Who 'Values' land?

Gaelmart

My mum & Aunt have 33 acres to split so each family gets half.
Now I thought we'd just draw a line at 16.5 acre mark but solicitor says we need to get it valued as all half's are not equal .

Fine so who does this, as measuring would be part of it also I'd imagine and the local estate agent wouldn't be qualified me thinks.

54and56

Gaelmart wrote: »

My mum & Aunt have 33 acres to split so each family gets half.
Now I thought we'd just draw a line at 16.5 acre mark but solicitor says we need to get it valued as all half's are not equal .

Fine so who does this, as measuring would be part of it also I'd imagine and the local estate agent wouldn't be qualified me thinks.

Suppose the land is a perfect circle. One semi circle is prime road side frontage zoned for residential development and the other semi circle is bog land zoned for preservation. Both are 16.5 acres but both have very different values. An extreme example but you get the point.

The correct process IMHO is to have the entire 33 acres professionally valued (these https://www.scsi.ie/professional_groups/residential_agency_surveying/red_book are the highest qualified in the country that I'm aware of) and you move forward from there ie if the valuation of the 33 acres is €1m and the sisters don't want to sell the entire plot and spilt the proceeds but want to keep their share of the land in their respective names then sister A gets land worth €500,000 and sister B gets land worth €500,000.

That may result in one sister getting 5 acres of prime road frontage and the other sister getting 25 acres made up of 3 acres of road frontage and 22 acres of bog or whatever but you get the gist? An equal financial spilt is what's important.

From a practical perspective the solicitor should ask the valuer to create two parcels of land with equal value then draw lots to see which sister gets which parcel.

An even more interesting way to do it would be to invite one of the sisters to split the land into two parcels which in her opinion were of equal value and then give the other sister the choice of which "equal" parcel she wants for herself. That's a great way to keep things honest!!!

Victor

Following valuation, another option would be to invite both parties to allocate points to each plot. Each gets 100 points total. One can then decide who gets what plots.

54and56

Victor wrote: »

Following valuation, another option would be to invite both parties to allocate points to each plot. Each gets 100 points total. One can then decide who gets what plots.

What "plots" are you referring to? I don't recall the OP saying there were a number of clearly deliniated plots making up the 33 acres.

If the plots you refer to aren't already defined, how do you suggest they are defined and who does that task?

Victor

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

What "plots" are you referring to? I don't recall the OP saying there were a number of clearly deliniated plots making up the 33 acres.

If the plots you refer to aren't already defined, how do you suggest they are defined and who does that task?

There wouldn't be many individual fields in excess of 33 acres (equivalent to about 365 x 365 metres).

Gaelmart

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

From a practical perspective the solicitor should ask the valuer to create two parcels of land with equal value then draw lots to see which sister gets which parcel

Yea well that's the plan. Just not sure who is 'valuer'.

Dr Turk Turkelton

Chartered surveyor?

tabby aspreme

Gaelmart wrote: »

Yea well that's the plan. Just not sure who is 'valuer'.

Usually it's a local auctioneer, who has experience of local land sales

54and56

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Usually it's a local auctioneer, who has experience of local land sales

It's important the person you (or your solicitor) engage to undertake the valuation has both relevant experience (which a local auctioneer will likely have) AND relevant valuation qualifications so they have formal expertise as well.

I'd also advocate that the valuer should likely be from outside the area so there is no potential for favouritism towards one sister over the other or other types of Shenanigans.

Fyi about 10 years ago i was involved in a similar situation and something didn't smell right. Long story short the local auctioneer placed a low value on the land because another client of his wanted to buy and develop it. By placing a low value of eg €800,000 on it for probate an offer of €1m some weeks later would look good and he'd get a fee from both doing the valuation and securing the purchase of the land for his other client at a low ball rate.

I managed to get agreement between the two inheritors of the land (which in my case weren't related) to put it up for auction and it achieved a value which was 1.8 times the value they local auctioneer had put on it. If we hadn't done that they'd each have lost out on several hundred thousand Euro.

It's a murky world. IMHO the best course of action is to engage someone from outside the area who has formal RICS valuation qualifications and pay for a professional valuation. It'll cost more than getting the local auctioneer to do it but it might save you a lot of cash and a lot heartache in the end.

Btw, I'm neither an auctioneer, estate agent or RICS member but i am speaking from direct relevant experience.