Restrictive covenants

craiggiarc

Hi, hoping that someone can help me here, just bought a house and it's in a bit of a state so plenty of work ahead!

Anyway, there is a restrictive covenant stating that it can't be materially altered without the consent of the management company and the vendor or the local building authority, for some reason when they built it, when you open the front door it blocks the kitchen door so we were looking to move the door from the kitchen 3 feet to the left so that you can go in and out easily. We also want to put doubleglazing in (every other house in the development has this now) so I guess that this falls under the same clause.

My question is, can we just ask the local building authority for permission to do this & go through the necessary inspections and be happy as larry, or if we were to do the work anyway what pitfalls would there be - I've seen on the internet that it could invalidate my home insurance which is not somehting I'm keen on doing!!

Sorry for the long-winded post, I always think the more facts the better.

Thanks in advance, Craig

TomsMom

craiggiarc wrote: »

My question is, can we just ask the local building authority for permission to do this & go through the necessary inspections and be happy as larry, or if we were to do the work anyway what pitfalls would there be - I've seen on the internet that it could invalidate my home insurance which is not somehting I'm keen on doing!!

Surely it's better to be safe than sorry. Make the enquiry first. You don't want to be wasting time and money on something you might have to put back to it's original state if you went ahead without permission and got caught out. Retrospective permission is not always granted so not worth the risk.

dander

I have lived in properties where I've had to ask permission to do things like this. Normally it's just a case of writing a letter with basic info of what you want to do and they write back and say that's fine. If you're knocking a new doorway through, they may want to come round and just have a quick look, but really the chances of having permission refused are very slim. It's so easy really, you may as well do it.

craiggiarc

Ok, thanks for that - so you recommend that I ask the local building authority as opposed to the management company as by the wording of the covenant I think that it is one or the other?

vivatifosi

Hi craig,

I'm a director of a resident's management company and we would generally rubber stamp this for our properties. Is yours a flat or a house? If it is a house then we would be concerned more about the exterior and making sure there were no changes to that. If it is a flat, we would want to make sure that you're not adjusting any load bearing walls that could damage the fabric of the building or undermine the stability for other residents.

That's only my opinion and only relates to our company, the specifics should be in the deeds. Its still worth speaking to them though, as well as getting any necessary permissions from the local authority.

craiggiarc

Yeah, my only concern really is time as the company are operated by an agent as opposed to the residents themselves. I'll see if I can track their number down. The property is a house and it's a stud wall so does not appear at this stage to be load bearing - I'm loathe to completely take off all the plasterboard to investigate further until I get teh necessary permission.

I'll call the local authority and report back!

Thanks again,

Craig