Restrictive convanent-hut?=summer house

Lifes_Grand_Plan

You need to establish who it is... and if they have retained an interest in the benefited land. Chances are they don't and the covenant will be unenforceable. Problem solved.

gemma.zhang

Thought the convanent stays on the deed, even the convanentee are not alive, or it was established long time ago, it still has effect. Or I am wrong on this point?

Richard_Webster

If the covenant says that no huts etc are to be built without the permission of the then vendor and nothing is added about successors in title to some other land then if you can show that person is dead then the covenant is unenforceable.

If there is no consent provision and it is a blanket prohibition then it depends on what land is expressed to have the benefit of the covenants. The owner of that land could possibly enforce the covenants. Most likely he won't because he won't realise he can.

However when neighbours get steamed up about things like this they typically go first to the Council to see if there is a planning contravention and then when that gets nowhere they start looking at the covenants to see if they can enforce them. Quite technical then as to whether they can. The problem all the time is proving for certain that nobody can, but very often people will assess the risks of enforcement as low.

KarinaPTC

It might be an idea to check exact wording of the covenant as often these types of covenants restrict erection of huts/summerhouses/caravans that are intended to be used as sleeping accomodation. If this is the case and you are not intending to adapt your summerhouse to be an additional habitable accomodation, you might be ok. Also if you can find the name and contact details of the person with the benefit of the covenant, you might want to consider requesting their consent. In most cases person with the benefit of the covenant would reserve a right to modify covenants.

longtimelurkersam

Personally it wouldnt put me off.

There are two sheds there so I build another shed that happened to look like and could be used like a summer house as this would be more aesthetically pleasing to look on when peering down the garden. Just because it looks like a summer house does not mean it is and worst case you have a nice looking shed!

For the poster who said about summerhouses being used for noisy purposes. You should hear what goes on in the garage in the garden of my flat.

SUESMITH_2

our house was first mortgaged in 1937, and a covenant on ours says any alterations or building work has to be approved by the original builder, needless to say I think we're fairly safe