Hen keeping and Poultry Restrictive Covenants... Help!

Silveralice

We bought our present house, which was built in 1994, last year, and had exactly this concern about a covenant which specifically mentioned fowl. As we already had chickens, I was worried. The solicitor said that it was unlikely to be enforced unless we kept a cockerel, which we don't. I also found out about the 1950 Allotment Act when I was researching this issue, but so far have had no problems - we give surplus eggs to the neighbours, which may help! The other legitimate concern neighbours may have, apart from noise, is rats: poultry do tend to attract rats because of the scattered food, so be careful about this if you decide to go ahead.
I don't see why the builders would care at all anyway: they've made their profit and moved on, why would they want to police the houses just because they built them? If you do have a problem, I think it would more likely be from a neighbour complaining to the council. If you site the coop well away from the problem neighbours, you will minimise your chance of problems: can you discuss it with them first, maybe?

Kaysie86

Thanks, I do have a small garden which is my only concern as my garden is about 25 foot from my neighbours at the bottom of the garden. Also we have so much noise from birds in the trees between the houses, loud dogs and scrambler/quad bikes I doubt people would say too much as long as they didn't scream when they lay an egg!

What did your solicitor say about the allotment act? I'm thinking about going to see one just to ensure it's all legit.

poppysarah

Kaysie86 wrote: »

Also we have so much noise from birds in the trees between the houses, loud dogs and scrambler/quad bikes I doubt people would say too much as long as they didn't scream when they lay an egg!
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I hate motorbike noise. Our local police are very responsive.

I don't know why anyone puts up with it. I assume people are just not aware that it's illegal to use off road bikes anywhere except on properly licenced tracks.

Fire_Fox

Kaysie86 wrote: »

I have a small garden and although my next door neighbours have said it was okay with them, I am a bit concerned that the neighbours at the back may complain. The only way the builders can find out is through a neighbour because it's not something anyone can see from the front of the house.

Therefore, if the builders find out, can I use this as a legal argument and get no reprisals from it?

Why don't you simply ask the neighbours to the rear of your property? If they complain you have a neighbour dispute on your hands which you will have to declare on selling, irrespective of who is in the right.

Kaysie86 wrote: »

Sorry! I live in a new build since 2009. Like the other covenant posts my neighbours have moved plants, leave their cars on the street, keep commercial vehicles on drives and have a for sale sign outside a house. They're all breaking the covenants also but I wouldn't bother to complain!

How is that relevant? This thread is about whether YOU can breach a covenant, two wrongs do not make a right!

DVardysShadow

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Why don't you simply ask the neighbours to the rear of your property? If they complain you have a neighbour dispute on your hands which you will have to declare on selling, irrespective of who is in the right.

Fairly easily addressed. Firstly, it need not be declared if it is resolved, secondly, if it does not go beyond solicitors letters, it needn't always be declared. And if it stays purely about the chickens, it is easily explained and overcome. The most serious risk is that the neighbours turn it into something else.

Fire_Fox wrote: »

How is that relevant? This thread is about whether YOU can breach a covenant, two wrongs do not make a right!

The Allotments Act plainly gives a right, so there is no need to look at other breaches of covenant

Mind you, it seems to me that keeping chickens on a modern density housing estate is nearly as bad as battery farming.

Kaysie86

Thanks, but I wasn't actually saying I was going to complain about others breaching the covenants - I was merely stating that keeping chickens is hardly a problem compared to the other issues such as anti-social behaviour and secondly that my neighbours breach their covenants and so are less likely to care.

Anyway, my police are very good, unfortunately infront of said backing on neighbours is a massive open ground area so the council need urban rangers to enforce the bike problem, of which they have no budget to do so. The police do aim to catch people but when you have someone in refective clothing and marked cars they are sitting ducks.

Regarding the comment about my garden, it is big enough for 3 ex-battery hens and I have a patio area, grass and a flower bed which is enough for small breeds of hens.

Silveralice

They do all cackle when they lay an egg, but it only lasts a few minutes each time; if you only have three chickens, they won't all lay every day anyway, except maybe for a few weeks at this time of year - they lay better during longer days - so you are only talking about one or two ten-minute cackles a day on average (may not be timed to coincide with the quad bikes though - they lay more in the earlier part of the day).

Sorry, I didn't ask the solicitor about the allotment act. As we were going to buy the house anyway and already had the chickens, we decided we would go ahead and rehome the chickens if we ended up having problems - so far, so good.

olly300

Kaysie86 wrote: »

Thanks, but I wasn't actually saying I was going to complain about others breaching the covenants - I was merely stating that keeping chickens is hardly a problem compared to the other issues such as anti-social behaviour and secondly that my neighbours breach their covenants and so are less likely to care.

Your neighbours will only complain if the noise from the hens annoys them. They will first look at contacting the council and only if they dig deeper will start looking at the restrictive covenants. (You may have issues if they sell their house.)

Therefore the suggest to go and ask them if they mind you having hens is the best one. Simply state you are asking them because the hens will live outside.

BTW I grew up in inner London (before all large houses where converted into multiple flats) a couple of streets away from a woman who kept hens. The issue wasn't the hens it was the cockerels who woke everyone up in the early morning.

DVardysShadow

wrangler5 wrote: »

How exactly do you arrive at that conclusion?

Modern high density housing is battery farming of humans. IMO. I think housing estates with for example, inadequate parking, cause on going low level social stress and have a lot to answer for.