The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: moony on December 19, 2013, 04:30:34 pm
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I am interested in buying a chunk of land. Having never bought any before, or a house can somebody give me a basic of the process, the timescale to complete and any likely solicitors fees involved. I imagine the agents will be helpful, ts just so I can prepare myself.
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its very simple…. you find what you want.. put a offer in, under the asking price, if they accept..then happy days if not, well you may end up paying the asking price
once you have got the offer accepted..find a solicitor..they will do all the searches…their fees can range from £500-£1,500 depending on how much work they do…you will get the estimation before they start doing their work
you may find it hard to get a mortgage on a barn conversion, but many will give you a mortgage to do the place up, once you have purchased the place..
hope this helps
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While general solicitors can and will do the relevant work for land only, there are specialists in agricultural land sales who will ask questions a high street one might not think of.
I was in touch with one in this area a few years ago, having bought land without clarity over water supply rights - I had the water but the neighbour whose land it went through (they were originally the same farm) threatened me many times with cutting it off despite being a horseowner herself.. If she'd had a meter then there would have been other things to negotiate, and things like access routes for stock and vehicles, march fence and track maintenance responsibilities, also outstanding grants and any conditions remaining from previous funding.
Then having moved here I had power cables overhead and poles/transformers on my land, so things like access rights for the company/contractors, tree work to protect the lines, payments which can be annual and due you or capitalised years ago by the previous landowner.
That's just my 2 experiences, one land only and one smallholding inc house, and just off the top of my head. You would also check things like core paths and other rights of access, traditional or legal - the local hunt or dogwalkers, knowing where people expect to go before you put in stock you don't want them in with. Etc etc Oh and if you're thinking of putting in a planning application later, check if there's been any previous history. Some landowners also insist on payments in the event you increase the value of the land over the next x years, and that might impact on you if you don't check and negotiate properly, whether a house, a barn or a business or even just drainage, you might get caught out. TPO's on trees too.. I keep thinking of more but anyway my point is think about a specialist as a reasonable investment before going to buy.
Oh yes and you can't get a mortgage so it's cash only for land on its own, again there are agri lenders who will consider a loan for you but you need to make a sound case and the rates are higher than domestic mortgages usually by quite a bit if I recall correctly.
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You'll pay around £750 + Vat and disbursements - ends up being somewhere between £1200 and £1500.
We completed on land last week and paid this.
Agree with the point about having a specialist agri lawyer...a residential one won't have a clue (probably)
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Thanks for the replies. We are going to put an offer as soon as Christmas day has been and gone. Have been given an idea from the agents what price they believe the seller would look at so going to initially offer a bit below that.
Useful to know how much solicitors fees are so I have an idea how much to allow. The land is a large parcel of upland pasture so there would be no concerns with planning in the future. Its in the National Park though and that's the aspect I really want clarification on from a good solicitor as to just what restrictions to stocking or fencing that might mean, particularly as the stone wall boundaries need a lot of work.