Restrictive_Covenants - Please advise

ukcitizan13

Hello All,
I am in process of buying a house and my solicitor has advised that this house have restrictive covenants applied dated May'1932.
The scan copy of land registry lines for the one which are looking troublesome to me - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/80986417/Restrictive-Covenants.jpg


Could you please have a look and advise what could they mean ?
can they be any issue for house extension or running any business later or selling this property at later stage .


thanks for your help in advance.

G_M

The language may be slightly dated, and slightly legalistc, but it is pretty self-evident isn't it?

You can't run a(trade) business from there (but a doctor, dentist "professional" can use it as their home & place of work); you can't build a 2nd house on the land; You can put up a garage, with permission, but only for your own use; You need permission to extend;

The key question is who is the Beneficiary of the Covenant (usually the Develeper who built the Estate (if it is an estate) or the neighbour who sold off the land originally (and didn't want to live next to a noisy blacksmiths).

Or, critically, the descendants of that original Beneficiary.....

Only when you identify who is the current Beneficiary can you start to work out if anyone might ever enforce the covenant

ihatemyhouse

where I live in cornwall now, they are putting restrictive covenants on propertys, stating who can actually buy the house, if you want to sell

if the council don't deem you "local" enough, then you cant sell or rent it to them

ukcitizan13

Thanks G_M.
This is my first purchase and honestly saying, I couldn't able to understand the language as never read this kind of lines before and discussion on internet made me more nervous.

solicitor believes its very old and if worried take insurance but seems insurance does not help much referring cases from internet.

I am in IT and work from home number of days and may in future wanted to have a home office to do contracting. My wife also wanted to do child minding.

does that will be effected any way by this ?

I have uploaded the page from land registry which states its dated 1932 and don't know the names mentioned in this.


Not sure would this be good to proceed with purchase, checked with my friend and response is be very careful as it will very difficult to sell later.

The price I am paying is very good as per current market.
Good money has already gone in this - survey,bank, paper work, solicitor and more over time but don't want to take any risk for future.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/80986417/LandRegistry-Page3.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/80986417/LandRegistry-Page4.jpg

please advise what should be right move in this case.
Thanks for the help.

G_M

Until you get hold of, and read, the conveyance of 3rd May 1932 you will not know who the original Beneficiary was- so hard to know who it is now.

This is part of the process of conveyancing which your solicitor should do.

I would imagine that if it came to court, a judge would decide that an IT worker working from home would be 'a professional man' in today's world,so you'd be fine.

Child minding might be interpretted differently (ie as a 'trade', given that it involves others coming onto the land, noise, and less-skilled work (sorry - no insult to wife intended!).

Insurance will not help. It might pay out for your costs if you are prohibited from doing IT/child-minding, but it would not stop someone taking you to court to get an injunction against your work.

It may well be that this (very) old covenant will never be enforced, and/or that noone knows who can enforce it (even the people themselves!), but from here I can't guarantee that.

What about the rest of the estate?Have you any idea if anyone else runs any business there? Have you knocked on a few doors and asked?

ValHaller

Childminding could be deemed to fall within the definition of a school. This would bother me as buyer in your situation, OP, more than the IT would.

ukcitizan13

Thanks G_M and ValHaller.


would this be good idea to ask neighbours as the seller is old couple and same seems for next door ?
Owner don't talk at all without agent and you know agents.
I won't expect any answer from them.


I agree hard to find beneficiary though I have asked solicitor to collect all details he can and advise.
The main worry for me , as my friends suggested, it will be hard to sell later as no one would like to get into any trouble.


I have advised solicitor to get details on this but not sure how much he will charge for this or would that be part of normal search process.




what would be the best step forward on this ?

G_M

I would never buy a property anyway without talking to neighbours, the cornershop owner, the postie, and anyone else local I can find!

Quite apart from knowing whether this covenant is complied with by others locally, you'll find out a whole lot more about life in the area than the owners or agent will ever tell you.

And you''ll find out what your neighbours will be like....