What exactly is 'an agricultural tie' when buying a house?

[*hic*]

*gulp*

We've been idly considering moving back to Thurso . . . . might not be such an idle thought now!

 

[CarolineJ]

*gulp*

We've been idly considering moving back to Thurso . . . . might not be such an idle thought now!

General consensus is that £450k is overpriced - it was on the market on its own before the company that owned the estate went into administration. There's a lot for sale around Reay, Melvich and Halkirk and prices are low because Dounreay is shutting ahead of schedule and reducing staff left, right and centre. If you've got an income that doesn't rely on getting a job locally, now would be a very, very good time to start looking up here.

 

[teacups]

are you kidding? Ag ties reduce the value of a property, they were designed for farm workers and generally retained by the farm owners, their value is not a positive descrimination, ag ties are notoriously difficult to lift, therefore the property will always be devalued.

In case you haven't noticed farming is on its arse, if ag ties are the only thing we get by way of positive descrimination then its a sorry state.

Might be the case that farming is on it's arse...which would be why around here they seem to have turned to property developing instead.

Local farmer 1:
- got permission to sell perfectly good farm + farmyard - farmyard for development; tie lifted on main house. House sold for 650K; developer built about 7 600K houses, and 3 tiny 'affordable homes' with titchy north-facing gardens - so the sale of farmyard was quite profitable too.
They were given PP to build new farmhouse on prime greenbelt location less than 1/4 mile away; build cost about £300K and worth about £1.5 million even with ag. tie - locally dubbed 'Southfork Ranch'. A stunning monster-sized house for a couple with 2 children. They are now running several 'diversification' businesses from it, for which they received large rural development grants, but which don't seem to actually do very much.

You can work out the profit - not bad!

Local farmer 2:
- owned nice cottage in village with ag. tie. The farm worker died, and farmer then tried to get the tie lifted so they could sell at a profit. This was refused, and farmer was so annoyed they left the cottage empty rather than rent it to another farm worker. They didn't carry out repairs, and roof tiles went missing so water came in. After 5 years the cottage was beyond repair and so derelict they got the tie lifted on that basis. They got PP and sold at a nice fat profit.

I can think of quite a few other examples in my general area: this is just in my village!

Given that there are fewer and fewer farm workers, and fewer small farms it's amazing, the number of new farmhouses going up.

 

[marmalade76]

That is awful, Teacup!

There sure are some greedy buggers out there, have more than most but still want more and happy ruin the countryside in the process

 

[xxMozlarxx]

How on earth did they get planning permission for the house the OP is referring to? Not exactly a farmhouse, not likely to be bought by 'farmers', and not really big enough to farm anyway! Ridiculous.

I think ag ties have their heart in the right place; there should be special consideration for individuals who need o live on the land, but in reality they are the most abused planning conditions going. And yes OP, you probably would get away with it by keeping a couple of cows. But that doesn't make it right!!!

Exactly my point..or one of them, building a house on a farm for a farm worker is one thing, (still a debatable point) but that is the tip of the iceberg in reality.

 

[xxMozlarxx]

Ha ha ha, read my post again, you cannot get a mortgage on a house with an ag tie, so the advantage was minimal anyway! And how do you suggest affordable housing is provided for those country people on low wages whilst keeping the wealthy townie out??

I shall try to explain the reason for an ag tie - in areas where planning permission is very hard to get, the person wanting the property would have to prove a need for it, ie, they need to live there to look after animals, etc, and the ag tie was intended to stop greedy people building houses then selling them on to people without a 'need' to live in that property.

ETA, are you refering to people on low wages who live in the country but don't work there? In which case they have no 'need 'to live there and no more right than a wealthy townie! As it happens, my OH has worked in agriculture all his life and we cannot afford to live in the area that he works (ag tie or not), welive and a town and he spends a fortune on fuel traveling to and from work
(which we can ill afford on what little we earn), poluting the globe whilst the
townies travel the other way!

Thanks but I don't need an explanation of what an Ag tie is, I am fully aware. In actual fact there are a number of plots with planning permission available to buy with Ag ties, on the open Market..not sure how they've proven the necessity given they can be snapped up by anyone with a business plan to keep a few sheep....now theres an idea right there...

 

[*hic*]

General consensus is that £450k is overpriced - it was on the market on its own before the company that owned the estate went into administration. There's a lot for sale around Reay, Melvich and Halkirk and prices are low because Dounreay is shutting ahead of schedule and reducing staff left, right and centre. If you've got an income that doesn't rely on getting a job locally, now would be a very, very good time to start looking up here.

Husband's comment was "That's priced for the Englsh market" before he went off on one about the state of the beach - insider knowledge We have to go up there at some point in the not too distant future to see his mother's old friends (she died recently) and it will be interesting to have a look around. Still in touch with some of the "atomics" now down south so have heard about the problems up there.

 

[CarolineJ]

Husband's comment was "That's priced for the Englsh market" before he went off on one about the state of the beach - insider knowledge We have to go up there at some point in the not too distant future to see his mother's old friends (she died recently) and it will be interesting to have a look around. Still in touch with some of the "atomics" now down south so have heard about the problems up there.

*nods* The beach has been excluded from the sale - the government will have to buy it. The reason the estate's up for sale in the first place is because the company it's owned by went into voluntary administration after 10 years of legal bills trying to sue for compensation over the beach, he's now taken it as far as he can and has lost.

http://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk...legal-wrangle-goes-on-the-market-29062012.htm