Buying land from neighbour

[PretzelBite]

How do I go about this?
I’m an end terrace, neighbour is attached to me. Our street is very busy and hard to park down. Behind our street, most houses sold part of their gardens so newer houses back on to ours, if that makes sense. Neighbour did not sell any land so has a very long garden. We were thinking of asking her if we could buy a portion to create parking at the back of our house. We would need quite a lot of land to bring the driveway level with our garden to access our property. I suppose my main questions are how would you approach the neighbour about this? She is an elderly woman who doesn’t drive herself and has been in the house a really long time. We say hello etc when we see each other but aren’t really friendly. Also how would we know how much to offer? Would you seek advice from a conveyancer/surveyor first and then approach or vice versa? Thanks!

I actually did this a few years ago. I can't help with how to approach it with your neighbour (mine had already approached me with the idea) but I can tell you about the process.

If either of you have mortgages, your mortgage company will need to give their permission. The seller's mortgage company will require a valuation done by a surveyor. The value of the land will depend on different things. (My very small area was hugely expensive as it cut across an access path.)

Once you have agreed a price the process is fairly straightforward but you do need a conveyancing solicitor. It's just a TP1 form back to the land registry with the plan and details of the land. The conveyancer will make sure everything is signed and approved by the mortgage company. You will need to make sure the plan is accurate.

I'd expect your neighbour to expect you to cover any solicitor's costs.

Im not an estate agent or solicitor so hopefully someone qualified will also pop on to advise.

I would definitely approach the neighbour first. I'd be a bit pissed off if I found out you'd made enquiries without even knowing I was prepared to sell.

Also, seeing as she is alone and elderly (I appreciate on MN this can mean 50🤣) be sure to suggest she might like to discuss with her family. You don't want her or them to feel she's been railroaded.

@AshRoad perfect that’s so helpful. Thank you!

@CellophaneFlower great idea suggesting she discusses with family. Especially as she’s mid 80s, not just MN old!😂

In my experience, you pay all legal and surveyor costs. Get valuations of how much value the land will add to your houses value and halve it is the general rule of thumb, plus whatever 100% of the value lost to the donor house, if its a long garden then likely negligible

I did this.

The elderly neighbour was mortgage free, and I took a personal loan out to fund the purchase which meant there wasn't the mortgage complication. It means I now have two plots of land on two land registry numbers. I could merge them if I could be bothered but it's not important at this stage. Perhaps I would before selling.

To kick it all off my father asked the neighbour one day and it went from there!

We did involve the children (who were retired too!) - they had power of attorney.

Land was valued and drawings done by a RICS surveyor. My neighbour was lovely and paid his own solicitor fees, I think I paid the survey and transfer fees.

She didn't sell her land before. so what makes you think she would agree to sell to you?

Thanks all. Very helpful comments!

@BellatrixLestrangesHeatedCurlers valid point. The land selling was decades ago so perhaps her circumstances have changed. Perhaps not, but I won’t know until I ask.

I would be cautious and understand your anxiousness over approaching the neighbor. Maybe their are some clues in how she maintains the land. Maybe you could discuss a shared interest (replacing the fence for example) and move on from there ?

Judging from what people post on here, there's a lot of people out there that go from 0 to psycho in about 3 seconds where issues regarding "their land" are concerned.

@GasPanic great idea. Exactly, the last thing I want to do is upset her in any way and have an angry neighbour on my hands!