Right of Way

Reflection

Right of Way

Introduction:

A private developer and the local authority are planning to develop 40 million pounds business park on the Greenfield site as a joint venture. The problem was that the site where they plan to build on is located on our right of way which passes diagonally across the proposed site. This business park is not commercially viable without crossing our right of way. The developer has approach us several times to secure a release from the right of way but we refused. The main reason for this negotiation was to find out which possible compensation options will satisfy both of us.

Opening:

Our goal was to sell the abattoir and retire but in the opening we first allow the developer to speak because the reason this negotiation first takes place is that they want to secure a release from the right of way.

The Negotiation:

After the brief opening we started our negotiation. The developers came first with an idea to compensate with different kind of ways but because our goal for the owner was to let him retire on 62 years old we did not make it difficult and decide to sell the abattoir for £10 million. Our strategy was to start with the highest price that is 10 million so that we could get a reasonable good price at the end for selling everything. On the other hand our fallback was to sell for £ 3 million - the two years earning.

Our negotiation went quite well although the developers were quite stubborn with the amount we demand. It was obvious that the developer wants us to leave as soon as possible so that they can actually start with the project. After a heat negotiation about the amount from the developer going up and us going down with the amount the last part was difficult because we stick on 5 million pounds for selling everything but they were very difficult on that and stays at 4,5 million. At the end we came up to an agreement to sell the abattoir and the farm for 4,8 million and leave the region in 1 month. The last point what we did was to rephrase the compensation again, to make sure everything we agreed on is correct and sign the papers.

Outcome:

The developer agreed on giving us the full amount of 4,8 million for selling the whole area so that the owner can retire and get it over with, 4,8 million sounds reasonable to us to retire. On the other hand there urgently will be another negotiation with the owner to divide the money between us behind close doors. However our Fallback was to ask an amount of 3 million and we are quite above that so we were quite satisfied with the outcome and so does the developer.