Restrictive covenant advice on ex-council house?

dimsvecovs

Hello,
We are in the process of buying our first house and are hoping to exchange soon.
Our solicitor has sent us the transfer deeds which contains restrictive covenants and I am concerned about a few of these, I hope someone can help me figure out what this means.
1) "Not to alter or permit to be altered the external plan elevation or appearance of the dwelling house and outbuildings thereto erected on the Property or any wall erection or building on the property or sub-divide or take down or make any external addition or alteration to the same or any part thereof except for the purpose of being immediately rebuilt and reinstated in accordance with plans and specifications to be submitted to and approved by the Transferor (Council) as landowners is previously obtained"

 "Not to allow any building or erection of any kind whatsoever to be constructed upon the Property without submitting plans and specifications without prior consent of the Transferor as landowners"

Will this prevent me from building a small garden room (usually permitted development) or addition of a small conservatory (usually permitted development) or a shed on the property land? Can such structures be built without prior consent of the Transferor (Council) or would I have to obtain prior consent to build anything on the land?

2) "Not to place or permit to be placed upon the front garden or forecourt of the Property any vehicles of any description whatsoever without the previous written consent of the Transferor or any goods or automatic machine"
The house we are buying have an attached garage and there was a former drive with dropped kerb leading to garage (based on old photos found on google maps), the drive and the front garden was laid with block paving (most likely by the current owner) so the whole front garden of the house is now a paved drive.
 

What does this covenant mean? Does it mean I will not be able to park any car (I have a small van in particular) in front of the house on the paved drive without written consent of the council? Or can this covenant be disregard since there is a dropped kerb.

Any help would be much appreciated guys, thanks a lot!

As a first time buyer this drives me crazy.

Section62

dimsvecovs said:

Hello,
We are in the process of buying our first house and are hoping to exchange soon.
Our solicitor has sent us the transfer deeds which contains restrictive covenants and I am concerned about a few of these, I hope someone can help me figure out what this means.
1) "Not to alter or permit to be altered the external plan elevation or appearance of the dwelling house and outbuildings thereto erected on the Property or any wall erection or building on the property or sub-divide or take down or make any external addition or alteration to the same or any part thereof except for the purpose of being immediately rebuilt and reinstated in accordance with plans and specifications to be submitted to and approved by the Transferor (Council) as landowners is previously obtained"

 "Not to allow any building or erection of any kind whatsoever to be constructed upon the Property without submitting plans and specifications without prior consent of the Transferor as landowners"

Will this prevent me from building a small garden room (usually permitted development) or addition of a small conservatory (usually permitted development) or a shed on the property land? Can such structures be built without prior consent of the Transferor (Council) or would I have to obtain prior consent to build anything on the land?

It will only prevent you making changes if the council refuse to give you their consent.  This consent would be wholly separate from any planning consent, including the use of permitted development rights.  I.e. even if the construction is 'permitted development' you'd still need to ask the council for consent under the covenant.

dimsvecovs said:

2) "Not to place or permit to be placed upon the front garden or forecourt of the Property any vehicles of any description whatsoever without the previous written consent of the Transferor or any goods or automatic machine"
The house we are buying have an attached garage and there was a former drive with dropped kerb leading to garage (based on old photos found on google maps), the drive and the front garden was laid with block paving (most likely by the current owner) so the whole front garden of the house is now a paved drive.
 

What does this covenant mean? Does it mean I will not be able to park any car (I have a small van in particular) in front of the house on the paved drive without written consent of the council? Or can this covenant be disregard since there is a dropped kerb.

Any help would be much appreciated guys, thanks a lot!

As a first time buyer this drives me crazy.

In principle no, you can't park there, unless the council have already given consent.

The presence or absence of the dropped kerb isn't relevant to the operation of the covenant.  You'd still need to have consent (usually from the housing or legal department) in accordance with the terms of the covenant.

dimsvecovs

It will only prevent you making changes if the council refuse to give you their consent.  This consent would be wholly separate from any planning consent, including the use of permitted development rights.  I.e. even if the construction is 'permitted development' you'd still need to ask the council for consent under the covenant.

Thank you. Making changes? Building a garden room (garden office) in the garden does fall under this? Does this also apply to non permanent things like if I place a garden container in the back garden?
So basically do I need to ask council consent for anything put in the garden or just permanent structures?
The covenant refer to "building or erection" but what falls under this category?

In principle no, you can't park there, unless the council have already given consent.

How to find out if the council already given consent?
The current owner (seller) does park his car on the drive as do all other neighbours who have a similar ex-council houses.
I will try to ask the seller if he does have a consent from the council, but if he doesn't than it means he is in the breach of the covenant. Should I be worried about it?
What if the council will not give me a consent after I purchase the house?
Will I be able to keep my car only in garage than?

Do you think this could this be sorted with Indemnity Insurance?

Thank you.

user1977

You should be asking your solicitor about all of this - it's what you're paying them for!

dimsvecovs

I have asked my solicitor but they are very slow in replying and I though to also ask on the forum as there are a lot of people who had a similar experience with similar covenants on ex-council houses.

aoleks

this kind of restrictive covenants are pretty much standard on ex-la houses, I would bet almost the entire ex-la stock has them in one form or another. the clue is in the final sentence, which usually means you can apply for that particular restriction to be lifted by the council.

how does it work?

imagine a restrictive covenant that doesn't allow you to make structural alternations (e.g. open up structural wall between living room and kitchen). you would have to submit a planning permission application with the council even though this would not normally be required for such work (another good example is an extension that falls under permitted development) and if the planning permission is fine with it (they will be), the legal department is happy to remove the restriction for a fee AND for that specific purpose.

you will be allowed to extend or build a driveway, but you will have some additional costs (hundreds of pounds) that you would not normally have. not the end of the world and a phone call to your local council would confirm this.

also have a look at other properties nearby, I can guarantee they have driveways, extensions, sheds, painted walls, fences, internal alterations etc. ...

Section62

aoleks said:

this kind of restrictive covenants are pretty much standard on ex-la houses, I would bet almost the entire ex-la stock has them in one form or another. the clue is in the final sentence, which usually means you can apply for that particular restriction to be lifted by the council.

how does it work?

imagine a restrictive covenant that doesn't allow you to make structural alternations (e.g. open up structural wall between living room and kitchen). you would have to submit a planning permission application with the council even though this would not normally be required for such work (another good example is an extension that falls under permitted development) and if the planning permission is fine with it (they will be), the legal department is happy to remove the restriction for a fee AND for that specific purpose.

No.

It has absolutely nothing to do with planning permission. Consent in relation to a covenant restriction does not come under The Town and Country Planning Act.

The consent will be given by either the housing, legal, or sometimes property services department - in many cases by return of email, often with no fee payable.

aoleks said:

you will be allowed to extend or build a driveway, but you will have some additional costs (hundreds of pounds) that you would not normally have. not the end of the world and a phone call to your local council would confirm this.

"Will" in both cases in that paragraph should be read as 'may'.  There's no guarantee consent will be given, and consent for parking is often refused to avoid either concreting over front gardens, or road safety risks.  Costs charged by local authorities vary, and if dealt with by a simple email then it is quite possible no charge will be made.

aoleks said:

also have a look at other properties nearby, I can guarantee they have driveways, extensions, sheds, painted walls, fences, internal alterations etc. ...

Quite likely, but without knowing if they have the same covenant and/or have consent, what the neighbours have done doesn't help the OP very much.

Section62

dimsvecovs said:

It will only prevent you making changes if the council refuse to give you their consent.  This consent would be wholly separate from any planning consent, including the use of permitted development rights.  I.e. even if the construction is 'permitted development' you'd still need to ask the council for consent under the covenant.

Thank you. Making changes? Building a garden room (garden office) in the garden does fall under this? Does this also apply to non permanent things like if I place a garden container in the back garden?
So basically do I need to ask council consent for anything put in the garden or just permanent structures?
The covenant refer to "building or erection" but what falls under this category?

Forget about the distinction between temporary and permanent. It isn't relevant in this sense.

Buildings or erections cover most things that look like a structure - e.g. sheds, walls, fences, raised decking etc.

If a 'garden container' is something which looks a bit shed-like, or has a shed-like function, then the council may decide it is one which needs their consent.

I don't think there is any doubt that a garden room would require consent under those terms.

MovingForwards

The parking one most people do it without permission, years ago it cost £10 to get a letter from my then local council agreeing the front could be used as a drive; it wasn't transferable to anyone else. 

newsgroupmonkey_

Ours is ex-LA, but the covenants are actually enforced by the Parish council rather than the county council (which used to be district but has now merged back)

Those covenants unfortunately overrule permitted development, however, it's unlikely that unless you're doing some kind of huge project that they'll object.

Ours objected a few years ago when the previous owners applied to build a conservatory, however, they've since softened since permitted development came about and others have all sorts now. I did find it rather amusing, because it was turned down as it might impinge on the neighbours light, even though both neighbours supported in writing.

They chose not to appeal (even though the planning implied that they would have a fair case).

We have a workshop (timber framed - it's not a shed) on the side of ours and some of our neighbours have extensions, so I don't see any issue these days. Our Parish council has a much bigger issue to worry about - the 2500 houses at one end of the village that they're having imposed on them.

Section62

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

Ours objected a few years ago when the previous owners applied to build a conservatory, however, they've since softened since permitted development came about and others have all sorts now. I did find it rather amusing, because it was turned down as it might impinge on the neighbours light, even though both neighbours supported in writing.

Permitted development isn't a recent thing... the current principal order dates back to 1995.

But again for clarity, the issue the OP has with covenants is nothing to do with planning permission or permitted  development.  Really important that the two issues don't get mixed up here.