Advice required re loan of garage to neighbour and their rebuild of a wall

[pamelat]

My husband and I disagree about a proposal put forward by a new neighbour. He can't even understand why I think the way I do and I think that he is being short sighted.

Our new neighbour has to have a mobility scooter. They have moved from a big house to a much smaller one. I know that their house sale will have made them a lot of money.

Out large garage sides on to their entrance to/from their driveway.

He initially asked to buy a section of our garage and instead we said that we would consider a rental. We didn't want to sell land.

The idea was that they would pay for the necessary repair work on our garage wall and in return get however long to rent (for free) a section of our garage.

The repair work will be approximately £8k and we would imagine that they will rent the garage for 10 years or more. This seemed a good rental opportunity.

More recently, the chap has said that when this repair work is done he wants to move our garage in (shorten the garage) by a foot and a half so that he has easier access on his driveway to get his car in and out.

I don't want this. I don't understand why I would effectively gift the land to them. They say it will still be our land but it will of course be worthless as the garage wall would end a foot and a half short of it.

There is a softener in that they they have a slightly smaller sized piece of land which they could effectively swap with ours. All sounded good but they want to make it informal to avoid land registry/solicitor fees etc.

My concern is that they, or new owners, could reclaim their foot and a half but that we never could, without completely resurrecting the rebuild garage wall.

My husband wants to do this to save on the garage work which would need doing in a year or two.

I see a lot of benefits for them and very few, intact only the rebuild but at the wrong size (!) for us?

I wouldn’t do any of it. It just sounds too complicated. I’d also speak to solicitor who is experienced in this sort of thing

I’d walk away from this entirely. It’s all complicated and it’s clear that your neighbour wants to own the land, so I’d be concerned that they’d try anything to “own” it.

If you go the rental route; make sure it’s all correctly documented and legal so that you don’t get any disputes. Could 10 years rent free lead to claims of a right to use it? Or adverse possession? Even if they wouldn’t win; they could be expensive to defend.

I’d run from this. I’d be wary of the ten year rent situation too. A decade is a long time and what would happen if for any reason your house needed to be sold?

Just no don't get them to pay for the wall and don't move it. You could get a loan to pay for the wall and rent them the garage formally.

This is madness! Imagine if he made a pigs ear of it to save money or changed his mind half way through or you fell out or he tried to say he thought the money he spent on it indicated he had a share of ownership over it... or a million other things! This has disaster written all over it.

This will end up costing you more than 8k in the future, fix the garage and walk away from the agreement

No. No. And no.

IF you do anything - get a solicitor involved. House insurance may even offer some free legal advice. Please don’t make it a ‘neighbourly agreement’ as you may well need to sell you home at some point in the future, and unless things are done properly, you could have a potential legal disaster on your hands.

If your neighbour is not likely to recover from the condition that causes them to need a mobility scooter, the implication is that they expect it to be a permanent arrangement.
If so, that is an immediate get-out for you (and it would be a No from me, as sympathetic as we would all feel about it), as the arrangement would then make it very difficult to sell your own home.
They need to either work with what they have to make it more suitable for what they need, or move.

I think proceeding with any form of these arrangements, especially without proper legal advice and contracts, is asking for trouble and financial risk.

My best friend did a very similar thing a few years back as a favour to a neighbour she was very fond of, a good friend she felt. She has now had two house sales fall through because of the ambiguity and the neighbours disputing what was agreed. Her mortgage provider is now aware that she 'gave away' secured property and they are not happy at all.

It's a real mess. I'd seriously advise you to talk to a property lawyer (and your mortgage lender if applicable) and understand what you are opening yourself up to.

I really wouldn't do any of this. Give an inch and all that...

@Fluffymule points out a good excuse you could use - your mortgage won’t allow for you to do this - rent out a portion etc etc.

Sounds like a ballache and an informal agreement is very unlikely not to go tits up at some point.

Walk away.

"they have a slightly smaller sized piece of land which they could effectively swap with ours. All sounded good but they want to make it informal to avoid land registry/solicitor fees etc."

What? That's...not a thing. What on earth will you do when you come to sell? That's why you have to get such changes logged with the Land Registry. Otherwise nothing is official.

Don't do anything without solid legal advice. It'll cost you a lot more in the long run. Guaranteed.

I wouldn’t even entertain any of this. It sounds like a nightmare in the making for you.

You could end up in a legal nightmare in the future, don’t do it .

Absolutely not.

No way-why would you do this?! No no no.

He should have bought a house suitable for his needs. Doing anything informally could lead to real trouble later. I would say no to all of it.

Well I'm not a solicitor but I believe that this is what they call, in the trade, "a load of bollocks".

There is a softener in that they they have a slightly smaller sized piece of land which they could effectively swap with ours. All sounded good but they want to make it informal to avoid land registry/solicitor fees etc

I mean, WTAF??

Is your husband usually this naive?

@InescapableDeath

He should have bought a house suitable for his needs. Doing anything informally could lead to real trouble later. I would say no to all of it.

Yeah this. Why on earth didn't they buy a house that was more accessible if he needed a mobility scooter?

Just madness, say no to it all or you may well be storing up issues for the future

Absolutely NOT!!! No way on earth would I be allowing any of this whatsoever!!

This set up is far too complex to be done without legal intervention.

Frankly I feel your DH has become fixated with the £8k fix to the garage at the expense of being realistic about what could be some significant downsides.

A possible scenario you're not thinking about given you are taking about a 10 year "lease" is what happens if you need to move?

It's not something you might be planning but circumstances change.

You could seriously impact the value of your property if selling with such a complex agreement in place.

There is also the possibility you and your neighbour fall out and the ramifications for legal battles and expense are huge.

My suggestion is to either draw up a proper rental agreement (to be renewed bi-annually) over the garage as is and use those funds to put towards "fixing" the garage in a few years, or knocking the idea on the head entirely.

Moving walls and swapping lands (especially without legal input) is simply bonkers for both parties.