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.

I know it's worth more than £10k. They won't come down from £60k. That's their flat minimum, unfortunately.

There is venting at something that has affected you negatively and entitlement that does not warrant venting because it is your thought process that is the problem.

Your situation is firmly in the latter category.

A kid kicking a ball about doesn't make it a football pitch 🤣🤣

Is it landlocked between their property and yours? I'm just wondering if it would have no or limited value to a third party buyer like a developer. If so it may be worth closer to your offer or somewhere in between your offer and theirs.

If that is the case it might be worth getting an independent surveyor valuation (also considering whether it is farmland or not/ the IHT aspect). If favourable and you disclose it they might be more willing to negotiate.

But honestly ask yourself if you are just fixated on it (as Hannibal Lecter said : "the things we most covet are things that we see every day"). How much difference will it really make to your life for your kids to kick a ball on it for a limited number of years. The people we bought our house from said they were moving so their sons aged about 7 and 9 could have a bigger garden to play football. Bumped into them a few years later (we had friends in common) and they said the boys both totally lost interest in the garden by about age 12 and only wanted to go out to the park with their friends.

OMG you are so wrong on so many levels.

Firstly you don't know their reasons for not wanting t sell their land, and quite frankly it's none of your business. I'd forget negotiating as you don't seem to have the opportunity (as they clearly are not interested at this time).
As for you son liking football. Go to a park, or join a football club.
You come across as extremely entitled and dare I say naive. How do you know what their family situation is and their IHT/WIll circumstances, and tbh it isn't any of your business.

What you could do though is write a personable, respectful letter, explaining that if they changed their mind you'd been keen to discuss. Alternatively is there an opportunity to rent the land so you son can use the field for whatever reason.
Nothing ventured nothing gained, but seriously this isn't something you should be getting yourself so upset about.

Their property is a couple of miles away. They drive up here once a month. I'm definitely not fixated on it. It's an annoyance, that's all. (I thought it was ok to be annoyed about something relatively trivial on Mumsnet, but apparently not according to some posters!)

This is one of the maddest threads I've ever seen

Have you checked with the council whether you can get change of use for the land first?

It's not always easy to get a change from agricultural to domestic use.

They told me it was worth hanging onto to avoid inheritance tax!

You could quite easily apply for planning permission for something and develop on the land - it happens everywhere, even on green belt land or ancient woodland. Ask me how I know.

They probably want to keep it as it is, and once they sell it they have no control over it. That's why they're putting such a high price on it - they don't know if you genuinely just want it as somewhere for your son to kick a ball about in (even at £10k that's an expensive pitch for one boy) or if you intend to apply for planning permission, or if buy a motorcycle for your son and use it for that, or any number of other things you could put on an acre.

Why shouldn't they hang on to it to avoid inheritance tax? Why do you/your kid's wishes trump theirs? Another ageist thread. "AIBU to think that I am more important that people in their 70s?"

They own something you want - they're entitled to name their price in the same way you're entitled to refuse to pay that price. There's no deal to be done. Whether they use the land or not is irrelevant.

Buying and selling privately owned land in a national park is highly regulated, including public access so you'll need specialist agents to look into this before either of you even consider this.

It's really not. Don't know why you would think that. Access is a gate onto a road.

I wonder if this may be of use @livelaughlambada

£60k does seem inflated tbh

Make it clear you just don't have that sort of money then ask would it be possible for you to tend a small portion of their land for your son to play on. You could offer them £30 rent if it ameliorates the situation.
They think you're on the make, trying to add value to your property, and they don't want to come out the worst of the deal.
I'm sure they'd be more than happy, once they understand you simply cannot afford it, to let you make use of a small patch of land for nominal rent.

Yes, avoiding inheritance tax is definitely a good thing and should be encouraged at all times. It's definitely much better that some people in their seventies should glance at a field once a month than some kids get daily enjoyment out of it playing outdoors etc etc. Ideally, my kids would be inside all the time watching screens, but sometimes the little sods do make it out into the garden. I will try and stop that.

It doesn't matter if it's inflated or not. The land owner can ask whatever price they want. Whether anyone wants to pay that price is another matter. I'd rather hang on to my land than deal with someone like the OP - and I have done in the past.

I think you’ve had some very good advice
(and some boringly predictable twaddle/bs from the usual idiots who can’t RTFT)

get the house valued with and without the land, look into the legality re the inheritance tax issue etc and go back to them with your “homework” - nothing ventured, nothing gained.

if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. Their loss.

Bit of a first world problem though. I kind of understand where you are coming from. When Alabama Rot was at its height, I lived in a hotspot and had 2 elderly dogs. An area of land came up for sale just along the road from me and I'd have purely loved to have an area of land where no other dogs walked to keep them as safe as I could. I'd have had to remortgage my house to buy it so it just wasn't on.

You haven’t looked into this OP.

You won’t be able to use it for a football field without change of use. Change of use requires BNG. If it’s covered in brambles absolutely no chance you are achieving this without costing you an arm and a leg.

oh now you are just being silly.

Is this thread really about being unable to buy a piece of land because the price has been inflated? You keep mentioning that the couple are in their 60/70's and are trying to avoid inheritance tax - this seems to annoy you quite a bit.

Why don't you offer to take care of a bit of the land for them , keeping it looking nice ,in exchange for your children playing on it

Which national park is this land in