Do we sell to a developer?

[DellaDella]

A few months ago we moved into a house that needs a lot of work but is in a great location, catchment of a good school , 5 minutes to town and big garden. A developer is now buying the houses next to us to build flats and have made us an offer. It's above the market value but still wouldn't be enough to get us what we already have. Are we crazy to even consider this offer? Last spoke to them 3 weeks ago when they made their 'best and final offer' and I'm trying not to sound desperate so haven't phoned them back but what's the next step? Our kids have special needs and will not cope with building works next door for months and months so we need to sell, but we also want to buy a house better than we have already if we're going to go through all the hassle of moving again.

Could you get the developer to pay for you to rent somewhere during their build

• and do your house at the same time

with you and the kids living in a quiet house nearby
and all of the builders free to get on with their work

it might be a good solution
and the builders might be well up for that .....
just a thought ?

The builders aren't going to pay for her to rent elsewhere, why would they possibly do that?

Op it's a tough one, 30 percent above market value is a decent offer. They may go a bit further, or they may have been serious when they said it was final.

If you really can't find another home in your price range, even with the 30 percent more money, then you'll need to stay put. There isn't really another option I don't think.

The issue with the kids and the work you want to do in your home is something you'd have encountered anyway.

They went up another £20k yesterday and it sounded like that was their final offer. If we could buy another house there's no question that we would accept the offer but we made a really good buy at the edge of the school catchment area and can't afford to live further into catchment to get what we currently have. There's a 4 bedroom house for sale with pink carpets throughout and kitchen/bathrooms from the 90s, or possibly older, for sale at £1.6 million.

It sounds like you are lucky enough to already have your dream house - maybe you only got it at the price you did because that development was going to go ahead.

This may be harsh but when you try to 'take' more than is right you can end up feeling aggrieved even when things are looking good.

They could have been building things plenty worse than a retirement home.

Perhaps begin to see the benefits of where you are instead.

Just decline then op and move on with getting your stuff done.

The builders aren't going to pay for her to rent elsewhere, why would they possibly do that?
Because its a LOT cheaper for them than buying her house
and guarantees no noise complaints during their build

I think you're maybe confused. They don't have to buy her house, they only want to do so to knock it down and build on it.

And part of the whole planning permission thing is they are allowed to build and make the associated building noises.

They have no need to waste money on renting for her. There is absolutely nothing in it for them in doing so.

I guess you need to just go back to them and explain that in all honesty it isn't enough to buy an equivalent home in the area you need to live in. You could even send them the catchment area and ask if the know of any properties available that are equivalent.

When will you be applying for schools for your DC? If one of them is starting next year you could sell but on the condition that you stay in the house until school places are allocated. In some places siblings get priority over non siblings in catchment, so that could be a solution as your other DC would be likely to get a place even after you moved. You would need to check the admission criteria very carefully though.

I have sold to a developer in the past. What deal are they offering?
The most likely they will want you to sign an option at this point that allows you only to sell to them whilst they obtain planning permission. The option will list back stop dates that say how long after obtaining permission they have to exercise their option.
In my case we were several houses on slightly different option agreements although ultimately it was all flats all the options were on slightly different planning permissions. The first haze of building started just before my option was exercised. The final option was exercised 18 months after building started.
You need to be really clear what you are entering into to as your children could end up living next to a building site for some period.

Did any of this proposed development show up on your conveyancing searches op as you have only lived there a few months or are the developers buying even before planning permission has been granted?

It seems the developers are agreeing to buy based on the condition that planning permission is granted.

When we first saw the house last summer the developers were trying to build on another site about half a mile away which is abandoned office/warehouse buildings. They went to appeal on that and finally got denied planning permission in December. The house next door went up for sale in April/May this year so it wasn't all going on before we bought.
Our youngest DC is 3 so a while before we apply to junior school. The other junior school in the area is really awful, the kids are totally out of control and I know of lots of parents who have decided to take their kids out and homeschool because the DCs were being bullied so badly. A friend's DS was strangled, kicked in the head and thrown to the ground in one week by different children. It may all change in the next few years but I can't risk my autistic DCs being sent there. We have one at the good junior school already. It's oversubscribed, probably because the other school is so bad, and we won't get in if we're out of catchment.
The developers are proposing an option to buy if they get planning permission. No other details at the moment. If house prices fall, then in a year's time we may be able to afford our perfect house, but I guess the developers could also decide not to go ahead with the build if prices go down.
We're looking at all our options. They've offered us so much money it's totally crazy not to consider selling.

Could you move somewhere cheaper and send your children to private school with the extra money? Although if you have 3 it would need to be an awful lot of cash!