Restrictive covenant on property we are about to buy. Advice please!

Mandragora

Arrrrrgggghhhhh!!!! How does anyone ever move house? 

After a long search we've finally found a property in an ideal location for us, but it's tired and needs renovating, internal reorganisation and we'd love to extend it,too. It's an estate bungalow built in 1969. The papers have come from the solicitors today, and include the following covenant details:

'7. No alterations in or additions to any building now or at any time standing on the propertyhereby conveyed shall be made or permitted to be made neither shall any new or additional buildings be erected or permitted to be erected on the property hereby conveyed or any part thereof except such as are in accordance with plans and elevations to be previously submitted to and approved of in writing by the Vendor or its surveyor for which a fee of three guineas for each such approval shall be paid to the Vendor or its surveyor upon demand'

There's also the usual stuff about keeping the place tidy, no chickens, caravans or sheds but, obviously, given that we want to extend (out of view, not impinging on any neighbours), this is a real concern.  If we could find who to pay the three guineas to, we'd gladly do it; the firm is shown as 'inactive' on the databases we can see (one link suggests the three partners, if alive would be in their mid-nineties now).  Many other bungalows up and down the road have altered driveways, rooflines, added conservatories etc etc, (the property we're buying has had a front porch and rear conservatory added at some point) but... I've never come across anything like this before, and I'm a worrier. 

Our solicitor has been very painstaking in her advice - "95% of the time unlikely to be a problem"  and " if you want to take the risk of doing the work and getting indemnity insurance a year later you could take that route, but it would be entirely up to you"

We're in a complete quandrary - and now we're tempted to go and knock on a couple of doors and just ask the neighbours how they dealt with the issue.  Or should we just run for the hills?  We'd appreciate and welcome any advice from anyone who knows about these things, or who has found themselves in this sitauation and how they dealt with it. 

davidmcn

If nobody's cared about the neighbours' alterations, why would they suddenly appear out of the woodwork when you wanted to do something?

It's 2020, there are much more probable things to worry about...

Mandragora

Update - I've just found a link that tells me the company was dissolved - as far as I can see, some years ago.

Doozergirl

That's only asking you to submit plans and three guineas.  If the company doesn't really exist, we're talking about a covenant that is over 50 years old and all the neighbours have extended, what do you think the risk really is?

Our covenants expressly forbid us from building a house on our land.  Guess what we've done 😬  

There isn't even a worst case scenario for you.  You were only asked to submit plans and a negligible fee.  It doesn't even sound like they would refuse, it's
just a little money spinner for developers and really quite common.  

[Deleted User]

If the company is dissoved, does the restriction even now exist? Your solicitor should be answering this not an Internet forum. 

montymouse

Having had experience of restrictive covenants myself, I would be very wary. I've seen people being inclined to think that they are not enforceable, only to discover that they are, and then having to remove what they have built.

You really need to get an assurance from your solicitor as to the ramifications of this restrictive covenant.

If it were me, I would be tempted to look elsewhere.

Thrugelmir

No different to restrictive covenants on new builds todays. Developers don't want the look of the estate spoilt while they are selling properties. Once they've left they've no further interest. 

Getting_greyer

Raise some chickens first just to be on the safe side.

bouicca21

 If the company does not exist, you can’t submit plans to it.  If you really want to be on the safe side you could put £3.15 aside as a contingency!

Doozergirl

montymouse said:

Having had experience of restrictive covenants myself, I would be very wary. I've seen people being inclined to think that they are not enforceable, only to discover that they are, and then having to remove what they have built.

You really need to get an assurance from your solicitor as to the ramifications of this restrictive covenant.

If it were me, I would be tempted to look elsewhere.

The initial vendor does not exist.   There is no one to enforce the covenant, so there is effectively no covenant.   You are scaremongering.  

The obvious aside, if the vendor did exist somewhere, the restrictive covenant does not restrict building, it asks for a fee for gaining permission.  

It's incredibly common in new build estates and I'm certainly aware of a friend with a build from the 70s that has similar, so these things go back a long way. There must be hundreds of thousands of similar covenants.  

I have read of people being surprised to discover that the covenant exists and they've been contacted (on relatively newly build estates) to seek permission, but I have never read on this forum of anyone being refused or made to demolish anything ever - for any reason - whether it's a covenant like this or a lack of building control certification or a drain that's been built over.  

AdrianC

The £3.15 is only payable "on demand"... Nobody is going to demand it. The legal entity who have the right to demand it simply does not exist any more.

It's like saying you need to get permission from your grandmother before you do something... but she died decades ago.