Breach of Covenant Question

Keep_pedalling

helenanncooper wrote: »

A small estate Breeden Drive in Curdworth, Warwicksire has now received these letters. Has anyone obtained legal advice? If so, would you mind sharing it in a private email? Thanks very much.

Better sharing in public, this is just more proof that this is a phishing scam, all be it one that throws up real issue for any owner wanting to sell.

HughRote7

I would be very interested to know how many people have actually read the FULL text of the clause 3 in their title deeds. Note I refer to the full text of the clause and not the few words that Gascoines appear to have carefully selected from the clause in their letters. On Gascoines own website is a letter from Langleys Solicitors and a company called 'Hericon'. This letter states:

The form of transfer which was used when Hericon sold the houses to individual purchasers (who are referred to in each as the "Transferee") include a provision at clause 3 namely:

The Transferee to the intent and so that the covenant shall be binding on the Property into whosoever the same may come .... hereby covenants with the Company ... that he will at all times hereafter observe and perform restrictions stipulations and conditions set forth in the Third Schedule hereto.

It then goes on to refer to the Third Schedule.

The problem is that reading the entire content of Clause 3, in my view, puts an entirely different perspective on the covenant(s). Can Gascoines actually do what they claim to be able to do? Has the Land Registry read clause 3 and understood the implications?

Land_Registry

HughRote7 wrote: »

I would be very interested to know how many people have actually read the FULL text of the clause 3 in their title deeds. Note I refer to the full text of the clause and not the few words that Gascoines appear to have carefully selected from the clause in their letters. On Gascoines own website is a letter from Langleys Solicitors and a company called 'Hericon'. This letter states:

The form of transfer which was used when Hericon sold the houses to individual purchasers (who are referred to in each as the "Transferee") include a provision at clause 3 namely:

The Transferee to the intent and so that the covenant shall be binding on the Property into whosoever the same may come .... hereby covenants with the Company ... that he will at all times hereafter observe and perform restrictions stipulations and conditions set forth in the Third Schedule hereto.

It then goes on to refer to the Third Schedule.

The problem is that reading the entire content of Clause 3, in my view, puts an entirely different perspective on the covenant(s). Can Gascoines actually do what they claim to be able to do? Has the Land Registry read clause 3 and understood the implications?

Are you referring to Fortyfoot's post? If so they haven't posted again so we don't know the outcome? Or do you mean something else?

And you have adde, ........ to edit out, I assume, some of the clauses' wording. What do the ..... replace?

spanmedofsky

Does anyone know anything else about the Gascoine business ? Still struggling to work out whether this is fake, or just driven by greed or desperation. The Gascoine estate agents based in Southwell says the following.......

"Gascoines is a highly successful family run estate agent, with over sixty years of experience in the Nottinghamshire property market.

At the age of just 26 Douglas Gascoine, or DG as he is known by his team, opened his first office in Westgate in Southwell in 1954. Today DG is still very much involved with the day to day running of the company along with his daughter Emma who has the role of director. Upholding our traditions and beliefs whilst successfully evolving into the modern era has given us the success that we hold in todays crowded estate agency market.

We have four estate agency offices providing residential sales services in Southwell, Ravenshead, Ollerton and Calverton. Head office at Southwell is also where you will find our rentals team who co-ordinate the residential lettings and property management for the entire area.

At Gascoines we pride ourselves on delivering a personal and dedicated service to our many clients who know us for our professionalism and a customer service ethos which sees our staff going the extra mile on a daily basis.

Whatever the property transaction, we understand how important it is for you. You can be assured that we will be with you every step of the way and have the technical resources and experience to make your move as quick and easy as possible it is why our clients come back to us time after time.

We are members of the National Association of Estate Agents, Association of Residential Letting Agents and also members the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. You could not be in better hands."

Mr Chris Gascoine - please can you come back on the blog and confirm your identity and confirm this is the same business ? Because if you are, how do you square your claims to customer friendliness with intimidating and bullying people that bought properties from you 40 years ago ? Maybe we could have been in better hands ?

HughRote7

The FULL text of clause 3 reads as follows:

3. The Transferee to the intent and so that the covenant shall be binding on the Property into whosoever the same may come and for the benefit and protection of the Company Estate (which Estate shall in this Transfer mean all the land now or formerly included in the Title above referred to) hereby covenants with the Company and also as a separate covenant with every other person who is now the owner of any part of the Company’s Estate that he will at all times hereafter observe and perform restrictions stipulations and conditions set forth in the Third Schedule hereto.

In other words every property owner not only not only has covenanted with 'The Company' but with every other owner so for example if there were 120 houses on an estate that equates to 120 x 120 = 14,400 additional separate, identical reciprocal covenants, or a total of 14,520. Therefore how can 'The Company' release individual owners from the covenant and vary the Third Shedule on an Ad Hoc basis without destroying the whole concept of reciprocity implied by the clause? Surely any individual release must by implication release the remaining owners (14,399 in above example) from the same obligations!

Gascoines' demand conveniently ommitted any reference to the conjugate term 'and also'!

nikkih72

https://www.facebook.com/groups/786983251448976/?multi_permalinks=919671731513460&comment_id=919802084833758&notif_t=like&notif_id=1502204350444291

nikkih72

This is a SCAM, its been doing the rounds for months now, join the above group and post it on there, I'm sure they will assure u

shortcrust

Even if it isn't a scam I'd be amazed if they'd ever take action against anyone. Clearly the model is to send out thousands and hope few bite.

Shame the OP hasn't returned.

Fortyfoot

Sorry for the delay in responding.

About 25 owners used a solicitor who indicated that the companies actions were not very professional.

About 20 of the owners paid up so as to avoid future trouble and price increases. My son paid in the region of £400.

Fortyfoot

Brock_and_Roll

For those internet domain registry fans out there I notice that Gascoines are now rather bizzarely using the Colombia country code .co for their domain and email. www.gascoines.co as well as www.gascoines.com . At least in the case of the Colombian one, the old boy founder/principal is listed as the registrant.


Given that he is 91 years old, I wonder how much he is up to speed with the practices of the firm?