Restrictive Covenants

steveoz

Hi All,

Not strictly to do with money apart from the fact it may cost us more to get this sorted! I'm not sure where to put this, but know there are a lot of knowledgeable folk on here and would appreciate some guidance.

We are in the process of purchasing a new property. We were told by the builder we may be able to extend the driveway. After reserving the property and going through paperwork we finally got the TP1 with the restrictions.

The restrictions as expected included a one that stated no soft landscaping to be used for parking without the transfer's written consent. Not an issue as we got our solicitor to obtain written consent to use grass area for additional parking and to use a suitable replacement such as grass re-enforcement, grasscrete or similar.

Anyhow, fast forward a bit more time and we discover that the landscaping out the front means they will be putting a row of small, 30cm shrubs in the MIDDLE of the lawn from side to side, not at the edge as we were told originally by the sales team.

This means we have written consent to park somewhere we still can't, as there is also a 5 year restrictive covenant stating no changes / removal or moving of shrubs.

I've contacted our builder who say it's up to the main builder (crest strategic) who own the land and deal with planning for the development. After two weeks of chasing them (they are absolutely useless) I am no further forward. Now they are suggesting I need to contact the council (apparently the council audit the soft landscaping and any changes they enforce / tell the owner of the property that it needs to go back to how it was).

This seems a bit mad. I contacted my local council who again are about as useful as a chocolate teapot and only want to tell me about extensions, porches, car ports and the like.

So within a couple of weeks these shrubs will magically appear that can't be changed and no one knows how to deal with it. Even our solicitor seems a bit stuck and not getting a response from Crest or the council.

Does anyone have any idea how I should escalate or approach the moving or removal of said shrubs? I fear if we live it until we move in, we will have zero leverage and even less done about it than we have now!


Thanks,


Steve

SmashedAvacado

If you have not bought yet, then you need to sort before you buy (ie before you exchange)

I am not sure that this is anything to do with the council

You need to ask the builder to remove the restriction about removing the shrubs and ask them not to put the shrubs in.

If that is there because of a planning requirement, then the builder should not have told you that the parking woudl work. That's unlikely though.

PasturesNew

Persuade them to plant the shrubs in tubs.... on wheels....

Everybody's happy and no rules are broken.

Covenants don't specify which container any planting is contained in... just that they are to exist.