Enforcement of Restrictive Covenants

Igor_LJ

antheawad wrote: »

hi there

i paid to have a few restricted covenants lifted when we bought our house 2 years ago, one of which was to enable us to park a caravan on our drive. the developer said yes providing no-one complained.

4 months later we got a new neighbour who doesn't like the caravan, and as a result of her complaining to the developer, they have revoked their consent and say we have to remove the caravan.

seeing as though my agreement was made before said neighbour arrived, does she have a right to complain. bearing in mind said neighbour, and alot of others have things like sky dishes without permission, do any of the covenants have any worth??

Thanks

To remove a covenant ALL covenantees (those who can enforce covenant) must consent to it through a formal procedure. If you got just a permission from a developer, it equals to nothing when dispute arises.

Alternativelly, the covenant may be discharged when the Land Tribunal exercises its powers under s. 84 Law of Property Act 1925. Usually, it may occur when the covenant is obsolete or does not affect the benefited land at all.

If nothing said in the covenant about skydishesh, then you are free about it. If parking a caravan, using your property as a commercial premises, erecting fences etc are in the covenant, then in most of the cases you will be bound by it.

Yorkie1

My parents' neighbour is effectively running a scrap business and taxi service from the house he is renting. There are often two open trucks and a large white van, between which scrap metal and other stuff is regularly transferred.

His wife often has several taxicabs parked around, sometimes blocking access to the house beyond theirs at the end of the cul-de-sac.

This is all in breach of covenants.

The council have tried to enforce things through highways and environmental departments but seem to be getting nowhere.

Another neighbour was trying to sell their house but prospective buyers would drive down the road, see the chaos and mess, and drive straight off - the feedback to the estate agent was clear enough.

I understand that there are degrees of nuisance which may be involved in a breach of covenant, but this chap's actions are just beyond the pale. Hopefully the LL will give him notice and he'll leave.

LD28

I believe that covenants should be legally enforceable. Your house is probably the most expensive purchase of your life. You choose your home using a number of factors, schools, transport, bedrooms, parking, garages etc. When purchasing our last home we liked the restrictive covenants as I dont want to look out into a courtyard onto commercial vehicles, caravans etc. In our covenants boats etc are not allowed so we pay to park ours at at boat yard. There is nothing more annoying than you following the rules and other not - it is not snobbery but common courtesy. The issue we have at our site is the property management company seem reluctant to enforce the legal covenants - in our case we have recently issued them with notice - sort the issue by a certain date or we will take legal action for breach of contract (small claim court)

Richard_Webster

If the commercial vehicles are parked on a public highway then interesting point as to whether private covenant rights still apply to the land. Any other lawyers out there know the answer to this point?

I would suspect not and therefore it is likely that the only remedy would be to ask the Council to make an order preventing parking of commercial vehicles in the streets in question. Would they do that?

spendaholic

Wow, it's a minefield, and I stumbled upon this doing a Google search when I've been an MSE since 2005! :eek: Any further help would be particularly useful to me at the moment, though, if anyone can ...

I live in a terrace house, second from the end, that has a communal yard area at the back but which we all own our own part of with just access - not easements, but pedestrian access for maintenance, the "dustbin store" (demolished) and the single WC (also demolished). I was able to fence off my own section of this yard, provided I left a pedestrian gate for my neighbour, who is on the end.

My neighbour, who is on the end, has a prefabricated garage at the back of his property and has been using it for at least the last 5 years to park his van, even though there is no "carts waggons [sic] and carriages and other vehicles" access at the backs of the property, but there is at the front so long as the road surface is "metalled and fit for" said vehicles. This garage was erected by the previous owner, without planning permission, but as nobody complained, nothing was done about it. Previously my neighbour parked at the front of the property.

(I've only been here for 6 years, or I would have objected, because the yard at the back hasn't been strengthened for such use and is just tarmac on top of dirt, and he has already reported 2 other neighbours for collapsed drains when it was probably the vibration from or the weight of his van in the first place, and they had to repair the drains within 7 days.)

Because of this "established useage", and because I'm quite a neighbourly sort, I thought it would be nice and fair and stuff to actually install a vehicle gate and let him continue to use the garage rather than force him to go through civil court and get planning permission in retrospect.

In reply to this neighbourly gesture ...

At first my neighbour said that I wasn't allowed to build a fence across my property. I pointed out that I was perfectly entitled to, so long as I maintained access - i.e. let him still cross the property. He went away and checked, and came back and told me I was perfectly correct. (Well, what a surprise.)

So I built my 6' fence, in July last year, I extended my yard slightly, I gave him a new fence and a new pedestrian gate (and didn't charge him for it) directly around his own yard/garden, and I gave him double vehicle gates so that he could get his van through across my property.

One day I came home, and he'd padlocked the gate.

I pointed out that we're supposed to leave it "open" and that I just wanted the fence and gates for privacy. I told him to remove his padlock and he asked why I needed to use the gate anyway. Apart from the fact that my bins are kept out there, it's *my* gate and it's on *my* land.

Since then he's refused to speak to me, he's reported me to environmental services for allowing a build up of dog faeces in my yard (untrue), he's reported me for feeding the birds (not true) and causing mice in his kitchen (*he* feeds the birds), he's reported me to the local water authority for swilling my yard down and "invading his privacy" because the water goes into a gulley that crosses his property and down a storm drain grill (this is a communal gulley that serves all of our houses and everybody uses it when they're cleaning out their bins or washing their cars or swilling down their yards), he's parked his van on my land and swilled out the back (he keeps up to 2 rottweilers and a labrador in there ... it's a Berlingo-type van) he's accused me of ignoring (non-existent) warnings from the council to clean my yard (it's not dirty, it's spotless), he's been spotted by neighbours waiting for me to go out and then throwing "a powder like substance" over the fence into my garden, he's emptied the dregs of beer cans over my fence into my garden, he's sprayed my fences with cat and dog repellent, denied it to the police and then admitted it after they argued that I'd seen him and he'd told them I wasn't even in (I was, I did see him), and he's reported me to the Highways Agency for having a rainwater downpipe that discharges across the public pavement and into the road (there are 3 such downpipes on our terrace alone, and many, many more throughout the village). And this is just the stuff he's reported me for ...

He's also driven his van straight through other neighbours' washing hanging on the line, and 2 days ago even snapped a neighbour's line so that all of her washing landed in the dirt - all he did was tie a knot in the line and tell her she needed a stronger one. He's taken off someone's wing mirror, who's also been parked out back, and he's not stopped. He's scraped another car's wing with his van, and not stopped. He sits and sounds his horn if anyone dares to block the way out of the "back-in". And he's had the council write to every house in the 2 terraces telling *them* not to park in the back-in because *he* can't get through. AND THE COUNCIL DID. :undecided

So now I want to stop being neighbourly and warn him that if he keeps this anti-social behaviour up, I'll change the vehicular gates at the rear to a single pedestrian gate and let him pursue it through civil court if he wants to.

I've checked the title register to both his and my property and there are no "easements" across my property other than the ones already stated. There is also, and here's the point, a restrictive covenant on his property saying:

"AND the Purchaser thereby covenanted with the Vendors their and their respective heirs and assigns that he the Purchaser his heirs or assigns would for ever [sic] thereafter leave open and unbuilt upon so much of the said streets and roads thereby conveyed as were intended to form portions thereof respectively"

Is this really a restrictive covenant? It comes under the section entitled "Schedule of restrictive covenants", but I don't have it on my title register.

I'm instructing a solicitor to look into this as well, but he thinks at the least he'll write him a letter telling him to stop being anti-social and anything more can be very expensive, everyone in the terrace has to contribute, because his van is crossing their land too (although one house doesn't even have to give any access to anyone, but it's been empty for 25 years and is right in the middle of the block), and the judge may very well throw it out anyway because they don't look too kindly on boundary or access issues when the rights are so ancient.

I have to write a chronology for the solicitor and provide him with the deeds that I have and an advance cheque, so as I say, any other advice would be most welcome.

Thank you.

Angel*_2

I have been parking on an estate road near my friends house every week day for a number of years, I drive from my house to hers (around 20 - 30 min drive) then we get into her car and drive to work, my car is left on the estate.

There are NO lines or signs prohibiting parking, and I always make sure never to block a driveway or access in any way, there are also a number of cars that park on the same road.

However last week I had a snotty note put on my car asking me not to park on the estate at ALL, due to a covenant on the title prohibiting parking on the estate roads.

Am I right in thinking that this actually is not enforceable as such, I do not own a property on the estate and therefore I have not agreed or been bound to any covenants, secondly the road I park on has now been adopted for many years since the covenants were put on the property (by the builder) and cant anyone can park on a public highway as long as there are no restrictions visible, ie lines, signs etc???

The note also annoyed me as not only was it quite rude and obnoxious (and not to mention long) I have recently found out who the note came from (they did not put thier name or any indication of who they were on the note) and their property is nowhere near where I park.

I have been parking in the same spot for years and no one has ever asked me to move or had a problem.

Should I ignore it and continue to park there? Any advice?

casperlarue

If it's a public road then....as long as you are displaying a valid tax disc you can legally park where ever you like. Ignore and carry on parking. Although....if you are going to work with your friend couldn't you park at/outside her house?

Soot2006

People is weird about parking near their houses.
I have a massive ugly 3.5 Bedford horsebox. Road legal and private. I park it outside my house. A neighbour asked me not to park it there as she could see it from her window.
So I parked it outside her house.
Now she can see it from both windows.

ValHaller

Angel* wrote: »

However last week I had a snotty note put on my car asking me not to park on the estate at ALL, due to a covenant on the title prohibiting parking on the estate roads.

If you don't own a property affected by the covenent, it does not affect you

(Please start a new thread for a new problem - otherwise people need to wade through stuff which is 7 years old to get to your post)