Rough Agricultural land - saga continues! Advice about "Prêt à Usage" please?

[Rosyposy_2001]

Hi,

I posted a couple of weeks ago that we had been offered the purchase of about an acre of rough agricultural land immediately adjoining our holiday cottage in the Morbihan, and received some very helpful advice form members, so thank you for that.

We have agonised and spent sleepless nights about it ever since as we do not have any money to spare, and it would involve taking out a small loan, but we were still worried that, if we did not buy it, someone else would, and might develop it, which would be very detrimental to the future value of our property, and indeed our enjoyment of it.

My husband finally asked a property valuer who works in his office here in the UK, and he said that, given the proximity of the land to our property, the land, at €3000 is "an absolute gift" and would tremendously improve the value and future saleability of our house! He added that he wouldn't hesitate to buy it if he was in our shoes!

Relieved by this opinion, and feeling the decision had been taken off out of our hands in a positive way, we contacted the notaire, told her that we are keen to buy, but could she please confirm that the fees for this sale would be €1340, which seemed ridiculously high (unfortunately this figure is correct!), and could she confirm that we would not lose use of the land if the farmer continued to maintain it free of charge and keep whatever he grew on it over a number of years, as we had been warned by a forum member that this could be a problem. We realise that we may not be able to afford to keep our property indefinitely as we had hoped when we bought the house, and want to be sure that we would not have a problem when it came to selling, if we ever have to, as this would be, for us, the whole point of buying the land!

She has replied by email that she could draw up a "prêt à usage", which I have now looked up online, but this seems to be a terribly grey area, and one which has caused a few problems for owners in the past! I understand the gist of the document but there are 1 or 2 aspects that I am unable to find answers to online.

Has anyone had any experience of this, and do you know, for example, whether we would still have any right to enter the land (we currently scuttle down the side of it to cut the parts of the trees in our garden which we cannot reach from within it and which block our view of the countryside), and to trim trees and brambles on the land we would be purchasing which are just outside our garden but which also block our view when they grow too tall? Also we toss grass cuttings etc over our hedge onto the land (something the previous owner had done for many years, probably unseen by the farmer because of the amount of "undergrowth" just the other side of our hedge but on his land!), as we often have to cut the grass on a day-trip to France and there is no time to get to the dechetterie before we have to dash back to the ferry!

There is a deep ditch between our current property and the field in question, and he has never cultivated the land close to it, and for the time being this is probably the only part we would want to use for access etc as mentioned above, but as owners, would we be legally entitled to? 

If not, we are unsure what the point of us buying it is, for us at least. If we had money to spare for investment then I can see the point, but if our own use is severely limited I'm not sure now whether to go ahead! We would probably always be glad for him to continue to maintain it and use most of it as we have no intention of (or funds for) ever developing the land in the future, other than to perhaps put a small garage on it for our car one day, when we can afford to. The Mairie has said they would look kindly on such an application.

We shall of course try to discuss this whole matter with the notaire, who is very helpful, but given my much less than perfect French and her very good, but also less than perfect English, we are anxious not to make a costly mistake. It's a small amount of money to many people, but a lot to us, we are just trying to think of the future and what we leave to our children.

Any advice gratefully received, thanks in anticipation!

[Tricia]

What makes you think the land might be built on if you don't buy it? Some agricultural land can't be used for building. Are there a lot of newbuilds near your house? Is it near a busy town , and so desirable as a building plot?

Another point you say someone in the UK said it was a bargain, but there's no comparison between agricultural land inthe UK and in France. Just look on some of the immo. websites - there are loads of building plots for sale, and very cheap. Depends where you live mind - near big towns it's dearer.

[Rosyposy_2001]

Possibly it wouldn't be built on if bought by someone else as the Mairie says it s definitely agaricultural land and doubtful that building permission would be given for anything larger than a garage - at the moment! However, I gather that land classification in France is prone to changing more easily than in the UK?

I agree that there is a big difference in the price of land here and in France, but the person concerned spends a lot of time in France so I think he has some knowledge of it (hope so anyway!) but I think it was mainly the linking of the house and land immediately adjoining value-wise that he was considering. It would certainly be ideal for anyone wanting to start out on a "Good Life" project with a few veg and a few small animals, chickens etc.!

[Pierre ZFP]

To put it in perspective, this land is on offer at 74 CENTS per sq metre.  or around €1 including fees.

What else on earth could you buy so cheaply these days?

have a search in your area for land on www.lebocoin.fr   I bet you don't find much for less that €10 per metre and a LOT more if it comes with building permission

[Rosyposy_2001]

Put like that it seems very reasonable! I think we were most shocked by the notaire's fees being half as much again!

Thanks for the link, I will check it out right now!

Rosemary

[KathyF]

Well, a fair bit of the 'fees' are tax and the work involved in transferring and registering an acre of land is probably the same as doing it for hundreds of hectares. [:)]

[Rosyposy_2001]

Yes, I think you're right, it's the same whatever the size. Still a big percentage compared to buying a house, though.

Don't suppose anyone has any idea how much we are likely to be charged to have the grass cut on 1 acre of land twice a year? It's level ground, straight off the road, and the vegetation is short at the moment, so it's not a jungle clearance job! Any maintenance in between we could do for ourselves when we are able to be there.

[Chancer]

[quote user="Rosyposy_2001"]

Yes, I think you're right, it's the same whatever the size. Still a big percentage compared to buying a house, though.

[/quote]

The same applies to house sales, the cheaper they are the higher the percentage charged by the Notaire.

In my case it was an additional 13%

[ebaynut]

[quote user="Pierre ZFP"]

To put it in perspective, this land is on offer at 74 CENTS per sq metre.  or around €1 including fees.

What else on earth could you buy so cheaply these days?

have a search in your area for land on www.lebocoin.fr   I bet you don't find much for less that €10 per metre and a LOT more if it comes with building permission

[/quote]

And of course, it does go down a VERY long way also. [;-)]

[Pierre ZFP]

And up?

Do I remember something about you own the airspace (to infinity?) above the ground you own?

Perhaps if anyone has Ryanair flying over them they could send O'Leary a bill for airspace usage (plus service charge of course) [:P]

 

[La Guerriere]

and don't take his credit card

[Maria]

I'm not sure where these prices come from as we are buying agricultural land for €0.36 per square metre, including fees, and understand that this is actually a bit expensive - but that is in the Charente and not attached to our house.  It's the latter fact that makes a huge difference, wherever you are.