Restricted covenant

Robrob00

Hi, we are currently in the process of buying a house and we have been made aware of a covenant stating no business use. I was hoping to one day to start up a photography business and potential use the garage as a Home studio, I imagine that some of my work will be out on location ie, weddings but does this mean I cannot register my business to this address or use the garage as a Home studio. I wouldn't be changing the use if the property, we will still be living there and I can only guess that it might just be an extra car on the drive if I have a client. If I didn't set up a studio because of this covenant would I still be able to register this as my business address if I never worked from home other then doing desk based computer work, ie, phonecalls or photo editing. Thank you

SmashedAvacado

How old is the covenant?
Who is the beneficiary of the covenant? (ie which land benefits from it?)

Your risk in relation to the covenant is that the beneficiary makes a claim against you / injuncts you to stop. It will not impact your ability to get planning.

elsien

As above, depends on the circumstances.
Parent ran a business for many years in a house that had a no business covenant. She only found out after the business had been running for a few years because her solicitor missed it when the property was bought for business use.
As it was over 100 years old and not a beneficiary in sight, she got liability insurance then carried on as before.
A new build, however, may be a completely different ball game.

Cakeguts

It often depends on the business as to whether the neighbours complain. If people turn up to your house on a regular basis so that there are always lots of extra cars parked in the road and people coming or going all the time then you could have a problem.



However if you are running a business from home where people don't visit your home then I don't know how any one would find out.

davidmcn

It's going to depend to a large extent on exactly what the wording is and whether there's anybody around who's entitled to enforce it.

It's only going to be a problem in practice if you irritate whoever benefits from the covenant to the extent that they want to go to the time and expense of enforcing it.

Also bear in mind potential mortgage and insurance complications if you are working from home.

Robrob00

I believe it's around 1940s. It's difficult to tell whether there will be lots of people coming in and out all day but I imagine it won't be very often maybe a couple of people a week, we have an off road driveway that is big enough for 4+ cars so shouldn't have anyone parking on the road. We are currently researching who the owner of the covenant is but I imagine whoever the company is doesn't exist in the same way anymore.

Could this covenant also stop me registering it as the business address, even if no business is conducted there as I could in theory be doing all business work on location, but still need to use my house as the business address.

Thanks

SmashedAvacado

you need to ask your lawyer to identify the land that benefits from the covenant. Once you have this, you can asses whether it is likely to be enforced

In terms of using the address - no. This ought not to be an issue.

Robrob00

Thanks for the replys guys. Been very helpful