We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING: Hello Forumites! In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place for our users, discussions around non-MoneySaving matters are not permitted per the Forum rules. While we understand that mentioning house prices may sometimes be relevant to a user's specific MoneySaving situation, we ask that you please avoid veering into broad, general debates about the market, the economy and politics, as these can unfortunately lead to abusive or hateful behaviour. Threads that are found to have derailed into wider discussions may be removed. Users who repeatedly disregard this may have their Forum account banned. Please also avoid posting personally identifiable information, including links to your own online property listing which may reveal your address. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Decorating outside of house in new development

Hi,

We're in the process of buying a new build house. It's freehold but there are leasehold flats in the development and all of the houses have matching brown wooden panels around the outside of the front door which we really don't like! What are the rules on changing the colour of these (e.g. Painting it white!)?

We're in a new development at the moment but in flats and all of the houses in the development have grey fronts and nobody has changed them after 3 years so I'm wondering if there are some rules to keep them all the same even though it's freehold!

Thank you :j
«1

Comments

  • G_M
    G_M Posts: 51,977 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    I cannot read the terms of any leases, nor the covenants built into the Titles of any freehold properties.

    That's where the answer will be!
  • twink1108
    twink1108 Posts: 97 Forumite
    Ah okay so even though it's freehold there can still be rules written about things like that? I wonder how common that is for new build developments to have rules where they must stay uniformed.
  • comeandgo
    comeandgo Posts: 5,930 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Many new build freehold developments have restriction in the deeds. We are not supposed to change the colours of the garage doors, nor the colour of the fences but some owners have and no action has been taken.
  • Browntoa
    Browntoa Posts: 49,612 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I can't change my windows , change the colour of the front door or fix things to the front of the house

    All the sky dishes must be on the roof
    Ex forum ambassador

    Long term forum member
  • twink1108
    twink1108 Posts: 97 Forumite
    Oh what a pain. I am guessing this will be the case then. Brown was a bad choice, it ruins the outside!
  • Contessa
    Contessa Posts: 1,168 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    It's bad enough decorating the inside of a house without doing the outside as well!
  • It's literally just a panel around the front door, wouldn't want to do the whole front but annoying that we probably can't even if we did want to! We moved into our flat when it was brand new and haven't decorated a thing in 3 years so chances are it wouldn't have been a priority anyway :rotfl:
  • Rambosmum
    Rambosmum Posts: 2,447 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    I can't build a porch, or use my back door as my front door :huh:
  • AdrianC
    AdrianC Posts: 42,189 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    twink1108 wrote: »
    Oh what a pain. I am guessing this will be the case then.
    You don't have to guess. READ THE FLIPPIN' PAPERWORK.
    Any covenants are going to be listed in the paperwork your solicitor gave you. If there's none (yet?), then spend the few quid to get the authoritative paperwork from the Land Registry's website.
    Brown was a bad choice, it ruins the outside!
    What colour was there when you bought? If you bought without seeing the built properties, what colour was on the artist's impressions?
  • LandyAndy
    LandyAndy Posts: 26,377 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts
    These things are done by developers to keep control of the appearance of the site while construction is in progress. Once the final property is sold the developers won't care what you do.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 352.1K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.5K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 454.2K Spending & Discounts
  • 245.1K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 600.7K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177.4K Life & Family
  • 258.9K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.