Restrictive covenant advice as tenants

jobianne77

Hi everyone looking for advice on our situation. We have lived in our rented property for 8 years now with a view to buy once the owners decided to sell. The owners have just dropped a bombshell that they will sell the house to us but garage will be demolished to make way for a large plot to build a new home.
Space isn't a issue here as the property is huge and I understand why they are doing it as will make alot of money for very little work. However I had an idea there may be a restrictive covenant in place as it's an exclusive area, very quiet cul de sac with only 10 houses on. Nobody has ever built on their land or extended their properties since being built and they all come with vast land. So I checked the deeds and it states nothing can be erected other than the 10 private dwellings. Could this project still go ahead?
any advice will be appreciated

AnotherJoe

The fact you are tenants is irrelevant to your question.
The question is, who is responsible for enforcing this covenant. Does it say in the deeds?

I'd have thought a starting point would be when they apply for planning permission.
Possibly get Mr A. Nonymous to inform the authorities because if it works and permission is denied, and they find out it was you that dobbed them in, they may not be so inclined to sell to you.

SmashedAvacado

AnotherJoe wrote: »

The fact you are tenants is irrelevant to your question.
The question is, who is responsible for enforcing this covenant. Does it say in the deeds?

I'd have thought a starting point would be when they apply for planning permission.
Possibly get Mr A. Nonymous to inform the authorities because if it works and permission is denied, and they find out it was you that dobbed them in, they may not be so inclined to sell to you.

This has nothing to do with the "authorities". It relates to who has got the right to enforce the covenant - which is the land that benefits from it - which potentially is each of the other owners of properties in the location (if the plots used to all be part of the same plot) or possibly otherwise a neighbouring plot. The planners won't take notice of the existence of the covenant - its not relevant to whether planning permission ought to be granted or not.

jobianne77

Thanks for replies I know we have no say as tenants i just wanted to put you in the picture as to what the situation is as a whole. The owners have been aware that once they sell we had first priority which will still be the case even if the house is erected, however we expected to buy the whole lot!
The owners are just going through the planning now as we speak but I know the planning process doesnt include checking for covenants. As there is a covenant on all properties is it up to the neighbours to dispute this?

SmashedAvacado

jobianne77 wrote: »

Thanks for replies I know we have no say as tenants i just wanted to put you in the picture as to what the situation is as a whole. The owners have been aware that once they sell we had first priority which will still be the case even if the house is erected, however we expected to buy the whole lot! it's on a 1/3 of an acre and will now be split 60/40.
The owners are just going through the planning now as we speak but I know the planning process doesnt include checking for covenants. As there is a covenant on all properties is it up to the neighbours to dispute this?

It is likely that the neighbours are the beneficiary of the covenants. So they could dispute it if they are aware of it. That would be easier for them in stopping the development than say objecting to the planning permission. but this does very much depend on the wording of the covenant and the structure of the land holding at the time it was imposed. Quite often thes types of covenants become unenforceable as they are of no benefit to the land that originally benefited. That's probably unlikely here - but we can't say without a full title review (which you will need to get someone to do for you if you want to know).

jobianne77

Hi what is a full title review?

SmashedAvacado

jobianne77 wrote: »

Hi what is a full title review? The houses were built late 70s and the covenant states its transferable from owner to owner. The owners then obviously paid the mortgage off in the late 90s and covenant was passed to them but then the owners passed away and left this house to family, the deeds and the covenant was then passed onto family 10 years ago. They have rented the house out and now obviously want to make something from it.

The restrictive covenant binds the land on which the property sits. You need to undertake a review of the title to that land (and possibly the neighbouring titles) to establish who has the benefit of the covenant. This is what some on here would refer to as "checking the deeds" - even though that isnt really the process.

the person undertaking the review will look at who imposed the covenant, how it is worded and how it impacts the plots as exist today. There's no way of not doing this and getting an answer. As a layperson you are unlikely to get to the answer if you try to do it yourself.

jobianne77

I just wanted to buy this property as we call it our home and have always said we would give them the full asking price when they did sell. We would never have tried to split the property and build on it.....its too beautiful to destroy including the garden. I'm just really sad about it all.

anselld

Wait and see what happens. Planning may well be refused.

jobianne77

Just hope that planning say no.
clutching at straws here as we are upset about it all.
The owners just want to get rid of it all. We are emotionally attached.

SmashedAvacado

Based on what you have said the covenant says, my view is that the covenant is likely to benefit land other than the other 10 properties. What i think happened is that plot on which the properties were sold by a neighbouring landowner and then the plot was split into 10. So i think collectively your plot and the other 9 plots are burdened by this covenant. The land benefiting the covenant must be adjoining one of your plots or the neighbouring plots and would be visible from inspection of the plans from the conveyance referred to (from which the language is extracted). Does the title document refer to "an original filed" - as you need to find this document to work out what land benefited and then you it can be considered whether that land possibly could still benefit (which has to be the case for the covenant to be valid)