Exclusive use of or purchase of front garden

[Sydniygirl]

Hi
I have a raised ground floor flat situated at the front of the building. The flat takes up the front section of the building and has no common walls. Entrance to the flat is via the main sliding door on the balcony. In front of the flat is a small garden (lawn) just behind the front fence. No one ever uses the garden even though it is common property. However for my flat, it would be advantageous and certainly had more value if I could get exclusive access or were able to purchase or lease the garden. I know I would have to approach the body corporate but am wondering if anyone has ever done this and know what is the best thing to do.
Thanks

 

[Peter Parker]

Hi
I have a raised ground floor flat situated at the front of the building. The flat takes up the front section of the building and has no common walls. Entrance to the flat is via the main sliding door on the balcony. In front of the flat is a small garden (lawn) just behind the front fence. No one ever uses the garden even though it is common property. However for my flat, it would be advantageous and certainly had more value if I could get exclusive access or were able to purchase or lease the garden. I know I would have to approach the body corporate but am wondering if anyone has ever done this and know what is the best thing to do.

This is not uncommon for things like unused laneways or tradesmans toilets that are no longer used.

It's possibly easier if it's a small body corporate and you know all the owners & body corporate manager.

A 25 year lease for a token consideration is possibly a good first step. Especially if there are benefits for the body corp - eg them not having to maintain/mow the garden if it's for your use. This will require owners to agree at a body corp meeting.

Then later on, once you have your foot in the door you could get agreement for the sale of the land. This is a great deal more complicated and may require survey work, council approval, valuation, modification of strata plan, use of conveyancer etc.

There are a lot of costs which are large compared to the size of the land but still worthwhile compared to the possible increase in value.

 

[Sydniygirl]

Hi Spiderman thanks for your reply. This is a strange block of flats and interestingly I do have the tradesman' toilet as part of my lot. It caused my dear mother (whose unit it used to be) endless worries because she would clean the toilet and someone would dirty it but that is another story. One day I will remove the toilet and lock the room and use it as storage. But back to the garden. If I was was to get exclusive usage, would I be able to fence it off at my expense? The idea came to me when I saw another ground floor unit around the corner evidently did something similar because a fence with a gate went up and the owners got a dog and would often be seen sitting in the yard.

 

[marg4000]

We actually did this when hubby's parents were buying a retirement unit. There was a strip of land beside the length of their unit tapering from 1m wide to about 4m wide at the back. We had this attached to the title as exclusive use, and the fence was moved to the new alignment.

However, this was a new complex and we played hard ball. We were also lucky that one of the other units was trying to get permission to park a big motor home on the land, and this gave the owner/vendor a better alternative.

It did not cost us anything. From memory the exclusive use was on a long lease?? We only had to deal with the owner/developer who was also the lawyer. Once the body corporate took over there were no more exclusives granted.

It can be done, but it won't be easy. A genuine concern for the other residents would be that if you let the front yard become overgrown and unkempt it will devalue the entire block.

If I owned a unit in the block I would vote against it for that reason.

I am not suggesting that you would, but once the sole use is granted it will stay with the unit should you rent or sell.
Marg.

 

[Sydniygirl]

Thanks marg4000 for sharing your experience. I am not sure how people would react to this idea but your comments made sense and I will certainly keep this in mind for when I approach the body corporate and sound them out.