Selling part of my garden

[Cantabulous]

I’m fed up with maintaining the trees/shrubs and lawn and they need more space for their kids. They suggested it during a general ‘gah, I’m fed up with my garden’ chat over the fence. I’m very taken with the idea but how do I establish an asking price?

The value will be a lot higher than they think! They’ll offer £1000 but it might be worth £50k.

By asking an estate agent/land agent for advice. Small plots are sold by the square foot, and depending where you live can be very valuable. My first question would be how much it would devalue your property making the garden smaller.
You could always rent it to them as a less permanent option?

Thanks. I don’t think it would devalue my house much as there would still be some lawn, trees, shrubs, beds, patio and a pergola. And I don’t want to move so it’s academic really, but it would save me having to pay a gardener as I get older and even more fed up!

I’d thought about renting it to them but tbh I think that’s the worst option for both parties - they wouldn’t be able to do exactly what they wanted and I would still be invested in what they did do.

My parents bought a piece of their now nextdoor neighbours garden and built a house on it. It worked out well for both but I agree that it will cost more than they probably think. I don't think anyone here can give you an estimate because it will depend where it is that you live.

My aunt sold a piece of her garden but I don't know how much for. I would just find out if they are serious and then get an evaluation.

We bought some garden from a neighbour, it pretty much doubled the size of our garden (which was already a decent size) and we paid £5k (what the sellers’ asked for).

I'd probably go to a solicitor for advice. There must be a protocol. Things like whether it has its own access and could ever be built on will effect the price. If it can only ever really be garden it will be less valuable.

How big will the area be of the land you want to sell and how much will be left?

That’s what my other neighbour did too. I would want them to use it as a garden though, and would put a restrictive covenant on it to that effect.

i was just looking for ballpark figures and next steps really.

Make sure the pay your legal fees too. You’re looking at at least £1,500 because there’s so much to consider when transferring a piece of land.

We were buying a house that has bought part their from neighbour.
The land came with extra covenant - condition such as what we can or cant do that space for example cant make a building/office/annexe etc.
Covenants are good as it can help you estable what they can /cant do in the land. ( but for me as buyer it was not something appealing! so we didnt buy that house!)

You can think about what if they make something annexe or building - how will it impact light and privacy of your property. And whether it might put off future buyers of your house.

Also, its rare to find big large pot of land with home- people are willing to much higher for bigger gardens ( especially if you are in London).

Garden is currently 24m x 24m. I would sell the bottom half so 24m x 12m

Do you have a mortgage?

Just thinking - would you be happy with the noise of children playing football etc right next to your much reduced garden space? You can't sell them land and then get annoyed if the children are playing right on top of you. Think about tree houses, trampolines, football goals right up against your new fence.

And who would pay for the new fence?

No mortgage (yay, finally paid it off last year at age 61!) so I don’t have a busybody financial institution to worry about

They own the current fence so they would have to pay for the new one.

Re the children. They’re currently about 6 I think and very well-behaved, and their parents supervise their behaviour closely. I guess it may deteriorate. And of course they may sell up and some right little gits move in. Hmm. I’m a pretty tolerant person and the kids don’t bother me at all right now but they are at more of a distance. Something to think about though. Thanks.

Make sure you get a good plan drawn up.
You’ll want a restriction on the title to the piece of land protecting a deed of covenant. That’s the only way to ensure future owners keep it a garden.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/preparing-plans-for-land-registry-applications/guidance-for-preparing-plans-for-land-registry-applications

On the cynical side, that's enough space for three flatpack houses or a smallish block of flats.

So, our cottage and the one it’s joined to must have had the bottom half of their gardens sold off in the 70s. When we moved here it was a yard where a local builder kept stuff. He’d built a fake coach house backing onto the yard in the adjoining lane in the 80s and had been trying to build on the yard since 1983. He finally submitted a successful application a few years back. A local architect designed a sunken modern bungalow so no overlooking and very low impact. His daughter lives in it, so there is family interest in maintaining it well.

In more recent times - and despite being a conservation area - several attempts at planning permission have resulted in more substantial houses behind houses and two storey dwellings on corner plot ends of gardens in neighbouring lanes.

We are an hour out of London and the prices of local plots of land are ridiculous. Another little shedded storage plot that was once the end of a local garden has planning permission for a 2 bed, 2 storey dwelling. The plot is on the market for 300,000.

Aesthetically, our cottages look convincingly twee with smallish cottage gardens. Extending out any further than the modern (Victorian) bit of our place would make the garden too small. We have potential to go up if we wanted to. I do sometimes wish we had a longer garden, I’ve been contemplating a second garden bench and didn’t really see where to place one until we removed a tree.

Anyway, what I think is that you or future owners might ultimately regret selling the land off. I’d just lease it.

Done this twice (bought garden). First time was probably similar size to your plot, for £15K plus seller's legal costs. That was in 2010 ish. They talked about putting a restrictive covenant on it, which we would have been fine with, but in the end didn't bother (it was the neighbour's estate selling it after he had died).

Second time (different house) a much smaller plot, maybe 4 m x 4 m. Bought in 2013 for 3K plus seller's legal costs. This second plot was bought off a farmer, it was already fenced off from the rest of the field so he could not readily access it (it had kind of been forgotten when the farm cottages were sold off). I expect it would have been more expensive if we'd bought it from a residential neighbour.

Ha ha i know right! It crossed my mind to sell off the whole lot as a building plot but I really wouldn’t want all the disruption and fuss.

Think I would ask for £30k but accept £25k, them to pay legal and fencing costs, restrictive covenant on whole patch. If they ask again that is.

Whilst a restrictive covenant would protect the garden you sell, is the layout such that they could build in the bit they currently own, using the bit you sell as the garden to the new build?

Possibly but that wouldn’t impinge on me

For valuation you'd want to use a RICS land surveyor. The price they will suggest will be what value it adds to the neighbours house, and if it devalues yours. It is quite subjective. In our case we bought with a covenant that the land would remain garden land which included an overtake clause if development started, payable to the vendor or successor in title.

Our neighbour sold to us because he liked to help the young family next door. The loss of land didn't affect him or the house, it saved paying a gardener for that bit. And he was after taking some money out of the house and estate to help children. Was a win all around.