Covenant - Sky Dish

Browntoa

There's none here as its enforced , seeing all the houses are fully aerial cabled in all rooms for both sky and digital to the loft it's laziness on the part of the installers to do it . I'm sitting here watching sky without any cables down the front of my house

Penelope_Penguin

Lily-Rose wrote: »

I seriously cannot see any covenant not allowing someone to have a shed in their garden! :eek:

What next? No cars allowed on the driveway? No nets in the windows? No bikes to be left outside in view of the public.

Jeeeeeeex!

I lived in a flat where there was no washing to be hung outside

richard2511

Thanks for the advice everyone.

We are going to go ahead and install sky. We really want to get sky q and the only way to do this on the site where the house sits is to get it direct from sky.

We will just have to see what happens re covenant. Fingers crossed..

Land_Registry

Restrictive covenants which are designed to prevent you doing something (personal ones are where you are to do something e.g. maintain a fence) bind the land/property and are imposed for the benefit of other land/property.

As some have mentioned developers usually impose them on each plot sale to keep the development under some sort of 'control' whilst they sell each plot and then move on.

As a result the benefit of such covenants generally passes to each plot owner, namely every landowner who now owns part of the original developer land. The benefit only stays with that developer if they have kept some of the original land.

So if you have a development of say 40 houses then potentially you have 39 properties who have the benefit and most likely are also subject to such covenants. It does not mean someone 'off site' can impose the covenants.

Imposing the covenants involves someone proving that they own land that has the benefit - not normally too hard with these examples as the 'development/estate' is often defined in each Plot sale and then taking action.

By action it generally means letting you know that they have the benefit, perhaps by way of a solicitors letter. If you don't back down then legal action may ensure but as with many such things that is all down to the parties involved.

Victorian developers often imposed covenants against keeping chickens (thought to carry diseases), running a property as an asylum or selling alcohol etc. Modern day developers tend to go for the no caravans, extensions, for sale signs etc. Imposed for specific reasons and as such can often fall by the wayside as suggested by others as owners forget, neglect or simply are unaware of their existence.

They are still enforceable though and whilst you can have them released, removed or extinguished in certain cases it's rare in cases of such developments as that can be just as stressful, costly and time-consuming as trying to enforce them.

So generally speaking with this type of example forget about the original developer who has made their money and long gone and think about your neighbouring landowners and whether they (or you) would be able/wanting to enforce

NB - over time covenants can appear silly/dumb and that can influence how people view them. When imposed they were of course very relevant to the person (developer) who imposed them and not silly/dumb to the buyer or they would have challenged them at the time.

As such and over time they are, as others have posted, perhaps less likely to be enforced as the person (developer) who imposed them has moved on. But they can still be enforced.

bod1467

tl;dr version:

If other properties in the development have satellite dishes then you're good to go.

pimento

All this is assuming you have a choice. There's no cable television where I live and my house is on the wrong side of a east facing hill so an ordinary TV ariel won't work. It's a Sky dish or nothing for us. I do have it attached to a Freesat box, though.

mcpitman

davidmcn wrote: »

It's unlikely that the covenants forbid dishes but allow sheds.

Not that unlikely, there is one on my ex-council house to exactly that tune.

Not that anybody locally pays any attention....

kimplus8

I used to live in a flat where there was a covenant that you 'were not permitted to place washing out on the balcony'. If they ever attempted to impose said covenant then I would be surprised as I cant remember a single flat in our block that didn't have their washing on the balcony on a sunny day.

sheff6107

sheff6107 wrote: »

Satellite dishes were monstrous great things back in the day.

Now they're more discreet mini dishes.

sheff6107 wrote: »

”That's irrelevant to the rules of any covenant, of course.

Yet highly relevant to the chances of any covenant being enforced, to which intention is very relevant.

Lily-Rose_3

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I lived in a flat where there was no washing to be hung outside

!!!!!!? :rotfl: Are you supposed to dry it all on radiators forevermore???

Kynthia wrote: »

It depends what they are, how old they are, whether there is anyone around who cares to enforce it (covenants can't be enforced by anyone) and whether you can see others have successfully ignored it.

There isn't a one size fits all approach as it really depends on the individual circumstances. As you can see some people have 80 year old covenants that are ridiculous now or no one is around to enforce. Many estates have covenants that were put in place by the builder to keep the estate looking nice until all houses were sold. After that the builder no longer cares or may not even exist any more if it was 20 years ago. So a covenant in those circumstances about no vans on the drive and no satellite dishes wouldn't be enforced.

EXACTLY! If it was (IMO) a silly covenant that was put in place 30 years ago or more, then I would just ignore it. Within reason of course. If it was something big like 'you can't keep elephants in the front garden,' then of course I wouldn't do THAT. But otherwise, if it's 'you can't paint your door blue;' I'd be like 'on yer bike mateys! My house my door, my choice, my right to paint it blue!'

kimplus8 wrote: »

I used to live in a flat where there was a covenant that you 'were not permitted to place washing out on the balcony'. If they ever attempted to impose said covenant then I would be surprised as I cant remember a single flat in our block that didn't have their washing on the balcony on a sunny day.

Proving how dumb many 'covenants' are.