propertytalk Live! - Council asked “extortionate” price for small strip of land

propertytalk Live! - Council asked “extortionate” price for small strip of land

Barnsley Council raised the price of a narrow strip of land it had agreed to sell to a woman for her extension – effectively valuing a small triangle of land, 7 inches at its widest point, at £4,000.

Local Government Ombudsman, Anne Seex, in a new report, says the woman “…justifiably feels a strong sense of outrage that the Council should have exploited her situation to try to obtain what she describes as an ‘extortionate’ price.”

She added that it was inconceivable that the Council could have obtained any value for the land from anyone else.

Ms J (real names are not used for legal reasons) asked Barnsley Council to sell her a narrow strip of land along the side boundary of her home. She was building an extension and wanted the land to use as a path to the front and back of her home. The Council agreed to sell the land for £2,950.

Before the sale was completed a Council officer visited Ms J and decided that her extension was being built onto a small, triangular part of the strip it had agreed to sell to her. The officer told Ms J that the land would be revalued and that she might have to demolish the partly-built extension.

The Council decided that the small triangular piece of land that it believed the extension was on had a greater value to Ms J than if she were just using it for a path. It said it now wanted £7,000 for the narrow strip of land – effectively valuing the small triangle of land, 20cms or 7inches at its widest point, at £4,000. Photo: The white triangle held by the Ombudsman’s investigator represents the area of land that the Council valued at £4,000.