Challenging a covenence??

itsbeef

Quick question guys.......

I am looking at purchasing a property that has a covenence (correct spelling?)

It is an old farm house that is split into two cottages in theory.

It would make an amazing family house if it was possible to change its main purpose.

It states that under the current planning permission the property can ONLY be used for letting to bona fide holiday makers between 1st March and 30th September for individual periods of not more than 4 weeks in total in any consecutive period of 13 weeks.The house cannot therefore be let to the same person or occupied by the owners outside these dates or for more than 4 weeks in every consecutive 13 weeks.

Is it possible to challenge and try to over turn such conditions?

If so how do you go about it?

DrFluffy

Sounds like the covernent only covers use as a holiday home, and does not restrict use as a full time home... Depending on where you but the emphasis...

Check with the council...

DrFluffy

Also - might be worth seeing who owns the covernent - you might be able to 'buy' it, thus overriding it.

The college I did my doctorate at owned almost all the houses around it, and all were under covernent so that the college could buy them at cost price if it ever wanted to expand out, (not that it ever will!). I know while I was there, one of these properties went on to the market and the would be new owners enquired about buying the covernent - until it turned out it was worth £200k, but we won't go there!

itsbeef

Cheers Doc.......

It seems mad that a property has to be left empty for 5 months because of a covenence.

Aaaaaaagggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Doozergirl

It's called a covenant.

It sounds like you would have to apply for planning permission to change the use back to a residential dwelling. I wouldn't get your hopes up though as I've no doubt that the developer putting in the original planning application would have tried for residential use first. I'd find out when planning permission was granted.

You can speak to to a planning officer at your local council and find out how they would view an application to turn it back to a residence, but if the present owners haven't already tried, they'd be mad.

jooles5a

Hi

1st of all, in my experience, planning has absolutely nothing to do with deeds and covenants. Planning is to do with the area and deeds/covenants are legalities so I doubt the council can help. It sounds as if the person/company who placed the covenant on the deeds intended it to be used by v.short term letters - could it be that surrounding properties have the same usage so it's in keeping ?

There are a no. of ways to deal with this covenant. Do you know who has title i.e. who will benefit if you have to cough up? If so, you could approach them and ask them for a figure - this will be open to negotiation but, providing they're reasonable, may be quite low.

Before parting with money, you could ask about indemnity insurance - this will pay out in the event of a claim against you and can be put in place at the same time you purchase.

Ultimately, you could approach the Chancery High Court to have the covenant removed if you can't see the practicality of the covenant - by far the most costly solution - there are no guarantees tho and you cannot go this route without the aide of barristers and solicitors (hence the cost).

You could always ignore the covenant, although I wouldn't recommend it.

I would suggest you employ a solicitor who can prove his experience in these matters to you - they all say they know but don't believe them.... I bought a piece of land 15 years ago with outline p/p for a residence and the solicitor gave clear title. Turned out there's a covenant (dated 1924) on it that says you can only build a garage or a greenhouse on it and she missed it !!!!!!! VERY COSTLY FOR US !!!!

Whatever you decide to do, take good legal advice - if you're anywhere near Todmorden, I can recommend someone although I approached them far too late for them to help me - otherwise, Good Luck

Debt_Free_Chick

jooles5a wrote:

Hi

1st of all, in my experience, planning has absolutely nothing to do with deeds and covenants. Planning is to do with the area and deeds/covenants are legalities so I doubt the council can help.

You are absolutely right.

However, in this case the Council will also be involved - not in the covenant issue, but in the use of the property. It sounds likely that the property only has permission for occupation as a holiday home. This is very common with former agricultural buildings and used to prevent the "creeping growth" of residential development. In rural areas, development is strictly controlled and new residential dwellings - whether new build or conversion of existing buildings - are very hard to come by.

In this case, as well as getting the covenant lifted, itsbeef will need to apply to the Council (actually, the Local Planning Authority) to change the approved use of the property from a holiday home to a residential dwelling.

One of the key features in this application will be to demonstrate that continued use as a holiday home is not economically viable. Itsbeef will need to prove that it's difficult to let; doesn't generate a decent income; is in an area that doesn't attract holidaymakers etc, etc.

Here's an example of planning permission given to convert a former agricultural building to a holiday home. And this is the application to convert it to a residential dwelling. The other documents relating to that application are here. (That application was subsequently withdrawn by the owner, so it's not known what the Planning Authority would have allowed).

Itsbeef .... you will need to look at both the covenant issue and the use/planning issue. As a first step, contact the Local Planning Authority and get a copy of the planning permission allowing use as a holiday home and look at the conditions in that letter.

HTH

itsbeef

Thanks for all your advice folks!!!!

Will be making some calls soon........

Fingers crossed!