Access across land you don't own

[tebee]

Hi

 

We have been trying to buy a house in Brittany for just over a year, but problems with French inheratance laws have prevented us completing. The property consists of four parcels of land and after two deaths in the last year one parcel now has over 40 owners!

 

It has been suggested to us by the agents that we restart the process without that parcel as the ownership of the other three is considerably less complicated. The problem is the parcel is a narrow strip of land separating the house from the road, and we are wondering if this will cause any problems in the future although the agent assures us it will not.

 

The strip is roughly 50 meters long and one meter wide and is in front of the garden wall and that of the next building along. It is where the pavement would be, we where on the sort of road that had one! The workshop still reaches the road but the house would be separated from it, to get into the driveways you would have to cross this piece.

 

I presume it would be very difficult to get all the owners together and to agree on something that would cause us problems, but might we have problems with utility access and the like?

 

Anybody got any thoughts?

 

 

Tom

[Val_2]

Firstly never trust fully what an agent says about land ownership and rights as they are not notaires or legal eagles. Sorry to any agents reading this,but I have seen several examples of this whereby people have bought properties with strips of land between them and the access,servitudes or strips of communal land less than one metre from front doors and they have all had problems,some serious. The french can get very upset at anyone or anything encroaching on their land and so you really must get the whole thing sortedand recorded on a legal document for future inheritance where it could re-surface again and cause trouble. Unfortunately there are many agents now selling properties will all sorts of fibs attached,you only have to read some of the grievances people have had on these forums as at the end of the day,they just want to make a living and once the property is sold,they can wash their hands of it. Again this is not directed at respectable agents who take their living seriously. As you say, any intervention work by the utilities may be refused by the owners of the strip and then you are up s**t creek. Personally speaking, I think I would have walked away a year ago and found something else but you obviously love the place and for that, I wish you every happiness there.

[Iceni]

Such strips are normally known as "ransom" strips - I wonder why ?

Personally I would not touch the property with the proverbial barge pole - potential for grief is too much to contemplate though it must have some pull for you to have hung around for so long.

Best of luck anyway.

John

[Mpprh]

Hi

this may not be what you want to hear :

1)That 1m strip is crucial if you want to cross it

2)If any of the potential 40 parties predeceased another you'll have to wait until the predeccessor's (does that exist ?) ancestors die. And some live for a long time !

3)If there is a question of predeccession don't expect the potential donnees to agree on anything

If you email me direct I can give more information.

Our experience was that ownership took 34 years to finalise !

Peter

[Athene]

Hi!

you need to go to the mayor and ask who owns it for definite then go to your notaire and get them to do the work for you as they will tell the seller that they need the correct legally written permission from the owners. I am in full agreement with the other people here, do NOT in any circumstances buy a house with a strip that has no permission to cross it.

Good luck

Athene

[letrangere]

Tebee, sympathise entirely as we were once in identical situation.  We walked away from it and still believe we made the right decision.  Only problem is (and it's a big one), we haven't seen a house since that we like so much...   M

[Monika]

[quote]Tebee, sympathise entirely as we were once in identical situation. We walked away from it and still believe we made the right decision. Only problem is (and it's a big one), we haven't seen a house ...[/quote]

We could have bought two houses for 74000 Euros in Britanny,  but absolutely no land around it apart from the strip between the two houses, I just could not decide then and there and another british couple signed for it 10 minutes later, I often wonder what happened there, how they coped. It was a lovely position and sometimes my husband says, we should have gone for it, what with prices going up so fast. Well we will never know.

Monika

[Athene]

[quote]We could have bought two houses for 74000 Euros in Britanny, but absolutely no land around it apart from the strip between the two houses, I just could not decide then and there and another british c...[/quote]

Yes I heard a tale about a couple on this site who bought a house that had very little land and when they moved in they needed to re-do their septic tank and the authourities told them it had to be 30 metres from the house and they did not have 30 metres! I never did hear the outcome!

[isabelmaidment]

I would not buy without sorting the access strip. In the UK ransom strips are common and deliberately set up and there are formula for calculating their value if you get planning permision for the 'locked land'. For the most part they arise in France because of the strict rules of inheritance. The younger French are more pragmatic about selling land and are used to the idea of needing many people to sort out the sale.

Anton Redman ( sorry Isabel still have not resolved log in problem)

[Athene]

[quote]I would not buy without sorting the access strip. In the UK ransom strips are common and deliberately set up and there are formula for calculating their value if you get planning permision for the 'lo...[/quote]

However, on a happier note, the land we want to purchase and has to have a permission to cross a strip belonging to someone else is now resolved as our notaire has the owners' written consent (as long as it will not cost them any money!) The present owner of our new land has sorted this out in conjuction with the notaire. So we are all happy! I would say here it really helps to have a conscientious, thoughtful notaire! It took us a while to find her bgut she is worth her weight in gold! The one we had to buy the house was less than helpful!