On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:55:18 +0100, Ian White wrote:
A.Lee wrote:
Last year he came round, offered again to buy the land, as he couldnt
sell his house as the garden was too small. I said £20,000 - the value
the extra land would add to his house value according to a Surveyor
friend. He thought I was joking, and offered £3000 inc.costs.
I politely refused.

From experience, you could try for a deal on the basis of splitting that
anticipated 20k profit between both parties. Your parents can't expect
to get the whole 20k and leave him nothing;

But he doesn't get nothing - he gets to sell his house. So aside from the
costs of buying this parcel of land, everyone wins. The house seller achieves
his/her goal, the land-seller makes a tidy sum and the new-house buyer ends
up with a usable garden.

but neither can he expect to
walk away with the profits of a 17k/3k split... so somewhere in between
there's a deal to be made.

Your parents are in a strong position: does he want to sell that house
and get on with his life, or not?

Round where I live the price of the land is buy far the largest component
of a house price (YMMV). Much more than the cost of building the house, even
though the plots are very small - tiny, in fact. I'd also venture that the sellers
house *isn't* unsaleable with the existing small garden (as he/she bought it
in the first place). It just doesn't command the price they want for it. I'd
guess that if they dropped the price by, ooh, 20K they'd get a buyer.