AIBU to turn down developer’s offer of £££ and keep our garden?

[Emelene]

Hi MN. I would appreciate some opinions. We have very recently moved to a village, with an outstanding school, village green out the front and a garden in excess of 100 ft out the back. Our kids are almost 3 and 1 and we see ourselves living here for at least a decade.

The thing is the last owner was intending to sell 60% of the garden to developers, along with the next 3 neighbours along (we are the end plot on the plans). She lost patience and sold the lot to us. Planning permission has finally been granted after previous appeals were turned down.

Under the plans, there would be a house and a half built on our land, so we would be overlooked and lose 60 percent of the garden. We don’t have to sell, but the developers have offered a final offer of £100k. That would pay off about a third of our mortgage. They are pressuring us to make a decision ASAP.

Obviously it’s a huge amount of money and a privileged position to be in … it’s very hard to say no. But. Losing the garden is a high price. We’d planned chickens, Wendy house etc. The house currently feels so peaceful, trees out the back (that would be cut down) and birdsong. So I think it would change the whole feel of our home. But there will be a house built in the neighbour’s garden, so there will be a small element of overlooking…

I’m scared we will regret turning down the money. But our kids are so young and we moved here to give them a wonderful childhood (with a garden!)

So AIBU to turn the developers down and keep the garden? WWYD?

you’re not going to avoid the development, you do realise that don’t you

@Treecreature

Sell it, sell the house and move. If you don't, they will simply change their plans to something smaller. You'll end up living next to a building site and being overlooked either way.

I wondered this. We need to know more about the situation including whether neighbours have already sold. If they have then it’s highly likely the project will go ahead in some form, in which case are you better off having a slice of the pie?

Your house in the area and with that garden you have described sounds idyllic.
If I'm reading your post correctly then you would be left with 40 foot of garden which would change the whole feel and character of your home.

The 100k may reduce your mortgage but the value of your house would drop by x amount too and you would be left with a different house to the one you bought.

How does the last point work with your mortgage company? Your loan to value rate would change if you sold the land and what's to stop you taking the 100k and using it for something other than your mortgage?

Can the development go ahead without your land or given that you are the end is it required for access?
I think you need to know the sums on how this would alter your own house value and whether the remaining sum allows you to jump up the property ladder.
While my inclination would be to say know, you may need to understand that things staying as they are won't necessarily be an option, with because the back of your houses change anyway and your garden ends up overlooked from the side, or because you piss off all the neighbours now planning how to spend the money by halting the development.
It's a tough one because the option you probably want of it all to just go away isn't on the table

Do your neighbours expect to sell land on the back of yours, does it provide access across? If it means more to you than 100k plus overlooking, decline.

I think I'd counter offer that they paid whatever amount is the outstanding mortgage, & if they paid it, sell up & find something else with the attributes you're looking for in a property, location, size, garden etc. With a £300k + deposit, I'm sure you'd find something suitable

100k in my opinion wouldn't be worth it especially if that only clears a 3rd of your mortgage. I would want at least double that and even then would still have my doubts

If you do, never take the first offer, especially if you're the last to sell. It's pretty cheap seeing how much garden privacy you'd lose. Plus the noise, disruption, and general agro that would come with having a new estate literally built in your back yard. Your children wouldn't be able to play out in the remaining 40% during most of that time.

The plot with planning permission is probably likely to increase in value.
Keep the garden and reject the offer.

The builder is doing it to make money and nowadays £100K for a plot is peanuts.

The builder is doing it to make money and nowadays £100K for a plot is peanuts.

Particularly if all the other neighbours have sold and it's the last piece of the jigsaw.

Feck it who cares what the rest of the neighbours think its not your fault that the previous owner lost patience and sold the lot.

£100k is too low. No way would I sell it, your house will more than likley be more valuable due to the garden size compared to the others.

I have a 30ft ish garden with houses at the end but luckily they are to the side so im not overlooked but if there were windows I'd hate it.

Hold your ground sometimes your dreams of wendy house etc are more important than money. You bought the house knowing what you can afford to pay so not much has changed.

Also no way would I want all that building work in my own back garden.

If the developer has you offered you 100 k it will be worth far more. Why not get planning permission yourself for a house that works better for the plot then either build it yourself (for a much bigger profit than 100 k, we made a HUGE profit on our self build) or sell it to someone else for a higher price.

If you have to sell your house in the future, for any reason, having a smaller garden which is overlooked will substantially devalue your house, perhaps by £100,000. You wouldn’t have had the enjoyment of the garden and will be no better off financially.

Depends what you’d do with the extra money each month, not paying that much mortgage.

Hard NO from me. My back garden is 75ft long and about 100ft wide. Absolutely no way would I want another house in it!

Not a chance. We also have a decent sized garden (a little less than 100 foot long) and it was the big selling point of the house for us. No way would I give up the feeling of space, the beautiful trees, the cute shed, the greenhouse/mini garden room we've built ourselves... just no. From what you've said I think you'd regret it.

Turn it down.

People often favour land over property.

You may make £100k but you could lose half of that if you have a pokey little garden and end up having to reduce your selling price.

I imagine if you changed your minds in six months/one year then they'd snatch your hand off.

You're already mortgaged in. Enjoy your garden and buy your chickens.

Surely it depends on how much your house is worth? If it's under about £500k, it can't possibly knock anywhere near £100k off the value of the property for losing just over half of an enormous garden and being overlooked.

Many people would still be happy with the remaining 40+ ft or even prefer it if it's less garden to maintain and put up with being overlooked for £100k.

Of course if the value is in the millions, £100k might indeed be considered 'peanuts'.

You can make the money easily enough but you’d never get the land back

Also, consider the direction of the land and how much natural light will be lost with houses in that part of the garden. You may find that the 40% of garden that you’ll own will be in the shade for a large part of the day.

We’re the corner plot of a cul de sac and essentially have 2 parts to our back garden. One part is east facing, surrounded by dense trees and as it only gets a small amount of sun in the early morning and late evening, we struggled to get grass to grow there. We’ve now built a large shed there so at least we get some use out of it.

Personally, as lovely as the chunk off your mortgage would be, I wouldn’t sell. We have a 3yr old and it’s so nice to have a big garden that he’ll enjoy for years to come.

It would knock £100k off your mortgage, but it would also drastically lower your property value, so not exactly a win, possibly even evens out in the end, except you would now have a much smaller, overlooked garden. Don't do it.

I think a lot of posters are missing the point that the building work will likely happen regardless and that there is still a good chance the OP will end up overlooked at the end of the process without actually having any tangible benefit.

A relative did this & it worked out well.
It was 110k about 6 yrs ago & they still kept 70% of their garden. In London so overlooking is normal

I'd keep the garden every time. It will impact the value of the property anyway.

I wouldn't even consider it tbh.

You'd have no control over what is built and it may end up bigger/taller than currently planned.

There was disruption but no different & further away to a neighbour doing work.