How to go about purchasing a sub-plot of land?

My (rural) house adjoins several fields and I am interested in the possibility of buying a tiny amount (20-30 square meters) of one or two of these to increase the size of my garden. Assuming that the landowners are amenable to this and will make a deal, can anyone suggest how to go about valuing the area and how much will it typically cost to do this in solicitors and registry fees etc? The portion of land I am thinking of is just rough bramble covered scrub in the corner of some grazing pastures.

Is it practical to do this without going through the full legal process? (i.e. just agree a few hundred quid with the farmer and fence it off together?)

Thanks.

"Is it practical to do this without going through the full legal process? (i.e. just agree a few hundred quid with the farmer and fence it off together?)"

In my experience - no. It will be wrong, there will be no formality, it will be forgotten about and years later it will surface in a tremendous dispute.

mf

Thanks mf1, I guess as a solicitor you only get to see these situations when they go wrong! Would it be possible to draw up some kind of contract without going through the full land registry process do you think? Perhaps a 100 year lease? It would be nice to be able to give my neighbours a few quid for a small patch of land that is essentially useless to them without having to spend 1000s in legal fees.

"without having to spend 1000s in legal fees. "

I would say that for a very small transaction like this (I am assuming, as you say, that only a few hundred euro is changing hands), the costs would be unlikely to exceed €1500 all-in for both sides (and could well be less than €1000). Why not talk to your solicitor before assuming that the costs are going to be prohibitive?

Thanks MOB, there are actually 2 landowners involved so it could well cost 1000s if the cost you indicate is per transaction. Is it an option to draw up a very long lease instead? Given the tiny amount of land involved it would be a pity to have to spend a huge multiple of the transaction value on legal fees.

bankrupt said:

Thanks MOB, there are actually 2 landowners involved so it could well cost 1000s if the cost you indicate is per transaction. Is it an option to draw up a very long lease instead? Given the tiny amount of land involved it would be a pity to have to spend a huge multiple of the transaction value on legal fees.

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20 t0 30 square meters is not tiny! Look either do this right or not at all. Doing it right will entail getting an engineer or someone suitably qualified to draw up accurate land reg compatible maps, then assuming all parties agree with the map and price being paid you engage your solicitor they engage theirs,solicitors agree tranfer documents etc...

If you try to avoid legal fees and mapping fees you WILL create an almighty mess probably falling out with your neighbours either now or in the future. Solicitors are very competitive re fees particularly now but they will earn their money on something like this...e.g it may well turn out that the land is not in your neigbours name ..it could still be in grandas name or the maps are currently inaccurate or who is going to pay for fencing off new boundaries and maintaining those boundaries..what kind of boundaries will there be e.g stock proof fence or wall. will they be party or will boundary wall or fence be on one persons side only, who will make sure that the boundary wall or fence is put up in exact location per map who will pay for engineer or will there be two involved..

As to drawing up a long lease...who will be qualified to do that other than a solicitor..

So if you are going to do this an engineer and a solicitor will be essential and the fees will have to be paid

Madangan said:

20 t0 30 square meters is not tiny!

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My mistake, I should have written 20-30 meters squared (i.e. 4m x 5m or 5m x 6m area). I think you will agree this is pretty small if not tiny.

What I am trying to tease out, and thanks for your input, is, is it beyond the wit of man to come up with a reasonable arrangement for the use of this small piece of currently unused land without unduly lining the pockets of our bewigged friends? As it seems likely to be prohibitively expensive to buy the land outright I may explore the possibility of a lease with a solicitor, is this a common arrangement?

Ah solicitors dont wear wigs(apart from the balding vain ones) and you wont be unduly lining their pockets merely paying them a fair fee for a good job which as I pointed out in my earlier post can involve quite complex issues! To be honest IMHO as a solicitor a lease arrangement does not suit your needs and wont work out cheaper..if you want to do this get a recommendation of a local solr and enquire as to what the fee might be, then ask your neighbours are they prepared to sell (as a sweetener you could say that you will erect the new fences and pay a portion of their legal fee..if there are two of them maybe they are prepared to use one solicitor between them so then only 2 solrs involved

I am only to here to re-iterate mf1 and mandangan.....do the paperwork properly now.

Reagardless of the area invlolved, a certain minimum of legalwork is required for each plot - so the tinier the area doesn't mean the lesser the work involved or the lesser the bill.

Go ahead now without the legal paperwork and just face multiude of problems in the future

Many thanks for your (non-wigged) advice everyone, I will talk to a local solicitor and try to get a better idea of the costs but it does seem very unlikely that it will make sense to purchase.

How about a straight rental arrangement? Is it simple enough to draw up an annual lease for the corner of a field?

Well you are persistent Ill give you that! In a nutshell -No..if you want to use this piece of land buy it and be done with it otherwise whatever way you look at this it will cost you more money in the long run than if you deal with it properly now

"No" because it's not possible or "no" because you wouldn't advise it? Rental being what it is ,it is clear that in the long run it will cost more than buying outright, the question is then, how long is the long run? It might cost me 2000 to buy the site vs. 100 a year to rent for example. I am interested in the land simply as a vegetable patch so I'm assuming that the maximum possible loss to me is not worth worrying about should the rental somehow go wrong. Is this naive?