Breach of Restrictive covenants

[Deleted User]

Opposite our property their is a field of which the owner has been illegally parking around more than 10 cars and crates with livestock.

I have complained to the council, but trading standards department will not pursue the issue despite photos of cars, trading and a diary of events. The council have also advised owner to not keep livestock in the crates but that's as far as they will go?! We have kindly had converaation with te owner about our concerns but his response was aggressive.

We are about to sell our property and we are concerned it will devalue our sale. The restrictive covenants state that it can only be used for agricultural but he has laid tarmac on his land, has vehicles and crates and countless trailers and a dumped storage unit from the back of a lorry.

How can the community enforce a breached restrictive covenant and will the ombudsman help us?

Land_Registry

Restrictive covenants are often imposed by one landowner on another and as such the benefit is not for all or the community.

If A owns a piece of land and sells part of it to B and imposes restrcitive covenants then the benefit lies with the remaining land owned by A. That remains the case even if the land retained by A is then split up and sold.

Establishing the extent of the benefitting land can be quite tricky especially if the covenants are quite 'old'. The clues will lie in the register entry or deed imposing the restrictive covenants as this will often indicate what land the person imposing the covenants owned at the time and you then need to establish who owns that land now.

I am not aware of any ombudsman for such things but if you remain unsure then legal advice should be sought.

Tiddlywinks

Have you spoken to the Planning Officers for that area?

How about the RSPCA about the livestock?

princeofpounds

Yes, unless you are the beneficiary of the covenant (and you may well not be) then no point pursuing this angle.

Planning and animal welfare may be more productive angles.

But if you are selling now don't expect to get these things resolved quickly, and you may have to disclose to sellers any official disputes you have had.

browneyedbazzi

Is he keeping livestock in the crates or are they just being stored there?

With regard to operating a car sales business from the land - that isn't an issue for trading standards (they could advise him about ensuring he describes the vehicles correctly and doesn't include unfair terms in contracts etc, but won't be concerned/have any control over where a business is operated from). If the land doesn't have planning consent to be used for business then it will be an issue for the planning department and you should complain to them.

Davesnave

Nobody is allowed to keep animals in crates in this country, except for transit, which has specific rules. The RSPCA would probably be the best people to determine whether those rules are being broken here. They will act quickly if there is evidence of abuse.

Other than that, there may be little you can do. It's fairly common to find areas of hard standing at the entrances to agricultural land and some land owners are messy. What looks like mess to one person, may well be 'useful things' so far as the owner is concerned!

You are not in a different position from other sellers. Anyone may have messy neighbours, but unless an eyesore can be shown to harbour vermin, councils are usually unwilling to act.

Smith_007

The restrictive covenants state that it can only be used for agricultural but he has laid tarmac on his land, has vehicles and crates and countless trailers and a dumped storage unit from the back of a lorry.

You might find that 'agricultural use' includes such things as farm machinery, chemical storage, animal/crop processing and associated vehicles.

Agriculture is a working environment don'tcha know