Anyone sold to a developer?

[Greengrassofdome]

We moved about 100 miles away at the end of last year to a lovely tourist area near the sea. We wanted to be here to apply for secondary and ended up renting before our house purchase went through. We've bought a big house from an older couple which hasn't been changed in 30 years. Yesterday I had a call from the estate agent selling next door to say it's being sold to a developer who will build retirement flats which will be 3 storeys high and they might like to buy our house as well. Anyone been in this position? We don't want to live next to a massive building site, or a huge retirement flat complex but the money they've hinted at so far wouldn't get us the same size house in such a good location in our town, and I love our house and garden :( What do we do? Is there any way to work out how much the land might be worth or would we have any chance of getting planning permission denied?

Hi Greengrass. We are going through a similar thing at the moment except we had been in our house 3 years and lived through a huge extension when it happened!

I had a thread on here because we were reluctant to sell. We've decided to sell now because we were offered 600k over the valuation of our house and it became too much to turn down. We held out for a long time as we were so happy in our house and even with that sum probably won't find what we have here again in such a good location.

We consulted an architect about what could be built next door and in our area they can only build out to a line 45 degrees from your back window so that might give you an idea of scale. They would be likely to get planning for 3 floors where we are and we looked at a similar build locally which had been approved to get an idea. It might be possible for you to do the same?

I bet there's room for a lot more negotiation on price yet. We were originally offered a much lower amount and we've pushed them up by 425k from that figure. We are also getting a lot more money than our neighbours who had their house on the market and were approached by the developers. They are getting about 100k more than the valuation to make up for the delays as sale is conditional on getting planning. We were in a better position to negotiate as we didn't want to move.

Thanks Mad, we only got the phone call on Wednesday (the day we finished our new bathroom) so my head is still spinning at the moment. Their initial figures are around 25% above market value, so it's a lot of money but there's all the costs and hassle of moving to think about. The estate agent has suggested we meet with the developers to talk things through so we'll do that. I just thought we'd be in this house for a really long time and this has come out of the blue - still I need to remember it's a nice problem to have. I am desperate to get everything sorted so we know where we're going to be. There are loads of things with the house we're not going to do just yet like replacing the windows as I guess if we sell to the developer they're not going to give us any more money because the windows are new. How long has the whole process taken and when did you know for certain that the sale would go through? I'm not good with uncertainty and this is driving me mad already!

We recently sold our house and huge garden to a developer, we had obtained full planning because our neighbours had done the same, the neighbours either side had sold and were built on.

We had massive noise problems from one side.

We got about £100k over what we would have done for just the house.

Get out before the problems and the building starts.

It's going to be a very long process for us. We first heard in Feb and have been in negotiation since then. It's with solicitors now and we will sign up for up to 17 months while they attempt to get planning. If they don't get it the sale doesn't go ahead.
We will therefore be in a long period of uncertainty. Our house isn't finished so unfortunately we will just have to live like this until we know for definite what's happening. We will just declutter in the meantime as we need to do this anyway and keep an eye on the market. I know how you feel as I just want to be settled but I've come to terms with it now.
In your position I think it's less risky to move!

Why do you assume they would get planning permission? If the proposed building is significantly different in style and height to the others on your street there's a good chance it won't. (If you put in an objection, that is.)
You can also object on the grounds of overlooking, loss of privacy etc.
Contact your local councillor to see where they stand on the issue. Councillors usually have lots of experience of objecting to planning applications.
You could also get an independent planning advisor to give you some advice and help you prepare an objection.

It's a fairly main road and there is already a big retirement flat complex at one end, then 4 detached houses one our side. Two of the houses are selling to the developers, one is in talks - all of them have been here for thirty years and are older and wanting to downsize. Sadly more retirement flats won't be totally out of character for the road. At the moment I'm thinking we will take the money and start again. We have 4 children, 2 of them autistic and my DH is not well at the moment. The last thing we need is to be fighting planning permission for something that will probably go ahead anyway.

Tell the developer you want double the market value. If you're the last hold-out on your street it could be worth it to them!

Do they need your house for the development? If so you are in a much stronger position. I guess you must have otherwise they wouldn't wanrt to buy the house.

You need to check whether you have the benefit of any enforceable covenants.if so you can effectively ransom them

You need to get planning advice and advise from a property solicitor.

madyogafan do you mind telling me how much more as a percentage the developers paid for your house above market rate? It's early days but initial figures are 25% above the value of our house, which sounds like loads of money but a lot of that would be taken up with stamp duty and other fees of buying another house. I can't believe you're in for nearly 18 months of uncertainty, that's so annoying.
I need to arrange a meeting with the developers to get more information. I guess their stance would be that our house is not necessary for the development as it's the end house, but that could be a negotiation tactic? I'm pretty sure the building will go ahead without our plot and that it would be a nice added extra.
I will definitely go and get proper legal advice and talk to someone about possible value of our plot. At the moment I've got very carried away imagining buying a very nice house with a pool that's for sale round the corner :)

At the moment I've got very carried away imagining buying a very nice house with a pool that's for sale round the corner

Good on you! Good luck!

Are they saying they want to buy your house outright? That would be unusual if they haven't already got planning.

If they haven't got planning they will probably want an option agreement which gives them the option to buy but they don't have to. Typically lasts for a couple of years with extensions built in for planning etc. They should pay your legal fees and you need to get enough of an option fee upfront not just £1.

Please go to a specialist development solicitor not just a run of the mill conveyancer.

We have been offered approx 80% over the market value after a lot of negotiation. We were the end house too and they led us to believe there would be a build with or without us although towards the end we felt they really needed our house so perhaps that was not the case!
We held out and were willing to walk away if the price wasn't right because our house has a lot of features we will not find again so it's more valuable to us than it's actual value.
We are thinking about retirement and decided we wanted a 200k profit (to use for retirement plans)to compensate for all the inconvenience on top of all the moving costs (including possibly having to rent for a while) and cost of the new place. We put this to the developer and eventually they increased to the value we would accept.

Good luck!

I actually sold for 17.6% above market value. There had been many offers and plans over years for higher amounts that didn't work out. It took 3 years for the developer to successful getting planning permission and serve notice so during that time we lived in limbo knowing we were probably going to go, but not able to actually look for another house.
There have been good things about it and bad things.

Just a thought as well it has been known that a developer puts a house under option when they have no intention of buying it. The reason is that in the option agreement the landowner will be contractually bound to not object to the palnning application or raise covenant issues.

The developer gets planning without a neighbouring objection/covenant issue being raised. They can then get I siramce if necessary and the development can go ahead.

I met with the developer last week and was a bit confused on purpose to give out mixed messages (did not mention my pre-children career as a negotiator 😄). The estate agent selling next door phoned this morning with an offer from the developers for 23% above market value. I think they may be very keen, the meeting was just for me to find out what they were planning to build and possible timescales - there was no mention of us deciding to sell. The estate agent said he had an offer for me "at last" when I wasn't really expecting one for ages, very strange! I've turned down the offer but it's looking good if that's their opening offer. We've decided if they're going to go through all the hassle of planning permission and architects they may as well increase their profits by increasing the plot.