letter to neighbours asking to buy some of their land

[herhonesty]

so this is something i've been meaning to do for ages. next door garden owns random slip of land across back of our garden which is fairly inconsequential to there garden (about 10% and they are getting old and struggling to look after the rest) but would add quite a lot to our garden. motivation for doing thisnow is that house which borders strip of land on the other side at back is for sale and i want to make sure we have expressed an interest first in case new buyers do the same. so does this seem suitable??

Dear *

We are writing to express our interest in purchasing two pieces of land from your estate. I have marked these on the attached ordinance survey extract but in summary, the first is the strip of garden that runs across the back of our garden and the garages owned by ?* Terrace?, the second is a small strip approximately 1 metre wide running along the side of ?our house? from the rear of ?our house? to ?*Lane.? We are interesting in the first piece of land to increase the size of our own garden, and in the second, to enable us to secure access to this side of our property for maintenance purposes. We have no interest whatsoever in building on this land either now or in the future and would reflect a ?no build? clause in the transfer deeds if required.

We understand you have received an offer from an interested party for the land at the rear for a sum you considered insignificant, and whilst we have no specific figure in mind at this point, it would reflect your loss of amenity and the value that you put on the land. Any sum agreed would exclude your costs and we would cover these in addition (e.g legal costs, transfer of fencing, plants etc) to the sum agreed.

We recognise that this offer may be somewhat of a surprise and perhaps something you would not consider at this point in time, but if circumstances were to change and you would consider selling the land, please keep us in mind.

Kind regards

I'd go and speak to them first - the letter is very formal, which is all well and good, but I think they would appreciate a chat first about your intentions and your plans, then maybe follow up with a formal letter.

Goodness, just knock on their door!

Oh yes I'm going round, don't worry! But wanted to leave something behind- I suspect they'll want to discuss with their daughter who lives away.

It's well-written but as others have said, very very formal. It would put me off to be honest. I think you should leave that level of formality to your solicitor (if you involve one).
You risk coming across as intimidating, particularly if the neighbour/their daughter are not used to receiving letters as formal. Leaving the marked up plans & your phone number would be sufficient to my mind.

to give an idea of cost, we paid 15K for a strip of garden land measuring about 50 ft by 30 ft. A number of estate agents said that seemed to be about the going rate for garden land which was inconsequential to the original owner's property.

good luck!

Thanks tedglenn, whereabouts in the country are you. Yes I suppose it is quite formal, I think i wrote it that way because they are very formal. He's in his 70s ex army, chair of local tory party sort of thing. Will try and tone down.

I think if you go and see them first and and have a friendly chat, then leave them the letter explaining it's a formal expression of interest and you want this all to be done legally for their and your security, it would be fine. But I am sure their first question is going to be 'how much are you thinking of' and that will have a big impact on their decision, so best to have a rough figure in mind.

we (were) in Ilkley, West Yorkshire at the time (5 years ago).

So I know he was offered 5k a few years ago. Which he thought was ridiculous, and when I mentioned it in passing I suspect he thought I was fishing for a similar amount. But it wasn't an outright no. Instictively in mind I have 40k which is about the value I think it would to our house.

DH has just confirmed it was 40 ft x 40 ft.

To arrive at a value, you need to consider how much it is worth to you, and how much to them. The 15K we paid was on a house worth 500K (after extension) and increased the size of our back garden by a third. We considered it would definitely add 15k worth of value when it came to selling, as it privided a much nicer 'setting' for the house (and enabled us to do the extension without compromising the garden space).

And our neighbour already had 2/3 acre garden, the land was access through a gate for him, and he couldn't see it from his house.

Dear X

Further to our conversation today, I would be very grateful if you would consider selling us your pieces of land that runs across the back of our garden. I would like to reiterate that we want to own this land only to extend our garden - as you know we have x children and they would appreciate more outdoor space [or whatever the reason is] and we have no plans to build on it. We would be prepared to add a covenant to the deeds prohibiting this if you wanted it [if you would be prepared to do this].

I do not know what the land is worth and, at this stage, simply want to express my interest in order that you can consider the matter. If you did decide to sell to us, we would hope to make the process as painless as possible for you by paying your legal fees, sorting out the fencing ourselves, moving any plants you wished to keep etc.

We completely understand if you do not wish to sell to us at this time but, should you wish to at any point in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us about it.

Yours

herhonesty

40K seems high to me, but of course it depends on how big the plot of land is, and where you are in the country and how scarce large gardens are.

How would the value of his house be affected if he didn't have the land? If it is negligible in terms how much his house would sell for with and without the land (which it sounds like it is if it is only 10% of his garden) then IMO 40K sounds too much - the value lies somewhere between what it is worth to your house (40K) and what it is worth to his house when he comes to sell (0-10K?) but needs to be an attractive enough 'chunk' of cash to make it worthwhile him appointing a solicitor and going through the motions (which I agree, 5K isn't!).

@herhonesty - just curious i know this was many years ago. Did you get to buy the land?

Also curious here! Perhaps a new thread is needed.