Council Land Purchase

Hi Guys,
I am doing development with in Melbourne east which I bought 4 months before. Submitted plan etc, and one of the feedback that I got back from council that there is a Strip of land only .1m long that goes from one end of my property I bought to four street back touching 10 houses and registered with property address which is 4 street parallel back of property which council owns.

Spoke to council and they don't know why they have this under their name. Issue is since this touches the land over which I seek to do development, other hand of council will not allow permit.

Council is happy to sell the land piece to us which is a good thing (it's damn .1m strip from no where which they don't want to), but they want all the other houses from four strip down to buy their adjacent lands as well, which m sure these guys will not care about. This can take "X" amount of time.

Painful waste of time, any experiences in this regards. Has someone seen something like that I can take experience from ?

 

These deals often fall over as you have no control over the wishes of the adjoining neighbours. Their finances may not stretch to the purchase eg pensioners or otherwise not want the land (oh. I need a new fence, I can't afford that etc).

You need to strategise your purchase and discuss with council officer putting up the proposal. Generally the proposal will be to sell each property to the adjoining owner, if each owner doesn't buy, proposal falls over. The proposal must have a Plan B (your pocket) ie must allow you to step in to buy the additional unwanted parcels of land and (if you don't need them as they don't adjoin your land, gift them to the neighbours).

 

Its a little hard to work out from your post but its sounds like a 'revenge strip'. They are pieces of land that were created when the area was originally developed to stop access from one development to an adjacent development or road. The revenge strip is created like a barrier between the two.

Do you need to build on that land or cross it for access to your site?

Do you have a licensed land surveyor or an experienced private planner on your team? If not, get one now and go through your options.

 

I've heard them called grudge strips previously too. It prevents subdivision where there's front and rear dual street access except for the grudge strip.

In this case it sounds like Council is amenable to selling the land but needs to get adjoining landowners consent and is doing the politically correct process of approaching every adjoining owner before attempting a deal with a single party.

 

Not really as it sits right towards end. I may loose a room or double to single garage, but just was looking for experience like this before.. how long does this take ? Before council let's us build either over it or without it

 

Yup, it's just the time it will take is the problem

 

Depending upon the classification and zoning of the grudge strip, it may require a planning proposal (for reclassification - community land to operational land) and rezoning.

Council cannot sell community land it must be reclassified to operational (in NSW).

 

I'd get a town planner or surveyor now to investigate. If it's along a boundary and you can keep your development within your boundaries then you may have a case for not needing to buy it and not needing to be bothered by it BUT it's best to get someone who knows how to deal with councilVCAT to fight that fight for you

 

The OP says it's only 10cm wide too. Seems like it shouldn't affect the development at all.

 

Sounds like it would have been put there to prevent access to the road - it's a common approach. Physically it looks like there's access,/frontage, but in reality, legally, the access doesn't exist. The width is negligible.
Should be shown on your title, and the "designer" should have taken it into account in the first place - seems a bit late in the day to now discover the problem.
It will be a long process - see if you can work around it and not use it for access

 

Ive given your situation a bit more thought and have a couple questions/advice on what i would do in your shoes:

1. Have you had a title re-establishment survey done for your property, if not then this is the first step. If you have then you should definitely contact the licensed surveyor for their input. You will probably have to pay extra for their advice, but it should be worth it.

2. Have your searched the certificate of title that shows the registered owner of the slither of land in question. If not, you definitely should. You stated earlier that the land is registered to council, the title will confirm this. Or another possibilty is council has an 'interest' in the land but not actually own it. Newer revenge strips are generally owned by council while in older areas the revenge strip land will generally be in the ownership of the original developer. Its worth double checking council actually do own the land.

4. Does the revenge strip have a 'reserve' status? If so, you will need to remove the reserve status if you want to build on that land.

5. If you find that council are the registered owners and they are insisting on selling the revenge strip land before giving you a permit then i would request the following: that you can subdivide that land initially into two lots, one for you for your bit of the revenge strip land, and the second lot for all the rest of the revenge strip land. This will hopefully be enough to satisfy any permit conditions for your development planning permit and allow you to start construction. Then while your constructing your units you and council can attempt to sell the rest of the land to the adjoining land owners, this means you arent being held up waiting for all the land to be sold, as it will prob take around a year or so to go through that process.

I hope this helps, keep us informed.

 

Came across this today, its a factsheet for moonee valley council on the discontinuance and sale of right of ways (roads). While this isnt exactly the same as your situation, the process is very similar.

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&...ggcMAA&usg=AFQjCNFU5TPURiaLAYsohjrXWQJmzJn8xg