Covenants

martin1959

We bought a large piece of land about 20 years ago off of a neighbouring property owned by a developer to increase our garden size.
When the paperwork was going through the developer wanted to prevent us using it as a building plot, so put a covenant on the sale stating the additional land must be transferred with the existing property when it is sold, and also, it can have no buildings on it.
The idea being, if anyone ever wishes to use it for a building plot, they will have to pay the developer more money to have the covenant removed.
Our solicitor, who was a friend of mine, got them to change the wording on the covenant to read 'no buildings other than usual domestic outbuildings'. This means we can build just about anything on it...games room, swimming pool, tennis courts, workshops....as long as we do not have anyone living in them.

Land_Registry

Already covered by and large by others but this thread may offer some wider understanding around the restrictive covenant and who it benefits etc

Bottom line is the developer imposes the RCs to protect their development and the plot sales from too many changes being made by new owners before they have sold all the plots

RCs bind plots thereafter and each plot owner effectively has the benefit of the RCs which run with the land so carry on with each sale etc

RCs are breached in some way as new owners are unaware of RCs and their meaning whilst some are made aware by conveyancer/lender

Cheapest/quickest option is to take out insurance (seller or buyer) (or not to buy of course)

goodwithsaving

£200 to get a sale through and get 000s back is money well spent.
IMO g_m, a buyer should not have to pay for cover when planning (or covenant compliance) should already be in place! I'd have told our vendor to get stuffed.