Hi folks,
Has anyone any experience of buying/borrowing/leasing land from Housing Associations, in particular Home Housing/Home Group?
We own our house and freehold in a street owned by Home Housing. Most of the other houses in the street are rented.The back and side of our house overlooks a field, which is owned by the Housing Association itself as opposed to the council. In recent years, large parts of the field have been allowed to become overgrown with weeds and are starting to attract small scale fly tipping (tyres, carpets, kids scooters, general rubbish etc).
I'm unable get a sensible answer from the local housing officer regading maintenance. He seems unconcerned about the rubbish or the weeds, and when a fridge/carpet/sofa was dumped, actually grumbled that it would cost them money to get the council to move it.
I would like to propose to move my fence back by 2-3 metres to swallow up some of the worst of this area, and increase my garden space. This isn't about money or development, and I have no desire to try and build things on it. I'm aware adverse possession laws changed some time ago, and that moving the fence on the quiet wouldn't be of financial benefit anyway. I would be prepared to move my fence back to where it was in the future if asked to.
This is purely because I feel my family could benefit from the increased garden space and it would save the Housing Association some of the work of maintaining this area. It would also mean I wouldn't have to look out of my landing window every day and wince at the state of it.
I've asked previously about buying some of the land and was told that they didn't want to sell it because he may be built on in the future. It's possible this isn't accurate as I made the enquiry via the housing officer.
Today I've spoken to the Legal department, who put me onto the Asset Management department, of which one person is on holiday (I have sent an email) and the other is diverting to answerphone.
Before they get back to me, I'd like some tips/advice if possible. Have any of you good people any experience of Housing Associations/councils and this sort of land? What I could use to my advantage when speaking to them? In an ideal world I'd love to buy some of the land and use it as garden, but I'd be almost equally happy with borrowing or leasing the land. Is there any way I could use the current state of the land to my advantage? If they don't want to play ball, where do I stand legally if I just put up a fence and tend to the land anyway? I'm fully aware I wouldn't have any claim to the land, but could they force me to stop using it if they weren't maintaining it themselves?
Sorry for the long winded message, I'm hopeless at keeping things brief lol.
Has anyone any experience of buying/borrowing/leasing land from Housing Associations, in particular Home Housing/Home Group?
We own our house and freehold in a street owned by Home Housing. Most of the other houses in the street are rented.The back and side of our house overlooks a field, which is owned by the Housing Association itself as opposed to the council. In recent years, large parts of the field have been allowed to become overgrown with weeds and are starting to attract small scale fly tipping (tyres, carpets, kids scooters, general rubbish etc).
I'm unable get a sensible answer from the local housing officer regading maintenance. He seems unconcerned about the rubbish or the weeds, and when a fridge/carpet/sofa was dumped, actually grumbled that it would cost them money to get the council to move it.
I would like to propose to move my fence back by 2-3 metres to swallow up some of the worst of this area, and increase my garden space. This isn't about money or development, and I have no desire to try and build things on it. I'm aware adverse possession laws changed some time ago, and that moving the fence on the quiet wouldn't be of financial benefit anyway. I would be prepared to move my fence back to where it was in the future if asked to.
This is purely because I feel my family could benefit from the increased garden space and it would save the Housing Association some of the work of maintaining this area. It would also mean I wouldn't have to look out of my landing window every day and wince at the state of it.
I've asked previously about buying some of the land and was told that they didn't want to sell it because he may be built on in the future. It's possible this isn't accurate as I made the enquiry via the housing officer.
Today I've spoken to the Legal department, who put me onto the Asset Management department, of which one person is on holiday (I have sent an email) and the other is diverting to answerphone.
Before they get back to me, I'd like some tips/advice if possible. Have any of you good people any experience of Housing Associations/councils and this sort of land? What I could use to my advantage when speaking to them? In an ideal world I'd love to buy some of the land and use it as garden, but I'd be almost equally happy with borrowing or leasing the land. Is there any way I could use the current state of the land to my advantage? If they don't want to play ball, where do I stand legally if I just put up a fence and tend to the land anyway? I'm fully aware I wouldn't have any claim to the land, but could they force me to stop using it if they weren't maintaining it themselves?
Sorry for the long winded message, I'm hopeless at keeping things brief lol.