband's grandmother had this, the farm behind her garden was sold for development and they wanted her large plot to expand the development. She said no and they actually got quite nasty: letters every single week, phone calls and knocking on the door. It was all quite unpleasant and she ended up reporting it to the police as harassment, she's a lady in her 80s living alone and they were getting very intimidating. And all it did was convince her she'd done the right thing in saying no. Hopefully you won't have a similar experience, but just a warning that some developers have some quite unpleasant tactics when they really want the land

We're dealing with option agreements currently to buy land for development. Basically we are paying for the right to purchase the land for a number of years. In our case it will definitely go through at some point but be aware that an option agreement does not guarantee they will purchase but you can't sell to anyone else in that time so if anything were to happen you could potentially be stuck.

satelliteheart
Yes, I had considered that tbh, let’s hope not.

BaronessEllarawrosaurus
Yes I considered that too, this one is a 12 month option - is that standard?

It may be more than house value but wont be more than the value of the land with planning.

If you are considering this then get the council round to explore the planning potential for a pre application (free to about £400 depending on location). If it is viable then appoint your own independent land agent

It may be more than house value but wont be more than the value of the land with planning

Yes, makes sense. In all honesty if we were to be selling (and I know you shouldn’t be sentimental about it) but I’d be selling it in the hope it would be a lovely family home with the outside space to be enjoyed by a family as we have enjoyed it. I very much doubt I’d be looking to sell with planning when the time comes, though realistically there would be plenty of buyers looking with that intention I guess. Anyway, almost certain we aren’t interested at this moment in time (if it had been in four years time possibly would have been).

When you are each to sell get planning
the lovely family either wont exist (will be a front) or will flip it to a builder

😂 undoubtedly.

To add;

Anyone can get planning on your land, they dont need to own it
As I found out when a surveyor was in my garden 1 morning (he had been asked by client to investigate the likelihood of planning on it)

There was something like this on TV the other night. Couple agreed to sell but woman became ill so they gave notice they didn’t want to proceed. Woman died and it was a few years later the man decided to sell. His solicitor then found the “option to buy “ company still had first option on their house—- at the price agreed years before (25k under present value) They said the owner could buy out of this at £30k so he had to sell his house cheap.
Get legal advice before you sign anything. In my experience if it looks too good to be true, there’s a catch.

Oh don’t worry I’m not going to be signing up for anything. I’m not ready to sell. However it has prompted a discussion with DH. We do now wonder if this plot is worth more than we thought, we’re going to get it valued just to see what we’re dealing with now. Also, as pp said, I’m wondering also if we’re going to get harried by the potential buyer and/or their representatives. Don’t worry though, I can deal with that.