Owning your own home

Has anyone one here ever found a plot of land they liked (not advertised) and tried to buy it?

There's a small bit of wood to the side of our house that's about 50x50m we really want to buy for the kids and to stop any risk of development.

I think we would be safe from planning generally due to greenbelt, flooding, species habitats but we still want it.

Any tips appreciated

They’ll be with the conveyance docs your solicitor has. Or should be…

The solicitor says the red lines are a guide because photocopies or whatnot might have distorted the boundaries or sth...

Yes. What’s been on the ground for a while usually takes precedence over plans as plans (esp those drawn In the 30s) are often inaccurate and things change. For example if that rear lane has been closed off as Kurai suggests and can be shown to have been like that for [I think] 12 years you’re not going to have much luck trying to reinstate the use because of a document from 90 years ago.

During lockdown a laminated noted was hung on this building asking whoever owned it if they wanted to sell it. Several months ago work started on on, so I assume it can work.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.3504486,-2.4533779,3a,90y,319.56h,74.59t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sL46V-kmdE3r6lihCzhJdkQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Find out who owns it from Land Registry. Approach them. Offer way more than it’s worth and suggest an uplift that pays them again if it ever gets planning.

Whether they’ll go for it depends what they can think of to spend the money on. I have a friend whose neighbours gave him some of their garden for just the cost of the legal fees because they were stressed out by having to maintain it. Similarly if it belongs to someone who owns 2000 acres that have been in their family since the enclosures there may be no price they’d sell at.

Offering to rent it and maintain it might be more successful.

.

I wouldn't be too worried, as long as you maintain the status quo of keeping the bins to one side of the passage, as has been the case for nearly 25 years on streetview.

Is that why the solicitor is asking the sellers to locate the conveyancing docs from 1934?

Yes.

If they can’t find it chances are your solicitor will recommend the sellers provide an insurance policy that covers the cost of sorting things out if there’s ever a disagreement over the passage in the future.

This is really normal toing and froing with conveyances on older houses, there are always loose ends that you have to take a view on. Chat it over with your solicitor but likely nothing to worry about.

.

Ha.

Looking at the satellite view the "8 foot wide" N/S path is the access way to the West of #145 that leads to a thin lane (the 4 foot wide lane) that runs E/W goes up past the backs of the houses on your road. Looks a bit overgrown from the satellite view.

Completely separate, and where you don't have access, is a much wider E/W lane to the South of that that's been gated off that's for the houses in the next road South of you with access from the road to the West of you.

.

Should only take 3 days to order a new one…surely not an insurmountable obstacle

.

Another bit of anecdata a mate chose a cash buyer who's money was all in a trust. It took forever and they were cunts.

I'd definitely 1. Clarify what "cash" means 2. Request proof.

Play the person not the wallet.

If a persons mortgage is all agreed then the money is about as quick to transfer ( quicker if, as above it's in a trust or abroad), do make sure any property in a chain is under offer and identify the full length of the chain and if all houses are sold.

Sell to the nice family wanting a home. Avoid the developer after an investment.

Yup, my mum bought half neighbours wild /woodland land as their partner had died and they weren't interested in maintaining it anymore. Was separate to original neighbour house deeds anyways so easy to do. Price was equivalent to their most recent builders bill for installing new land drains and a sump pump in a basement type area.
Then at the other side of house was some scrub land that formally belonged to her house (300 year old smallholding), was compo purchased by highways to build a bigger road in the 70s,then sat as rough ground ever since. Previous owners and then we've used the land as a veg patch pretty much since mid 80s,so didn't take much to go through the process to officially acquire it back again (for basically fees from crown estates (right name?)), could have bought a near mile long strip between the two roads without much bother, but just claimed back what formally belonged to the small holding, as the rest used to belong to the dozen other small holdings along same road, none of which are interested in it currently. Will never be worth anything and you couldn't even really put up a fence on it as it's adjacent to a trunk road, but for veg and piece of mind the brocoli will be ok, it was worth it.

That’s been up before and it used to have a beach..

Yep originally listed in 2020 for £12m

https://www.standard.co.uk/homesandproperty/luxury/london-party-pad-swiss-chalet-home-with-heated-indoor-beach-and-goldleaf-bathroom-is-for-sale-a116661.html

Crumbs. £12m down to £3.5m is quite the price drop. Especially as it says someone did £5m down renovating it in 2012.

That was £5m removing sand and gold leaf.

It still says beach on the floorplan.

finally, someone restoring a house so that it's period correct
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/132074525

That’s amazing.
In need of modernisation…

Was it actually used for a LARP YouTube channel?

any leyton orient fans here?

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/64171070/

Paging @clintsmoker

Sure he used to live in one of those.

.

FWIW, if the survey arrives today and there’s nothing in there, and then on Monday you have an answer to the boundary question… that would be one of the quickest sales I know of.

In other words, as things stand the survey won’t delay anything unless there are major problems revealed.

The survey company does seem disorganised though!