Complete Newby with a question about land.

[GeeJay]

Hi everyone,

We are just in the process of looking for a piece of land to build.  A 4 acre strip of farmland with road frontage in the middle of a row of houses has come up for sale and we have put in a bid of the asking price but we were told that the vendor wanted to leave the sale to run a little longer.  Now someone else has also put in a bid at the asking price and the estate agent says it will have to go to sealed bids. In the meantime we have spoken to a lady who lives next to the land and she says that there used to be a cottage years ago on the land next to the road frontage.  We have looked on the land registry and can see that there were indeed buildings.  Does anyone know whether the fact that there was a cottage on this land in the past, would help us get planning on the land or not?  I'm not keen on going to sealed bids but this land is in the ideal place for us and we would have put in an offer even if it we weren't intending to build.  The issue now is whether we offer more because of the historic proof that a cottage was there or we just look at it as farm land and avoid paying over the odds.

Thanks for reading.

[gaz_moose]

how confident are you that there is actually another offer? 

[GeeJay]

We rang the estate agent last Thursday as they hadn't got back to us for over a week and they said that there was another offer of the asking price. They said they would get back to us next week to advise how to proceed for the sealed bids. That's the only information we have. I don't understand why the other bidderd would just match the offer. You would think they would go above to win it or just not bother. Am I being daft and missing something?!

[nod]

The price of the land will usually reflect the likelihood of planning being granted 

It would be worth checking if there has been any related applications to this land 

[Kelvin]

It’s ‘surprising’ how often another offer appears. 
 

 

[GeeJay]

There have been no related applications.  We've lived in the village for twenty years and it's been farmed for most of that time.  It's only the last few years it hasn't been touched.  The farmer registered it with the Land Registry in 1985 and also owned a few fields scattered throughout the village which are also up for sale. I've just been looking at Ordnance Survey and it looks like there have been buildings on it right up until the 1950's although they are on the very edge of the plot against the road.  There are just a couple of courses of bricks in a run of about 2 metres where the buildings once were but other than that, the old ordnance survey maps, Land Registry and the neighbour there is nothing else to indicate that there were buildings.  There is a row of houses next to the land on one side then at the other side but a little further away there is a small pinfold and another bungalow.  There are also large new build houses at the other side of the street. We just aren't sure whether the council would accept it as infill or whether the old buildings would have any sway when it came to planning.  Planning or not, we would like to buy it but the amount we offer is up in the air because we wouldn't like to pay over the odds for a field.  

[nod]

4 hours ago, GeeJay said:

There have been no related applications.  We've lived in the village for twenty years and it's been farmed for most of that time.  It's only the last few years it hasn't been touched.  The farmer registered it with the Land Registry in 1985 and also owned a few fields scattered throughout the village which are also up for sale. I've just been looking at Ordnance Survey and it looks like there have been buildings on it right up until the 1950's although they are on the very edge of the plot against the road.  There are just a couple of courses of bricks in a run of about 2 metres where the buildings once were but other than that, the old ordnance survey maps, Land Registry and the neighbour there is nothing else to indicate that there were buildings.  There is a row of houses next to the land on one side then at the other side but a little further away there is a small pinfold and another bungalow.  There are also large new build houses at the other side of the street. We just aren't sure whether the council would accept it as infill or whether the old buildings would have any sway when it came to planning.  Planning or not, we would like to buy it but the amount we offer is up in the air because we wouldn't like to pay over the odds for a field.  

Go far it 

Ours was a 2.5 acre field and had been in the same family for over a 100 years Not so much as a cow shed has been built on there 

Now we have two building plots 

[IanR]

7 hours ago, GeeJay said:

Does anyone know whether the fact that there was a cottage on this land in the past, would help us get planning on the land or not? 

 

Unfortunately it has no material effect on a planning application.

 

4 hours ago, GeeJay said:

We just aren't sure whether the council would accept it as infill 

 

If the site is within the settlement boundary (should be available within the local plan) then infill would be a strong argument. If it's outside the settlement boundary, then it would be considered rural or a "ribbon" development (development that has historically occurred along a road, leading away from a settlement) where the infill argument is unlikely to carry any weight.

Get a copy of the relevant OS map, sketch out the foot print of what you are thinking and walk it into the Planning department. They should make someone available for a 10 min chat (although some LPA's will make it as difficult as possible), and see whether it's a definite "no", or a "may be". If it's a "may be" then it's worth a punt and offering a little over it's value without planning.

 

What is odd though is why the current owner hasn't already tried to get Outline Planning and made their plots worth a lot more money.

Edited March 12, 2023 by IanR

[Kelvin]

38 minutes ago, nod said:

Go far it 

Ours was a 2.5 acre field and had been in the same family for over a 100 years Not so much as a cow shed has been built on there 

Now we have two building plots 

Same here. Ours was a 1.4 acre field that had only ever been used as grazing land.