Purchase of a building plot with traffic area

Hello dear forum members,

I am about to acquire a building plot in Strausberg (near Berlin) together with my partner. The plot itself has a size of 543 sqm and additionally one acquires a 108 sqm [Verkehrsteilfläche].

Now I have learned from the city that they want to acquire the [Verkehrsteilfläche] (right of first refusal) and so to speak enter into the purchase contract or carry out the transaction independently. After consulting with the current owner, however, she is not interested in selling the [Verkehrsteilfläche] to the city! This raises the question for me, why?

Do you happen to know why most landowners in the area are not interested in transferring the [Verkehrsteilflächen] to the city? Are there any disadvantages for one? She wants to grant us a usage right for it.

Regards

I have no knowledge here at all and cannot answer all the questions, but if the city is interested, then it can exercise its right of first refusal? Then the owner cannot prevent the sale to the city, can it?

The plot itself has a size of 543 sqm and additionally one acquires a 108 sqm traffic area.

I interpret the overall description as a plot of a total of 651 sqm, of which 108 sqm are covered by a private road that the municipality would like to take over into its responsibility (which is highly commendable).

Now I have learned from the city that it would like to acquire the traffic area (right of first refusal) and so to speak join the purchase contract or handle it independently.

I would find it more advantageous for you if the municipality first took over the traffic area and you only pay the purchase price, notary fees, and land transfer tax for the 543 sqm building plot, instead of buying the whole 651 sqm with all the extras and then handing over the 108 sqm to the municipality.

After consulting with the current owner, however, she is not interested in selling the traffic area to the city! Now the question arises for me why? Do you happen to know why most plot owners in the area are not interested in handing over the traffic areas to the city? Are there disadvantages for one? She would like to grant us a right of use for it in return.

No knowledge, but I find it easy enough to guess here. The plot owners on this private road will be, to put it politely, at odds with the municipality about the square meter price at which the municipality compensates them if it takes over the road as public. Also, you yourselves must be aware that you will acquire these 108 sqm at the seller’s price and pass them on at the compensation price (and have previously paid costs and fees on them, which I would consider avoidable in your position). For the seller and the other owners, it will be a matter of principle who emerges as the winner from this dispute; it will be a question of military honor for them and only partially reachable on a rational level. For the building hopefuls at the beginning of the private road—especially if they themselves could connect over the edge to an existing public road—it is nothing substantial. For the building hopefuls on the plots accessible only via the private road, it is additionally a question of whether building permits are even achievable on their plots, because a secured access is absolutely necessary for that. For the municipality, the issue concerns the following difference:
A. if the municipality cannot take over the traffic area, then only the plot at the junction with the municipal road has a chance of a building permit; the plots behind on the private road may be designated as building land, but with the risk of getting no building permits (I assume Strausberg may have a building authority but does not issue permits itself, rather the district MOL does), and the municipality “lacks” these building plots, meaning it must designate developed building land elsewhere for the potentially settling new residents.
B. if the municipality can take over the traffic area, then the development of the entire bundle of plots on this private road will no longer be blocked. I suspect the district’s rights of use for traffic areas are insufficiently designed here to allow building permits.

In my estimation, it is therefore all or nothing for the municipality here and a victory in the stubbornness war for the owners. Reason in such cases has usually been dead for some time. I am not a lawyer but assume that the municipality needs the condition that the plot is offered for sale in order to exercise the right of first refusal—on the other hand, it suffers from lack of prospects in an expropriation legal dispute if the private road as a municipal road would only serve local residents. I fear you are caught here between hardened fronts and cannot do much even with the best advice from the forum.

If the owner sells, the city can always exercise the right of first refusal.

I have no experience with this either, but I agree with 11ant, it will probably be a pricing issue. The lady naturally wants to achieve the highest possible purchase price for the 651sqm. If the municipality now wants to take over 108sqm, they certainly won’t pay the usual market price. That can easily amount to a difference of several tens of thousands of euros. I hope it will be arranged so that the plot is divided in advance (if that has not happened yet) and then two separate purchase contracts are created. Otherwise, you will have significantly higher costs later. Everything has already been said about the right of first refusal. In this sale, the city has the option to exercise it if there is a legitimate interest. Your notary usually obtains the relevant waiver from the city before the contract is signed and the land is transferred.

If the owner sells, the city can always exercise the right of first refusal.

That's exactly what I fear, but practically to be read by the OP as follows: namely that the seller is willing to let the notary appointment fall through if the OP informs the municipality when it will take place. If the appointment does not happen, no action takes place where the municipality could play its trump card. The seller will want to prevent this both for herself and also not appear to the other owners as a strikebreaker. And the municipality would probably only be able to exercise the right of first refusal at the notary appointment's price per square meter. I do not suspect the municipality is in a position to threaten expropriation here – and therefore not in a position to demand a boundary marking of the desired partial area. As an example calculation, I see it like this: 651 sqm x BRW 140 euros = 91,140 euros land price, versus 543 sqm x BRW 140 euros plus 108 sqm x 25 euros compensation value = 78,720 euros – in the example effectively 20 euros less per square meter related to the entire property, and it will not be much different for the other owners.