Has anyone bought more land to extend their garden?

Hi everyone,

Our garden backs onto a school and between this and their playground is two sort of fenced off lengths of land. The one that backs on to ours has well established trees growing in them and runs at the back of all the neighbours gardens nearby.

A few months back the trees were severely cut back without any of the neighbour's permissions. When I queried this with the tree surgeons who were just about to cut back our trees at the bottom of our garden they said they had received several complaints about them. I told them to leave our trees alone, which they did, but am still angered that the school didn't at least notify us of the work.

The tree surgeons left the cut down timber lying where it fell and I thought I would help myself to some of the wood so I could build a fence out of, no one seems to mind and while working in this area it suddenly occurred to me how lovely this land is.

I put it to my other half that we buy the small section of land directly behind ours which measures 20ft x 10ft and has a lovely hazel, holly and field maple tree inside that area. My other half liked the idea but then said "I would rather pay off the mortgage first".

I'm now wondering what to do and who to approach to find out if the school are willing to sell this small section of land off and where to go from there, also how would I go about finding out how much it's worth. I imagined it wouldn't be a lot as it's such a small area of land, with no real development potential.

 

If the school owns the land then you need to approach them (is it a local authority school or private), to see if they would be interested in selling.

As for value, its worth what you are prepared to pay/what they will accept. Its hard to put an exact value on small bits of land like that. For example its worth a lot more to you than it would be to me.

We bought a section of a neighbours garden a few years ago, they didnt use the garden at all, and saw maintaining it as a pain, so to them the space they sold had no real value, but it was worth lots to us. There was nothing to compare to so i made an offer which was accepted. I worked out the most I woul dbe prepared to go to and offered about 60% as my first offer which allowed me some room to come up if they wanted to negotiate. As it happens they accepted straight away, so maybe I could have got it for less!! However to me i feel i paid a good price.

We then paid all the legal fees, which were very simple, small local solicitor dealt with everything (under £300). The neighbour had no mortgage so it kept things simple.

With a school there could be covenants on the land which prevent sale, so do some research first - you can purchase a copy of the deeds which should include any covenants/mortgages etc from the Land Registry for £3 (or there abouts).

good luck!

 

Go for it Jane

 

Over here, should a person wish to buy a portion of another property next to them----there is the issue of re-zoning both properties and the cost of that. The new one has to be re-zoned showing the "new" division/boundry mark. The present one also has to be re-zoned showing the new addition boundry mark----all that costs money. And then there is now the cost of the actual land, and then I believe with the re-zoning comes the cost of re-vamping the land tax structure of each. And, in your case Jane---your the seeker of the addition ---all those costs would have to be funded by you.

 

I have no idea how I find out if it is local authority or not

 

Hi Jane, Try emailing or ringing your local councilor and county councilor they will find out for you and probably put you in touch with the right people.
If they see the trees as a 'problem' to them they'd snatch your hand off with an offer.

 

I just bought the land register and plans for the school. It looks like they own the plot of land we want to buy but have added the following late last year to the register.

2 (12.09.2011) RESTRICTION: No disposition of the registered estate
by the proprietor of the registered estate or by the proprietor of
any registered charge, not being a charge registered before the
entry of this restriction is to be registered without a written
consent signed by the Secretary of State for Education of
Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BT.

3 (12.09.2011) RESTRICTION: Until 1 May 2024 no disposition of the
registered estate by the proprietor of the registered estate or by
the proprietor of any registered charge, not being a charge
registered before the entry of this restriction is to be
registered without a written consent signed by the Big Lottery
Fund of 1 Plough Place, London EC4A 1DE or their conveyancer.

Is this going to be a headache to follow up I wonder?

 

Maybe worth seeing your solicitor, usually they're free for the initial consultation. He should understand the jargon, and advise.

 

The restrictions are commonly used to protect any third party interests. Presumably the first one is to prevent the school/local authority selling off bits willy nilly and it would seem that the second one might relate to Lottery Funding the school may have had. It is usually quite easy to get the owner of the restriction's consent but they might (and probably will) charge a fee and/or require their legal fees to be paid.

 

Here's an idea that I haven't thought through at all but here goes.

If you can't buy it, what about seeing if you can negotiate a long term lease?