When is a garage not a garage - restrictive covenant advice needed

jaybee67

Hi everyone - newbie here! I was wondering if some kind, knowledgeable person could give me their considered opinion on the wording of a restrictive covenant....

A friend of mine's house and their neighbour's house both have a restrictive covenant on their deeds which allows only for a 'summerhouse or garage' to be built on certain areas of their (large) gardens. My friends's neighbour has sold off part of their garden and the buyer is in the process of building a new dwelling on the unrestricted portion of this land. They are also building a garage upon the restricted part, which is permitted in the covenant. The garage in question is, however, a two-storey double garage with a room above, complete with two Velux windows. In their planning permission, they stated that this was to be used for 'storage' but it seems more likely that it will be used as a very nice, large office/spare bedroom/hobby room etc,.

My question is this: when is a garage not a garage? The covenant was written in the 1920s and obviously the definition of a garage has changed a lot since then! If the room above is to be used as dwelling space as it seems it could well be, where does this leave the covenant - has it been breached, mortally wounded (!) or does it still stand?

Any opinions would be very much appreciated!...

G_M

How is it described in the planning application/permission? Which Building Regs are being applied to it?

elsien

If it's that old and there's no-one relevant around to still enforce it, it may not make any difference anyway if no-one knows who the covenant has passed on to after all this time. Unless the covenant was part of a building scheme whereby all the current owners would be entitled to enforce it against each other, which might be unlikely for one that old. You probably need to carefully check the original wording.
My mother had a restrictive covenant on her house saying she couldn't run a business from it, but ran a nursery school from it for years, she just got indemnity insurance to cover her in case anyone objected.

jaybee67

G_M wrote: »

How is it described in the planning application/permission? Which Building Regs are being applied to it?

In the design statement when applying for planning permission it's simply described as a garage with a heightened roof so as to make room for storage and domestic activities. I'm afraid I don't know which building regs are being applied to it (I don't know how to find that out?...).