Indemnity Insurance for potential breach of restrictive covenant

vwK8

Hi, can anyone recommend any insurance brokers to help provide some quotes/feedback on indemnity insurance for my proposed business. I need indemnity insurance to protect me against a potential breach of a restrictive covenant which dates back to 1934 on the property. This relates to no business use at the property. It will need to protect me against any other residents and the Council who have the benefit of the covenant as it stands.

The property has been in my family for over 60yrs and surrounding area has had much redevelopment.
I am hoping to erect a single storey boarding cattery at bottom of the unused land. I already have secured my council planning approval but this covenant issue is proving to be halting things!

any advice would be great. thx

magpiecottage

Do you have a copy of the covenant (or can you get one from the Land Registry).

If the covenant is positive (it says you will do something) rather than negative (it says you will not do something) then I believe it cannot be imposed on subsequent owners.

Also it may have an expiry date - perhaps 80 years after it started. If so the a covenant dating from 1934 will now have less than 2¼ years to run.

Running_laps

I have to say I doubt you will be able to find cover for that as it sounds like you fully intend to break the covenant - as opposed to it being some misfortune that befalls you.

I think your best option is to see if you can get the covenant removed.

magpiecottage

You also need to bear in mind that simply having planning permission does not necessarily mean running a cattery would not mean a complaint to environmental protection would not result in it being closed down.