Do you think my neighbour will sell me this piece of land? WITH DIAGRAM

[SNAMES]

Neighbours house and garage/driveway is pink, mine is blue. The brown line is a wall that separates their front and back garden and joins onto my garage.

Neighbour has quite a large front garden that is to the side of their house. I’ve never seen them in this section of garden.
A metre of this would allow me to fit an extra car on my driveway.

Do you think it’s worth approaching them about?
I would say it’s about 4.5m squared of land that we would like to buy (about 1.5mx3M).

How much would this typically be worth? Both houses are worth between 700-800k.

The piece of land I’d like to buy is the bit I’ve highlighted in yellow!

You could ask them , then get an evaluation if they agree I. Theory .

It will be worth what ever your neighbours decide it’s worth if they want to sell it. The fact it will give you additional access will in all likelihood mean they put a premium on it. They may not want to sell as they may in the future decide to make it hard standing for themselves if they have children etc who will in time want their own cars and a parking space. Future purchasers of their home might also find it a little odd if there is a piece of garden “missing” .

if you already get on well with your neighbours then I'd say it's worth speaking to them about it and as suggested, get a proper valuation

We have sold similar in the past. The land agent worked out the value, per square foot, by working out the value it would add to the buyers house. Don’t expect it to be cheap, and expect to pay the sellers legal and professional fees plus new fencing/boundary.
Our buyers paid about £200 a square foot 20 plus years ago, so a fair bit higher than that I’d guess!
Remember you are asking to buy something they don’t necessarily want to sell so your offer needs to be tempting!

It wouldn’t look odd, if anything, the current set up is a bit odd. The house probably angles more towards the other way than what I’ve drawn it and the bit of garden is quite behind the house.

I can see no pink, blue or yellow in your diagram?

They might refuse on the basis their boundary is going to have a dog-leg in it; maybe also consider offering to buy the whole strip to the rear boundary. If they are amenable, it won't be cheap.

Edit - typo.

Do you get on well with them? Are they approachable? Do you have a 'case' that could help persuade them?

Is not having the extra space causing problems for you? Is your request reasonable? e.g. are you having to park your second car in the street, do you have to carry your infant triplets from one end of the steet to your house? Is your problem causing knock on problems for your neighbour (or will they be unaffected either way)? Does this then mean there is less street parking space available for their visitors? I appreciate your diagram is not to scale but it looks like their driveway is smaller than yours. Do they have room to extend their own driveway if they needed to?

However, if you want to extend your driveway to park your caravan or campervan, or to set up a business selling cars, or for your petrol-head teenagers to rev their motorbikes...

Also, their driveway can already fit 6 cars on it, so I don’t think there would be an issue with them potentially wanting it for parking themselves.

Specsavers? 😉😅

I've been asked about selling part of my back garden previously. Its understandable they asked due to the layout but I have no interest whatsoever in any of the hassle involved.

Any amount of money that would make me interested would definitely be a waste for the neighbour and they'd be better off moving.

That said, your neighbours may not be as lazy as me so its worth asking!

Just because if we have any visitors, they have to park on the street.

my diagram’s scale isn’t right - their driveway is actually a lot longer than ours.

Just think it through. If they say no will that affect your relationship with them in the future. Are you ok with that?

If it were me I'd only consider selling if you made it seriously worth my while to do so. So if they say yes they might be asking for a £ number disproportionate to the area. Like tens of thousands.

Finally if they have a mortgage then that will be a complicating factor. Not impossible but more complex. I am assuming you'd also pay their legal fees.

A better idea might be seeking to agree that at your cost you tarmac the additional area and that you draw up at your cost a proper legal agreement allowing you to use it with their consent but acknowledging that they can change their minds at any time. Maybe you offer to pay £500 a year too. They might well still say no but I think this stands a better chance of success and would be cheaper for you if they agreed.

Would it be cheaper than demolishing your garage and moving it backwards ?

Also, wouldn't it be a bit awkward to get a car on and off the new strip ? You are only supposed to drive a car over a pavement with a dropped curb.

Alternatively, move the crap out of the garage and put it in a shed in the garden. Then park in the garage, freeing up an extra space in front of it.

As long as you’re happy to hear no.

Also if they have a mortgage I’m pretty sure they wont be allowed to anyway as mortgage companies don’t tend to like people selling off their land.

I wouldn’t because it’s just effort to legally change and maybe one day I’ll do something with that land. Maybe I’ll long term park a caravan on it I don’t want to look at. Maybe a side extension or another stand alone garage/work shop/saloon/nail bar.

I know a few parents who have let their children operate a business out of their converted garages.

There’s zero benefit to your neighbours but a lot of effort / mental load. So unless you’re paying $$$ their default is clearly going to be no.

you’d be expected to do all the work with boundaries and pay for valuation, surveyors fees and legal fees on top of what you paid them for it.

Are you a dog?

More seriously, you need to do a clourblindness test or check your screen settings.

How much are you thinking of offering?

I think I’d want tens of thousands to even consider selling; the hassle now and in future could be significant, including needing a new mortgage.

I think you can ask but I think they'll want a big amount to make it worth their while.
You could ask a local estate agent how much it would add to the value of your home

You can ask, asking is free. but you have to be prepared for the answer. Do you think a no will sour relationship with neighbours? Do you care?

If it was me I would say no. I would envision issues for selling my property in the future, I would worry reducing garden might make house less desirable etc...
Whilst I was.livong.there I would be valuing the space that separated our properties. In short it would have to be really silly money to even make me think about it. But I wouldn't be offended you asked. Other people might be only you know your neighbours