For Sale sign taken down

gridley

Hi, I live on a new build estate. Yesterday my for sale board was taken down - after contacting my estate agent they said the home builder who is still building on the estate told them they had to take it down due to a covenant being in place. I have heard nothing of the sort. Could this be correct? My property is freehold, surely I can have a for sale sign? 

davidmcn

Well, have you checked what the covenants in your title deeds say? You'll no doubt have some (probably many!) if it's a newbuild property, and it's likely there's something there about what signs you can stick up.

OldMusicGuy

Very common indeed that on new build estates the restrictive covenants prevent you from putting up for sale signs or other advertising boards. Sometimes you have to ask permission from the developer first.

You should have been aware of these when you bought the property as they would be in your TP1. Check the wording of your TP1 to see if you have them, but in this case it seems very likely there are such covenants in place, which of course you agreed to when you signed your contracts.

FWIW once the developers are gone, no-one cares about these things. But it sounds like the development is still underway, so the developers are likely to enforce them.

comeandgo

Yup, sounds normal.  We had that condition too.

eddddy

As above, it's very likely that there's a covenant preventing "For Sale" boards - which might be enforced especially rigourously whilst the developer is still trying to sell their new houses.


I suspect the estate agent knew (or suspected) that For Sale boards wouldn't be allowed, but put it up anyway in the hope that they'd get a few days of advertising before the developer took action.


It's interesting that the developer decided to contact the estate agent about the board, rather than you.  Maybe they thought it was a way of getting the sign down more quickly.

AdrianC

No great surprise at all that a developer still trying to shift new properties is not going to want a sign advertising a second-hand one competing with them...

As for the covenant... You've got the LR details. Is there one? I bet there is.

RelievedSheff

Standard covenant for a new build development. 

We have the same here although the three developers on site seem to be more lax about it. 

A splattering of properties have come up for resale recently and all of them have for sale boards up, one of them next door to the show homes. 

Capri84

Just put one up in your upstairs window... 

ratechaser

Doesn't exactly instill confidence, people already trying to sell up on a new development. No wonder the developers want to keep the boards at bay!

davilown

There used to be a house (one of the most expensive) on the estate next to my old house, that had signs in the windows telling people not to buy the houses because they were such poor quality, with a massive list of faults that the developer wasn’t prepared to fix.......

Those signs lasted for about 9 months before the developer brought the house back off the original purchasers