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.

No, I would just like my children indoors all the time. What's wrong with that?

I understand your frustration OP and the “venting”.

That said, you do need to move away from the land only being worth 10k.

As pp’s have said, it’s actually liable to be worth more than that because of the value it would add to your property - so that needs to be your starting point.

Get a valuation so you know what is a realistic fair price and then decide if you can afford/are willing to pay that.

Then if you want to proceed go back to them with an evidence based counter offer and make clear that’s your ceiling price.

I’d also do some checking and make sure their claims about inheritance tax are valid.

Ultimately if they don’t want to sell for then you’ll have to accept it.

I get it’s frustrating. My neighbours have a small cottage on their land (that’s nearer to our house than theirs that they never use) that we wanted to buy.

They wanted stupid money for it and so we declined. 5 years later they have decided to move and due to the market are struggling to sell. They’ve now approached us to buy (at a more sensible price) as it will help sell their main home as they can reduce it accordingly.

Problem is, the main reason we wanted it (as overflow when older relatives stay) has gone (sadly as a result of bereavement).

So this time the shoe is on the other foot and they are now apparently kicking themselves that they missed the opportunity to sell (according to mutual acquaintances) previously.

So you may well find circumstances change in the future and even if they don’t accept a sensible offer now you can just leave it on the table and tell them to come back to you if they change their minds.

Oh, you do have outside space.
Surely it’s very easy to “explain” the size? You must know how big it is.

Your neighbours are under no moral obligation to sell you the land at a favourable price, or any price, just because you happen to want it.

Except that there’s a risk of tax avoidance if they sell it for a price less than it’s worth.

I wondered the same, out on its own in the middle of fields. No septic tank? No percolation area? No water supply?

All of which require typically 0.5 acre.

Then move to another property with more land - problem solved.

But if they don’t want to sell it why did they approach you to tell you that they want to sell it?

Move house. If it doesn’t work for you that’s on you.

Well, maybe that's something you should have considered when buying & not expect a land owner to sell you a bit of their land for peanuts?

Entitled much?! 🙇🏻‍♀️

I don't think that their land would qualify for Agricultural Inheritance Relief. Unless its under an environmental scheme, which it doesn't sound like to me, it doesn't fit the criteria.
www.gov.uk/guidance/agricultural-relief-on-inheritance-tax

I think that you need to put this to bed in your mind.

The point I have made twice on this thread which has been ignored is that new legislation was introduced 2 years ago now which makes you pay for loss of habitat.

Even if OP gets land for 10k, it’s 41k extra for BNG credit plus consultancy fees and a planning fight she’s unlikely to win.

So that’s around 60k.

If she gets the land for 60k, you’re looking at 110k.

Of all the projects I have worked on I would say the likelihood of winning a change of use from farmland to residential is around 5%

Thanks for this! Yes, you're right. The daft thing is it'll go on the market eventually, but by then, we won't want it. Literally the only reason I'd want it is for the kids to mess around in for a bit. After that, it would genuinely just be something else to worry about - and I won't be interested at all!

You contradict yourself throughout this thread. It’s worth £10k, nobody else would pay £10k, you know it’s worth more than 10k. Make your mind up.

If it were me I’d extend my mortgage and buy it. An acre if land is not much for a farm but a huge amount to add to a garden.

Then they probably know that you could get planning permission on it if you wanted and build a house and make £££🤷‍♀️ even if you don’t plan to do that when you eventually come to sell this will make a big difference to your property value. No one pays £10,000 an acre! Not since the 80’s anyway

It doesn't matter what you believe OP. You don't own the land, and these people are not responsible for your children's childhood. I would let it go.

Just think of all the insects and small wildlife that currently live there.

Any use that the ACTUAL OWNERS want to put it to - not some overly entitled third party with no right to do anything….

There is a septic tank. It's def no where near half an acre. Plenty of houses round me are in the middle of nowhere and have a much smaller area than that. I know the area that is an acre (because it's the bit they want to sell us) and we're several times smaller than that.

The op's posts are getting so ridiculous now that I'm struggling to believe this is true. Either a reverse or the op is weirdly obsessed with wanting things that she can't have. It smacks of stalker mentality.

Because apparently words mean what the OP wants them to mean...🙄

they don't want to sell it for the £10,000 she thinks it's worth, they offered it to her for £60,000, but as they're in their 70's, she thinks they are unworthy owners & should sell it to her for £10,000

we all know its worth a lot more than £10k.
A couple of valuations is the best course of action. Then investigating change of use and PP. And clearing brambles etc as somebody else has mentioned.
OP could then offer sensibly based upon facts and offer an uplift clause too. But she won't want to do any of that. Perhaps she should 'instruct' them to leave it to her in their Will because she wants it.

Very few kids have their own acre of land. I don't think it's having a big negative impact on your child.

Why don't you ask a land agent to value it? Have you tried negotiating?

If you say 'yes in theory, we'll need to get an independent valuation' you can then start a conversation.

So in your mind your neighbour must sell you an acre of land for £10k that they think is worth £60k (and let's face it, they hold all the cards here) because the other option is your children remain permanently inside playing Fortnite?

Can you appreciate, vent or not, how nuts this sounds?