buying freehold with extra land

[susiejg]

hello all hope someone can offer some advice

We own an an old end terraced property in the north west and have lived here 16 years, the only access to the rear of our property is via a very narrow alley at the opposite end of the terrace (just fit car through) access is over land that is also owned by the lady who has the freehold to all the property's.
We have approached her about buying the freehold on the house and also the strip of land that runs in line with our garden, nobody else needs any access to this land as we are at the very end of terrace, we have allways maintained this land to run our car onto.
There is still 893 years left to run on our lease for house and there would never be a possibility of this land being used for anything else as it is sandwiched in by council land.
What would you consider a fair price? i realise we would need an official valuation but i would rather get an approx price before paying out for that as money is tight and depending on value we may not be able to afford it anyway

thanks

[susiejg]

forgot to mention the land is approx 24ft by 15ft

[Richard Webster]

Leaving aside the freehold of the house which is probably only worth around £100 I would think the access strip is worth the difference between the value of the house with no off street parking and its value with off street parking.

[susiejg]

Originally Posted by Richard Webster

Leaving aside the freehold of the house which is probably only worth around £100 I would think the access strip is worth the difference between the value of the house with no off street parking and its value with off street parking.

Thank you for your response as soon as she gets back with a definate yes that she is willing to sell we will get in someone to value for us, we just don't want to do it yet as there will be a charge for us to pay and she may not even decide to sell after all, i can't imagine the value being so hefty as we already have off road parking with garages right next to the land, that is owned by the council the access to our garage is over this land anyhow.

[susiejg]

Please can i ask for more advice i am soooooooo confused, after speaking to the lady who we thought owned the freehold to our house she said that according to there records they have no paperwork to say that they should approach us for ground rent but do still collect from the rest of our terrace.
I delved further and got a brilliant man at the land registry who found that they are in fact the head leaseholders and have been since 1877 and we are the under leaseholder but the freeholder is missing and cannot be traced where does this leave us?

Any help would be fantastic cos i am not the most educated person and this has gone right over my head

[Richard Webster]

If you can't find the freeholder then you can't buy the freehold - only the head lease in respect of the land that you want, for what it is worth - but in practical terms that may be fine.

[susiejg]

Originally Posted by Richard Webster

If you can't find the freeholder then you can't buy the freehold - only the head lease in respect of the land that you want, for what it is worth - but in practical terms that may be fine.

Thank you again Richard, we are just going to ask the head lease holder if she is prepared to also lease us the land, searching through all this though has been really interesting i have found pictures and various things on the internet relating to our home going as far back as late 1800's, would it be very expensive to change the lease do you think? and would it be fair for me to ask it also extends the full 800 years left on the property?

[Richard Webster]

You will want to buy part of her head leasehold title insofar as it relates to this access area. You wouldn't want a new lease of it - too much trouble. Her headlease is likely to be very slightly longer - anything from a day to a year or two - than your lease.