Buying a Woodland Together – Joint Purchasing ~ by Angus

Why Buy a Woodland Together?

Buying a woodland as partners or a group can make it possible for people to buy woodlands who couldn’t otherwise afford to do so.  It also has the advantage of shared responsibility for ownership - sharing the work and decision-making on woodland management.

 Choosing The Right People for Buying a Woodland Jointly

Choosing the right people with whom to buy is extremely important and it is a good idea to talk in detail through what each person wants from the woodland and what each person feels he or she can contribute.  It is also very important to discuss what would happen if someone should want to leave the ownership group, or indeed what would happen if they were forced to give up ownership for financial or personal reasons.  Usually you would want the others to have a right to buy the share of the departing owner, but you will need to decide who in the group has first option and at what price.  If none of the other owners should want to buy them out, what restrictions if any are there to be on the person to whom they sell?  You will also want a way of  making shared decisions when not everyone agrees, especially over what will be permitted in the wood and when to sell.

Making Joint Ownership Work

You will need to decide on a mechanism to make your purchase work.  One possibility, if you want to have four or fewer joint owners, is to put everyone onto the Land Registry title.  The largest number you can put on is four, so if you want to go above that number you either have to have a trust structure or set up a limited liability company to own the land and then the number of shareholders and directors for the company can be as large as you wish.  If you go for the company route you will probably want to have a shareholders’ agreement that incorporates your collective view on what to do when people want to sell and what to do if more money is needed for any projects or for general management.

We at Woodlands.co.uk have had quite a bit of experience of people buying jointly and in the main it has worked very well.  The most successful groups appear to be groups of friends where all parties are taking an active part in managing the woodland and it seems that groups of 4-7 owners work well – if it’s too large it gets hard to manage (there’s also bound to be an awkward one in a larger group of owners!).  If the group is as small as three then you sometimes get the “two’s company and three’s a crowd” problem – two often get close to each other and leave the other one feeling left out.

Where to Start

If you are interested in buying woodland and have a fixed amount of capital to go towards it, such as £5,000 or £10,000, how should you find like-minded people with whom to buy jointly?  One possibility is to approach the Small Woodland Association one of whose objectives is to help people buy woodlands.  Another is to let us know and we will try to put you in touch with like-minded people - though obviously we don’t vet anyone and cannot be responsible for how things works out.  Another possibility is to get involved in a local group such as a county conservation trust to meet others with similar interests in the countryside.   Many people feel they would rather buy with people they already know and end up buying jointly with parents or siblings or grown-up children.

We have come across examples of all these arrangements and joint purchasing of woodland generally works very well.

Posted in: Practical Guides ~ On: 21 December, 2007

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