To ask my neighbours to sell me their garage?

[ElleDubloo]

I want to buy my neighbours’ garage. It’s next to my house. They don’t use it but they probably store some stuff in it. Would it be rude to just knock on their door and ask?

Definitely a note rather than knocking.

If they decline to sell (no harm in asking but I wouldn't sell if I were your neighbour for lots of reasons) and you just want to build a double garage would it not be easier to build into your garden area on the side of your existing garage? Probably a lot cheaper too.

I think it’s absolutely fine to ask, as long as you’re not pushy. They might be thrilled!

Many thanks everyone! So the consensus is a polite note, which I’ll go with!

@GnomeDePlume Lovely wording, very much appreciated

I wouldnt mention renting as to me renting from/letting to is a very different proposition buying/selling. Questions of maintenance, termination of agreement, what happens if current owners sell etc.

Buy/sell is a one shot done deal. There is absolutely no harm in asking.

If they come back with a straight 'No' then smile and perhaps leave it with a No problem, thank you for letting us know, dont hesitate to let us know if you do change your minds in the future.

Dont be surprised if their initial response is 'No' but then they think about it and want to explore it.

Equally, dont be surprised if a 'we'll think about it' turns into a 'No' if it turns out not to be worth as much as they hope.

Are they keen gardeners? I personally wouldn't sell it because I'd be using it as a shed but maybe they'd appreciate the money.

@GnomeDePlume

We are thinking of possibly doing similar at some point.

I would phrase it something like:

Dear Mr & Mrs Neighbours

'We would be interested in buying your garage and driveway from you if you were interested in selling it to us.

Our plan would be to construct a double garage and driveway to replace the existing garages and driveways.

If we were to explore the possibility of this, all valuation, land registry and legal fees would be met by us'

Please dont hesitate to contact us if you would like any more information before making a decision

Kind regards

ElleDubloo
Your address

Putting in your message what your plan for the garage is and who would pay for the costs involved plus leaving it open for them to ask more questions may reassure them that they are not going to be railroaded into a decision.

I think @GnomeDePlume has written you a brilliant note. I'd use that,

It's not rude to ask politely.

Good luck, sounds like a great plan!

@ElleDubloo good luck!

I would be very interested to hear how you get on. We are thinking about possibly making a similar offer to our neighbours.

If I were them, I'd be suspicious you might want to knock down both garages and get planning permission for a house on the plot.
Or to sell the land with outline planning permission.

Yes, just ask them,especially if you know them quite well. and they know you are not some dodgy person, who might wan't to store something dodgy in the garage.

In our last house, we had a smallish garden. Next door house was the same as ours but they had their garden then the back quarter of ours. So like an upside down L shape. They never used the bit that went behind our garden and in fact had fenced it off. The piece of land was a bit smaller than a garage + drive and we offered 25k . We didn’t get it though as one of the estate agents told them it added 10% to their house value (50k) so they wanted 50k for it. It wouldn’t have added 50k to our house (this was bizarrely agreed by same EA ) so we didn’t get it. It would have ended up costing us closer to 30k with solicitors fees etc. This was 15yrs ago. This is just to give you an idea of costs I guess but it will obviously depend on the value of both your homes.

This is going to be a very expensive double garage.

Surveyor for title - £2k
solicitors - £2k
cost of garage (if 10% ) - £30k
architects and planning £1k
Demolition £4k
New double garage £20k
plus double electric door £3k
new driveway £3k

Are you sure your not thinking of knocking them down to build another house?

If there is room for those two garages plus a small part of your garden to become a plot fit building in if this is your goal then be upfront with them from the off rather that pretending you want to build a garage. We personally saw right through our neighbour who suggested something similar to us and it definitely soured the relationship (even further... but that’s a different land grabbing bastard issue).

@GnomeDePlume Will do, thanks! And good luck with your project too!

As you can probably tell, I don’t really have a concept of how much this will all cost. If it turns out to be too much, we’ll just abandon the idea and move to a bigger house. But I really love our current location so it’ll be wonderful if we could stay.

@fruitbrewhaha
Oh wow, I wouldn’t want to live in a house that would fit into the footprint of a double garage. And I wouldn’t want one of those in my back garden either What a horrible thing to suggest.

First of all, ask if you can rent it . Once you're renting it, ask if you can buy.

I think fruit's costs are a bit on the steep side. Though it possibly depends on area. In my area the conveyancer would possibly be no more than £1500 in total. I wouldn't use an architect for a straightforward garage. Demolition costs will depend on what is currently there.

All in all, a lot of build cost will depend on how much work you are prepared to do yourselves. One of the big advantages with this sort of project is that site access is very straightforward. DH dug out for the footings of our extension by hand because it wasn't going to be possible to get a digger in. This alone saved us around £1k on build cost.

If they have a mortgage they are probably not allowed to sell the garage to you without a new mortgage, new title deeds etc etc.

I’d strongly advise your neighbours not to sell
It’s much more than a garage
It’s the land the garage sits upon that’s got a value and potential to add value to their own home should they knock down garage and extend
When they sell the garage has an additional value to potential home buyers

We wanted to buy a piece of land belonging to our neighbour which had her garage on. We knew her well and had a good relationship with her so we just asked her. She refused, but had no problem with us asking.

Some ridiculous pedantry on this thread. Of course the OP isn’t wanting to buy the neighbour’s garage, it’s pretty obvious she means the land. But if petty point scoring is your bag then go for it.

Sale of garage prob involves land registry & change of deeds etc

[quote ElleDubloo]@ElderMillenial Presumably the garage has a door opening into their garden. They don’t use the driveway. It’s an awkward position for them if they did.[/quote]
If they store their things that means they use it. If they have access from the garden you might bot see it.

Agree with others that it's fine to ask as long as you're not too pushy. Neighbours of an elderly relative of mine asked if they could buy her garage a year or so ago. We politely declined. Relative has now passed away and they've approached us twice about it in the last few weeks. It's been borderline aggressive. And no acknowledgement that we're grieving. They even called the estate agent who is handling the house sale to see if he could help persuade us.

Solicitors won’t cost £2,000 - likely around £500 each for both parties, if the transaction is straightforward.

There’s no way you could build a house on that space - no LA would pass consent, and why would you want to lose your own driveway and garage? I have a double garage and there’s no way I’d want to live on such a tiny parcel, and lose my driveway.

I would put a note through the door, ask if they ever consider selling their garage or indeed renting it out to you then please get in touch.

Non confrontational. But leaves options