Restrictive Covenants on a Non-New Build House

secla

out estate has permenant covenants from commercial vehicles/not changing hedgerows/no satelite dishs on front of houses etc.
The developer who owns the covenants has never enforced them and pretty much every one has been broken many times over.
Usually just a thing to keep the estate looking as intended until they finish building

locationx3

Some older covenants can be odd. My father’s 1970s house had ones against running a fish & chip shop, a pub or having a racing pigeon loft in the garden.

Abbafan1972

markin said:

comeandgo said:

maton91 said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

Animals, vans and washing lines are some relatively common ones.

Washing lines, really? What resriction and how are you meant to dry your clothes, especially on a day like today!

Use a whirligig.  

It has washing lines on it, Use a dryer.

F*** me, not in weather like this and not with the price of energy at the moment!

Bonniepurple

We are apparently not allowed sheds without permission (given that the previous owners had 5 sheds we’re ignoring that!) and aren’t allowed to run a business from the property (previous owners were childminders so again…).

Brilliant one about the church bells.  You buy a place near a church, expect bells.  

Bonniepurple

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6311351/whats-the-strangest-clause-youve-seen-in-a-tenancy-property-agreement

diystarter7

who enforces the covenants if especially older property where the builders may not be around?

newsgroupmonkey_

diystarter7 said:

who enforces the covenants if especially older property where the builders may not be around?

Neighbours, for a start.

Our future 1957 property has a restrictive covenant that says we can't run a licenced premises or any business that may cause excessive noise etc.

Our existing one has the parish council mentioned in a number of places. Although they don't appear to enforce many of them.

diystarter7

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

diystarter7 said:

who enforces the covenants if especially older property where the builders may not be around?

Neighbours, for a start.

Our future 1957 property has a restrictive covenant that says we can't run a licenced premises or any business that may cause excessive noise etc.

Our existing one has the parish council mentioned in a number of places. Although they don't appear to enforce many of them.

Thanks. Therefore the house we previously owned had about 18 foot wide land to the side of our EOT house.  If we decided to build a detached house and neighbours objected, would they go to the council or hire a solictor?

newsgroupmonkey_

diystarter7 said:

Thanks. Therefore the house we previously owned had about 18 foot wide land to the side of our EOT house.  If we decided to build a detached house and neighbours objected, would they go to the council or hire a solictor?

Strictly speaking, the only people that can enforce a covenant are those that benefit from it (I'm no law expert, but I've read quite a bit lately about covenants as the place we're buying has a few, and some are a little bit open ended).

So for instance, the one I mentioned about a licenced premises could be enforced by many of the neighbours, but particularly next door as it would detriimentally affect them to be having drunken people hanging about. In the same way, if I ran a warehouse depot from the house, they could argue that the HGVs were having a significant impact on their freedom of quiet.

On the other hand, if you were to build a detached property that your neighbours couldn't see (and parking, for instance was either not included or impacted them), then they'd be hard pushed to say that they can annex the covenant.

Either way, it's a court job unless the council is explicitly mentioned.

user1977

diystarter7 said:

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

diystarter7 said:

who enforces the covenants if especially older property where the builders may not be around?

Neighbours, for a start.

Our future 1957 property has a restrictive covenant that says we can't run a licenced premises or any business that may cause excessive noise etc.

Our existing one has the parish council mentioned in a number of places. Although they don't appear to enforce many of them.

Therefore the house we previously owned had about 18 foot wide land to the side of our EOT house.  If we decided to build a detached house and neighbours objected, would they go to the council or hire a solictor?

Covenants are nothing to do with the council (unless they happen to be one of the land owners involved).