How much to pay for land?

[User656789098]

I’ll try to be brief. We have exchanged on a house where half the garden is owned by the property and half leased from the LA. Garden is a long square. We have approached the LA to buy the leased garden, which they have agreed to. During house negotiations we were told by the EA the owner had been quoted £15k to buy the garden. We adjusted our offer accordingly, with a plan to be in process of buying the land as soon as possible after exchange so that we’d be in a position to complete on it with the house.

The LA have come back and quoted a value of £40k! They have also informed me that they have to open bidding on the land to any other interested party. There are several other properties bordering the garden, it would be quite awkward for any of them to incorporate the leased garden into theirs, but they could feasibly do so. Two have small gardens so it could be an attractive idea, I suppose.

The garden cannot be developed so there is no risk there. But I just cannot stomach paying £40k for a patch of garden that is probably not worth anything like that in real terms. If I bid too low and there is another party bidding higher, I’d lose out.

Anyone been in a situation like this before, or any surveyors who could advise here?

Thanks in advance!

If I were you, I'd compile a list of all the houses, and slowly work through them like Poirot, without contacting them. If you were really sneaky, you could approach the remaining people, ask if they were thinking of putting in a bid, making it clear you're going to offer a ludicrously high amount, and hope it puts them off.

Quiteunfit - ha ha! Not a bad idea

The house vendor has got quite annoyed about the whole thing and says we should just bid £15k and be done with it, as he’s certain no one else will bid. That’s what he would have done apparently. I wish he had!