Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Buying house issue

30 replies

Louisebbb · 14/08/2021 19:35

Hello, so I'm hoping to get a bit of advice about a slight issue we're having at the moment. We are at the end of the process of buying a house, we have just had the new boundary and floorplan details sent over along with the contract. The man we are buying the house from is a builder who has completely renovated this house, it originally came with a big garden which he is keeping half of to build a new 3 bedroom detached house along with a 2 car off road drive at the front. He has assigned the house we are buying (end terrace) with a small garden and a drive for 1 car, the driveway he has given us is 1.8metres wide and 5metres in length. My partner's car is 1.9 wide so won't even fit on this "drive". I've had a look on our council's website and found that all drives must be 2.4 x 4.8 minimum. The seller is refusing to allow anymore space to us because this will encroach on the space he needs for this new build. The parking on the road is permit and only on 1 side of the road so is very busy, he has offered a 5k drop in the sale price to not have any driveway space at all. We are buying this house for 285 which was including the drive, I personally don't think a 5k price drop is enough to lose the parking space. Just looking for some advice/opinions as we're not sure where to go from here. We love the house and the area is good, just a shame about the non existent parking and now this pointless drive we won't be able to use

OP posts:

ItsJustASimpleLine · 14/08/2021 19:43

If he can't lose .5m from the other building plot I'd say that house will be too close to your property so would be asking to see approved plans for that.

On the parking space issue I'd always opt for as much parking as possible with any property as off road parking is very useful and adds value especially in areas of restricted parking. If i was in your shoes and was effectively being given no drive then I'd pass I could have the daily, twice daily or more frequent stress of worrying a out getting parked when ever I let the house.

Also from a practical point of view if I could afford a place with parking and had or intended to have children I'd want a off road parking space for convenience.

surreygirl1987 · 14/08/2021 19:50

Tread very carefully... sounds a bit dodgy. Also for lots of people a drive is a dealbreaker so do consider future selling potential. We passed up on a nice house recently because we thought we'd struggle getting my husband's car on it and didn't want to deal with that every day.

MaggieFS · 14/08/2021 19:56

How can you be at the end of the buying process and only just have visibility of the boundary?

I agree with you that £5k is an insufficient drop.

If he's building a property with a double drive, can't he change that to a single and leave you with one.

Unless you live in a city centre where a car isn't a necessity, based on how you've described the on street parking situation, I wouldn't buy a house without a drive for any price.

I would also strongly try and avoid buying next to a building site. And are plans even approved for what he wants to build? Have you seen them? How close to your property will the new build be? Will you be overlooked?

Unless you can answer these questions and more, and are happy with the answers, I would be walking away anyway, drive or no drive.

saleorbouy · 14/08/2021 20:04

I would be surprised if he has managed to get planning approval through without the provision for off road parking for each property.
See if you can access the original planning drawings and approval from the concil website portal and check the original stipulations.
Surely you can gain the space required from your plot or relocate the drive elsewhere.
I would definitely be asking him to one up with a solution before completion occurs.

CornforthWhite · 14/08/2021 20:31

Don’t do it - no drive will reduce your resale price quite significantly.

EverydayCook · 14/08/2021 20:38

I wouldn’t buy this house for any discount. He’s leaving you an unusable drive and a small garden. To make sure he meets building regulations on his new build (adequate parking) he’s leaving you with none, and a potentially difficult to sell house.

Think of it this way - you are funding his property development business. He really doesn’t care about doing what’s right. He’s building a house at the bottom of your garden. He’ll not care about the impact it has on your house and quality of life, or any objections you have. I’d walk away.

Yellow85 · 14/08/2021 20:54

Tbh I’d be worried about any other regulations he just chosen to ignore. Or what he’s going to ignore with the new build.

EverydayCook · 14/08/2021 22:45

I think it’s also worth saying that if he’s a one-man-band builder or DIY developer, the new house could take forever to go up. You have no idea how long you’ll be living next to a building site or the quality of building you’ll end up looking at. He sounds like the worst kind of chancer.

As a point of comparison, a house near us went for 25% less than it’s similar neighbours due to ‘difficult’ parking. It still has space for two cars, but awkwardly accessed and would restrict the sizes of car you could get on the drive. In your case that would be a £72k reduction, not £5k! You need to do market comparisons with similar houses without any off street parking.

parietal · 14/08/2021 22:55

in north london, a single parking space can sell for about £40K. so a £5K reduction is no where near enough.

tell him you won't buy without a proper parking space and walk away.

DameCelia · 14/08/2021 23:08

@Louisebbb
Assuming you are not a cash buyer your views may be irrelevant.
Your lender will need to be informed of the decrease in sale price and the fact that the house now has now drive, which will affect the value.

furstivetreats · 15/08/2021 08:34

You might not be eligible for a permit if there was parking and now isn't. This is the case with a road near us and the house that lost the parking just won't sell

NautaOcts · 15/08/2021 08:38

What’s either side of the proposed ‘drive’
If it’s anything other than grass how would he propose you get in and out of the car if it’s only the width of a car basically (or slightly less even).
And if it’s grass why can’t it be wider. Struggling to understand the layout - the house can’t only be 1.8m wide!

Onandoff · 15/08/2021 08:39

@EverydayCook

What she said. Walk.

GiantKitten · 15/08/2021 09:02

If the seller won’t budge you need to walk away, and he will struggle to find another buyer on those terms. Even if someone without a car thought about buying it, how would they sell on?

This house has just come on the market here - small 2-bed terrace on a busy main road with tight parking.
A neighbour sold for £135k last year.
This is an end house with attic and parking for 3 cars and they’re asking £220k (& there’s pedestrian ROW for 2 of the neighbours!)
I reckon they’re valuing the parking at £40-50k.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/111877850#/?channel=RES_BUY

GiantKitten · 15/08/2021 09:07

@NautaOcts

What’s either side of the proposed ‘drive’ If it’s anything other than grass how would he propose you get in and out of the car if it’s only the width of a car basically (or slightly less even). And if it’s grass why can’t it be wider. Struggling to understand the layout - the house can’t only be 1.8m wide!

I imagine the garden he’s building on is to the side of the house, not the back. One like that is currently being built near me (but the end terrace got a drive long enough and wide enough for 2 cars)

Shadowboy · 15/08/2021 09:24

I wouldn’t touch a house with no parking. We nearly bought one - house and garden were perfect but after the second viewing, and worrying about the parking issue we decided not to buy.

If I was in your position, I would pull out of the sale.

GiantKitten · 15/08/2021 09:24

@NautaOcts

This is the one. There’s a 7m space beside the end terrace for parking and patio/garden.
(Makes me very sad though. It was such a nice house with the big garden )

AlmostSummer21 · 15/08/2021 09:28

Walk away.

There's really nothing more to say, except, walk away. It will be a living hell.

Original poster

Louisebbb · 15/08/2021 09:32

Thanks everyone for your replies, we're both just so fed up. This will be the second house we will have walked away from this year. First one was due to serious damp issues found in the survey and the owner refusing to fix them
So the builder/owner has had the planning permission approved on special conditions after appealing the initial rejection. One of the conditions is there is a driveway big enough for 2 cars for this new build, he's just trying to add value to the renovation house by squeezing in 3 cars. The new house is going to be to the right of the terraces (if you're looking at the houses from the road) so the space that would be ours would be between the end of the terrace house and the new houses driveway. Basically blocked in either side.
We've been looking at the sold prices for the houses in that road in similar conditions without parking and they go for around 260k so we definitely will not be committing to 280k.
Our solicitors re-open tomorrow anyway so I'll get his opinion on the situation too.
We've got a 1.5y/o boy so parking is pretty important to us

OP posts:

SweetToTheBeat · 15/08/2021 09:51

I think parking is one of the most important things when you buy a house. Not being able to park causes so many neighbour problems.

I have also almost bought a house in a similar situation. Our builder would say things like 'don't worry, the building inspector is my dad's friend so we don't have to worry about XYZ'.

I have also lived in a new build with boundary issues where the builder, David Wilson, constructed every parking space 1m away from,where it should have been. In our case instead of our own space being outside our own front door our neighbour's space was outside our door. And he parked over the step and we couldn't get out. We couldn't sell it because the Foundry was in the wrong place with the land registry and in the end David Wilson had to buy it back off of us.

It does sound like he's cramming the other plots full of houses.

JennyEnglish008 · 15/08/2021 09:59

I'd walk away too
There will be other houses

welcome2021 · 15/08/2021 10:24

Walk. If you buy it you'll never be able to resell it

NoToast · 15/08/2021 10:32

I've just spent 3.5 years living next to a building site and wouldn't wish it on anyone. It's difficult to find builders so they try and work at weekends and bank holidays. Builders also appear to be powered by radio, I'm sick of hearing tinny pop blasting out.

Think about how the building site will affect you, will you be able to use the garden, how will building materials and machinery arrive and be offloaded? Does the planning permission include conditions around following council code of conducts etc. Also be prepared for plans to change, builder next door keeps resubmitting applications to alter and maximise the site potential. So for example, balcony allowed (against usual advice) next application moved closer to our house etc.

Good luck but to be honest I'd walk.

FurierTransform · 15/08/2021 11:02

I'd walk from this house.
The conditions of the planning for the new house will stipulate it has to have X number of parking spaces which is why he will be prioritising that & you will be unable to negotiate with him on that point.
There is no regulation about taking away off road parking from your house.

Killeditwithkisses · 15/08/2021 11:42

The minimum width of a driveway varies depending on the layout, and your local council parking standards - but usually for a single driveway serving a single dwelling the minimum width is 3.0m.

I would also think about future needs. For example can you fit an electric charge point on such a narrow drive?
I'm not sure what the boiler is doing is legal, perhaps you could have a chat with the local planning officer?

If it was me, I'd walk away OP...as others have said, what else is the builder taking liberties with?

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread