Free Land

[Ergophobia]

I figured this title would get some hits

A property I am looking at in Perth has a common laneway/easement about 5m wide running along the back between the lots.

The vendor tells me it's a hang over of a bad town planning decision, council have blocked it off but is a liability they want to get rid of.

The vendor is in the process of getting added to his lot. Although not finalized yet, the land area has been advertised including this extra land.

He tells me that all council want for it is a few bucks (~500) to cover survey and other costs.

Sounds too good to be true... Anything I should be wary of? Any special conditions I should include?

 

[Indifference]

There sure are!

My Commercial IP has a similar tract of land that provides rear access to a number of other properties. As mine is at the entrance end of the "lane" an agreement exists for other properties to gain access to their properties via this parcel of land. This is covered by a legal agreement with all affected landowners a signatory. If I ever wanted to "reclaim" my land, it would not be easy, practical or necessarily possible, as legal precedent exists & access granted.

In short, not knowing the particular details of the property in question & for what purpose the lane exists (including any access precedents), I can only say that yes, there may be things to be wary of. Such as, continued granting of access, maintenance of the access, increased land content leading to increased valuation & rates, insurance issues, etc....

NOTHING, is ever FREE..... even if the land is added to the title, the 500 bucks is probably not the whole story, but if it is, good luck to you.

 

[lizzie]

I'd be getting the full story from council direct ... and insist on seeing all the paperwork pertaining to the addition

 

[Aaron Sice]

if it's a defunct portion of land, this happens all the time.

if ONE neighbour is still using it for access and is affected, it can get knocked on the head. similar rights and precedent as squatting rights, etc.

 

[Ergophobia]

The guy tells me he has everyone in the block on board, the property has two properties over the back fence, one doesnt want the laneway, the other wants half, so I guess there will be some fencing cost added if I cant pursuade them to sell it to me...

Perhaps I should demand a 10m high double brick fence

The vendor has passed on his contact at the local council who is handling the issue, at the moment its all sounding good.

I might go ahead with the offer and add a special condition subject to finalisation of the land transfer.

 

[hobo-jo]

Perhaps an amount can be held in escrow until the easement is confirmed yours...

 

[weg]

I figured this title would get some hits

A property I am looking at in Perth has a common laneway/easement about 5m wide running along the back between the lots.

The vendor tells me it's a hang over of a bad town planning decision, council have blocked it off but is a liability they want to get rid of.

The vendor is in the process of getting added to his lot. Although not finalized yet, the land area has been advertised including this extra land.

He tells me that all council want for it is a few bucks (~500) to cover survey and other costs.

Sounds too good to be true... Anything I should be wary of? Any special conditions I should include?

We have this land between our backyard blocks, except it was claimed unofficially by those on our side decades ago.

The laneway (which is what we believe it to be) doesn't show up on any recent titles (these shows the land belongs to those on my side) but if a surveyor does a bit of digging around, which at least a couple have done, they find this land has not been properly divided at all.

The council appear to know about this, as do most of the neighbours and the Lands Titles office, but no ones offered it to us to buy, or appear to care (it's in the too hard basket) so things kind of remain as they are... except for 2 neighbours who are fighting this out atm.

Everyone else has buildings on the boundry (the lane encroaches about 6m at it's deepest) as well as a boundry that lines up and the 'claim' on a title, so are not too worried about losing the land.

Yep, I'm a squatter .

 

[Ergophobia]

Sounds like you have a case for consideration under the native titles act

I'd be approaching local council to get it squared away tho, that way is shows up on your title.