Just need to vent - neighbour wants £60,000 for an acre of land

[livelaughlambada]

Urgh, I just want to vent. We love our home - it's in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields. We would really like to buy one acre of land. It's owned by some people who don't farm and don't do anything with it. Land around here is probably £10,000 an acre for farmland. They want £60,000 for the acre. We just don't have it. And if we did, we couldn't possibly justify buying it - as in even if we could borrow the money, there is other stuff that we would spend it on first that is much more 'necessary'. I don't think they believe us, but it is just what it is. One of our kids loves football and would love to play on that land. It's just such a shame that there isn't a way around it. I know that it's absolutely their right and I also know it would add value to our house to buy it (although we will not be moving ever, so that is a long way off - and we just can't spend £60,000 on land that we might actually just have to sell off before the house one day). These people don't do anything at all with the land -- they have about 20 acres and it's just getting covered with brambles and crap (not in a nice rewilding way - just actual crap they've dumped there). They come here maybe once a month. I think their logic is that it would add £60,000 in value to our house (possibly true, I have no idea, but we will not move until the kids have left home and that's a couple of decades away). The MOST annoying thing is that they're somewhere in their sixties/seventies and have told us they don't want to sell because you don't pay inheritance tax on land. So it's worth just having it sit and rot rather than anything else. It's just SO ANNOYING.

Coming from a former farming family we were always being approached for a 'bit of land for our garden' and we'd often be agreeable.
However, what is then a kick in the teeth is when you want to do something with the land and all these fuckers you've been agreeable to then object and become total NIMBYS.
£10k an acre even for arable is a low cost nowadays plus if the field is adjoining residential areas it is going to be worth more. It doesn't matter if it is overgrown etc.
I've had land where we've sold with uplift clauses on and also been subject to them myself. It's a good reassurance to the seller.

Yes, I also recognise this attitude of entitlement to other people's land. Seems to be common for some people to think that if they can see something they should own it/get to use it for free.

I feel your pain... I was renting a 1.8 acre paddock for over a decade.... then the landowner sold it for 120k
Totally her prerogative of course ... vastly overpriced for grazing land but guess what? Houses on there now. Can't compete with builders....

I'd be tempted to put up a sign: Please do not ask to buy a parcel of our land, as being told to get knotted may cause offence.

This isn't the case. Agricultural Relief for IHT can also apply to land not being actively farmed because it has an Environmental Management Agreement covering it. And there's different types of those - one being Habitat Creation. And an area of nettles and brambles could easily come under that (important for biodiversity in habitats for moths and insects for example). So it could well be that, and if so, there's no way you could mow a bit of it even if they let you rent it (AR can still apply to land that is rented), it would definitely negate the EMA.

Yep. We moved from a place where our land bordered a couple of houses and one of the owners got very aggressive with us when we wouldn't sell him part of our hay field "as he only wanted a little bit of it". He hassled us for two years and got so much worse when we were selling. Couldn't understand that having less land for cutting hay on an equestrian property would really put buyers off and of course, only wanted to pay a couple of thousand for the land because it was all he thought it was worth. Our new house and land is surrounded by farmland and none of the big landowners around here are concerned with getting their hands on my piddling little smallholding.

I appreciate you are frustrated, OP, but as PP pointed out, small parcels of land attached to a house are worth a lot more than £10,000 an acre. You are not being realistic about the price. Perhaps your neighbours aren't either but only a valuation will settle that argument. They might need the money more than you realise so perhaps go back to them with that suggestion and it might open negotiations?

But thinking you deserve it as you will put it to better use? Wow. Personally, a football pitch really isn't better use, in my eyes. An acre of brambles is far more environmentally valuable than neat and tidy mowed grass.

Just a thought…..are you sure it’s them dumping crap on the land or is it flytippers?

has anybody said that anybody is dumping crap on the land?

It's boggy and covered in brambles ( which normally prefer well drained soil) and used for fly tipping...

Funny you're so keen to get your hands on this land.

You've just said, NOT selling the land to you will have a 'not insignificant effect' on your kids - yet your only child hasn't even mentioned it??? You sound delusional!

You're talking like you have an automatic right to the land and sound very entitled. They've given you their price, you can't afford it. End of story

I’m baffled, this doesn’t have a ‘not insignificant’ effect on your kid, who you stated further down the thread hasn’t even thought about it.

Its a weird sort of entitlement on display here, you want something that your neighbour has. They would be willing to sell it at £x which you don’t want to pay.

Why do they have any obligation do sell their property for less than they want just because you don’t think it’s worth it?

You really are already grabbing this land, don't you
oh hang on, IT IS NOT YOURS

The OP in her original post did

Pity you cant afford it then and your opinion is irrelevant as it doesnt belong to you 🤷🏼‍♀️

Your rant is coming from a sense of entitlement which is why people are disliking your posts. My use of this space is more worthy than the people that own it so therefore I deserve it more than them and should be able to pay whatever I can afford.

My neighbour has a seven seater car but only 1 kid. I have 3 kids and a dog but only a five seater because I cant afford a seven seater. I think she should sell her car to me for less than its worth because I'd make much better use of the space in it. But im not being entitled, im just ranting that she said no to selling her possessions for a lot less than theyre worth when I clearly need it more than she does

but she is not specific. You might look at one area of my garden and think I had dumped crap but its actually stuff that will rot down and improve the soil.

They are not going to sell an acre to you for agricultural value, it would be at garden value.

They obviously don't particularly want to sell it, so that's what they are telling you it will take.

They are not being unreasonable.

Land next to a house is worth a lot more than £10k.
How much value would your house increase with an extra acre of land?

the only fair way is to get your house valuation without the land and with the land. And then you pay 2/3s of the difference.

I had this exact issue yesterday at the Porsche garage, and all their cars are just sitting around not being used too, I'd at least make use of one.

We'd all love to buy an acre of land attached to our garden for £10k! Unfortunately, landowners aren't required to be benevolent souls and think of the children when setting their price for an acre of bog/garden.

Wow your sense of entitlement has a shocking .. keep that in check because your children are not entitled to an acre of land to play football on.

OP I've read your 44 replies...has anyone suggested you ask the couple if your children can play on it and you will sign an indemnity that you'll have drafted?