Local Occupancy Restriction Advice

Pegasus06

Hi all

Am currently looking at a property to buy which I really like, no mention in details of local occupancy restriction - however having been looking at another house which was ex council that had a restriction on it - my curiousity was raised so went and got the title register from Land Registry.

Under Title Absolute there is the following:

RESTRICTION Except under an order of the registrar no transfer or lease by the proprietor(s) of the land or by the propietor(s) of any registered charge is to be registered unless made in accordance with Section 19 of the Housing Act 1980.

Am I right in thinking that this is the same as a Section 157 of the Housing Act 1985 in that it is a local occupancy restriction? And that it is a restriction for every sale of the property?

Have a feeling my bank won't lend against the property if it has - does anyone know any mortgage lenders that will?

And, finally is it possible to get a restriction lifted?

Thanks In advance.

lincroft1710

Is the house in a National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty?

Pegasus06

It's in North Wales, don't think that it is in Snowdonia National Park but would probably be classed as rural Wales.

unforeseen

Relevant section

19 Dwelling-houses in National Parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty, etc.

(1)Where a conveyance or grant executed in pursuance of this Chapter is of a dwelling-house situated in a National Park, or an area designated under section 87 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 as an area of outstanding natural beauty, or an area designated by order of the Secretary of State as a rural area, and it is executed by a local authority (as denned in section 50 of this Act), a county council, the Development Board for Rural Wales or a housing association (" the landlord ") the conveyance or grant may contain a covenant limiting the freedom of the tenant and his successors in title to dispose of the dwelling-house in the manner specified below.

(2)The limitation is, subject to subsection (4), that, until such time (if any) as may be notified in writing by the landlord to the tenant or his successors in title there will be no disposal falling within subsection (8) below without the written consent of the landlord; but that consent shall not be withheld if the disposal is to a person satisfying the condition stated in subsection (3) below.

(3)The condition is that the person to whom the disposal is made (or, if it is made to more than one person, at least one of them) has, throughout the period of three years immediately preceding the application for consent, either—

(a)had his place of work in a designated region which or part of which is comprised in the National Park or area; or

(b)had his only or principal home in such a region ;

or has had the one in part or parts of that period and the other in the remainder; but the region need not have been the same throughout the whole of the period.

(4)If the Secretary of State or, where the landlord is a housing association, the Housing Corporation, consents, the limitation specified in subsection (2) above may be replaced by the following limitation, that is to say, that until the end of the period of ten years beginning with the conveyance or grant there will be no disposal falling within subsection (8) below unless—

(a)the tenant (or his successor in title) has offered to reconvey the dwelling-house or, as the case may be, surrender the lease, to the landlord for a consideration equal (subject to subsection (7) below) to the amount agreed between the parties or determined by the district valuer as being the amount which under subsection (6) below is to be taken as the value of the dwelling-house at the time the offer is made ; and

(b)the landlord has refused the offer or has failed to accept it within one month after it was made.

(5)The consent of the Secretary of State or of the Housing Corporation under subsection (4) may be given subject to such conditions as he or, as the case may be, the Housing Corporation thinks fit.

(6)The value of the dwelling-house at the time the offer is made shall be taken to be the price which, at that time, it would realise if sold on the open market by a willing vendor on assumptions corresponding to those in subsection (3) or, as the case may require, subsection (4) of section 6 of this Act (but without the disregards required by subsection (2) of that section).

(7)If the landlord accepts the offer mentioned in subsection (4) above, and the offer was made within five years of the conveyance or grant to the tenant, the consideration shall be reduced by such amount as would fall to be paid on demand on a disposal made at the time the offer was made and falling within subsection (3) of section 8 of this Act; and no payment shall be required in pursuance of that section.

(8)A disposal falls within this subsection if it is—

(a)a further conveyance of the freehold or an assignment of the lease; or

(b)the grant of a lease or sub-lease for a term of more than twenty-one years otherwise than at a rack rent;

whether the disposal is of the whole or part of the dwelling-house; but a disposal in pursuance of an order under section 24 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 or under section 2 of the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 or a vesting in a person taking under a will or on an intestacy is not a disposal falling within this subsection.

(9)Any disposal in breach of such a covenant as is mentioned in subsection (1) above shall be void.

(10)Where such a covenant imposes the limitation specified in subsection (2) above, the limitation shall be a local land charge and the Chief Land Registrar shall enter the appropriate restriction on the register of title as if application therefor had been made under section 58 of the Land Registration Act 1925.

(11)The reference in subsection (8) above to a lease or sublease does not include a mortgage term,

(12)In this section "designated region" means an area designated for the purposes of this section by order of the Secretary of State ; and for the purposes of this section the grant of an option enabling a person to call for a disposal falling within subsection (8) above shall be treated as such a disposal made to him and a consent to such a grant as a consent to a disposal made in pursuance of the option.

So the answer is yes apart from amendments brought in since the 1985 act

Pegasus06

Thanks and am I right in thinking that it applies to every sale of the property?