Site easements for mortgage

[Roger928]

Sadly their will be no negotiations as my property/land is not for sale.

But as I said, I'm baffeled as to why a mortgage company would want this.
So the guy gets no mortgage to build his dream home. Not my problem.
Mebbe he should look about a site else where. Shame he has spent about £30 or £40k so far.
Or go and live in some terraced hovel in the city. lol

 

[^woody^]

No-one can make you sign over any rights to your land.

You may choose to do so and grant an easement, and choose how much you want to be paid for this. And that's it

And it's not "signing over any chunk of land". It's granting a right to do something or benefit from something. - ie be able to look over it.

You can alternately grant a licence, which is similar but different.

Decline the request or see a solicitor.

 

[^woody^]

One particular lender may like a sight line to protect the value of the land if the borrower defaults. Another may not. It's not obligatory, but a commercial decision.

 

[motorbiking]

If you don’t intend to grant an easement then you should say so in writing preferably with the help of a solicitor. It avoids any claim of oral agreement

 

[Roger928]

I've already seen a solicitor.
And it is signing away a chunk of land. My neighbour would have full rights to move diggers unto it to bulldoze the necessary space.

 

[Roger928]

One particular lender may like a sight line to protect the value of the land if the borrower defaults. Another may not. It's not obligatory, but a commercial decision.

Thank you for that information.

 

[^woody^]

I've already seen a solicitor.
And it is signing away a chunk of land. My neighbour would have full rights to move diggers unto it to bulldoze the necessary space.

That's not correct.

You agree what and the extent of any rights (easement) you want to grant.

 

[endecotp]

I've already seen a solicitor.

Then why on earth are you now asking random people on the internet?

 

[garyo]

What's on the land at the moment?

 

[Footsoldier888]

Clearly it must be trees and suchlike that are obstructing the visibility splay.

It sounds like this neighbour has done the classic error of building before he has got the access in place and the visibility splay extends over the OP's land. Probably he is building on stage payments and the mortgage company have got wind of the problem.

The market price for the easement is approx one third of the uplift in the land value between agricultural and development land. So on a 200K plot it is around 70K.

The OP is right in that although he doesn't have to give up his land, the frontage might be radically altered by the easement.

The OP is perfectly within his rights to say no, in which case the house will never be finished most likely, unless they can get access from some other direction.

I would be AMAZED if your neighbour is not expecting to pay a big sum to you for this, which would have been factored in to his land purchase.

 

[Footsoldier888]

Sadly their will be no negotiations as my property/land is not for sale.

But as I said, I'm baffeled as to why a mortgage company would want this.
So the guy gets no mortgage to build his dream home. Not my problem.
Mebbe he should look about a site else where. Shame he has spent about £30 or £40k so far.
Or go and live in some terraced hovel in the city. lol

Roger - put it this way. If you were the mortgage company, would you want to lend a large sum of money on a house in a rural area that has no vehicular access???

You are right - don't sell if you don't want to. As you say, it has nothing to do with you and isn't your problem.

 

[^woody^]

Bear in mind that in these situations don't be influenced by emotion or wanting to help a neighbour out.

Once the easement is granted, the servient owner's land is potentially devalued, but the neighbour's land increases in value and then most often, the plot is then sold and the neighbour is off with the profits.

You may want to grant the easement or a licence (or even a specific lease) and include clauses for shares of future sale profits. But you decide the terms and what can and can't be done with (or over) the land.

You really have the upper hand, its effectively a "ransom strip" of land.

 

[Footsoldier888]

Exactly Woody.

Personally I would not go for anything in the future like profits becasue there are too many ways to get round it.

It's either don't sell or take a big sum of cash for me at least. But I fully understand why the OP might not want to sell.

You have to be careful this neighbour doesn't have more land, I don't know how it works in that instance.

If the frontage is exposed and you have poplars say I can understand how it could alter the enjoyment of the OP's dwelling.

 

[tomfe]

They might not want to own the land just have a sight easement over it, that might just mean lowing the height of hedges etc. It's coming up end of Feb so you can't do cutting on agricultural land anyway.
You don't have to do anything.
The planning permission will have been granted on the premise of the sight lines being in place. Thus a mortgage company wont lend on a house which does not have planning.

 

[garyo]

I wonder if there's more going on. If the sight lines weren't required for planning, is the builder looking at additional residential units, or a barn conversion, or something that they know would then require planning/highways to demand better sight lines? So this is all just being dressed up as a mortgage issue on a single build so as not to offend the OP with over-development before he's signed his airspace away.