Restrictive Covenants

MrAnonymous1234

My wife and I are looking to buy a property which has a restrictive covenant as follows:

"Not to use the Property for any purpose other than as private residence and private garages".

The property we are looking to buy is situated as the last plot at the end of a cul-de-sac with neighbours on one side only. I currently work from home as a tutor at my current residence and I have students that attend my relatively small sized classroom lessons as well as online lessons. My business is registered to my current residence where I will continue to work from majority of the time, but my concern is whether I can work some evenings from the property we are potentially looking to buy in regards to the covenant above.

Thanks in advance

Rodders53

No you can't. Ever. At any time of day or night. *

But seek proper legal advice from your Solicitor not random stranger's thought via the interweb.

{The to-ing and fro-ing of clients and/or deliveries is one of the main reasons for such covenants;  as it can/will affect the peaceful enjoyment of others on the development.}

*  Zoom-conducted lessons excepted, possibly.

trakky14

I think you can only get around this if you can get the person/people who put in the covenant in the first place to change it...we had a similar discussion with our solicitor about something unrelated but there is a stipulation on use. There is no certainty though they could still say no and it would cost you more legal fees etc to change it.

user1977

Who is able to enforce the covenant? A long-disappeared developer, or an actively grumpy neighbour?

In practice though, it's very unlikely to be a practical issue unless you're causing some sort of nuisance. Students occasionally being dropped off/picked up are hardly likely to irk anybody else.

MrAnonymous1234

It won't be easy to track the people who put it in place as property was built 40-50 years ago. The solicitor has advised to take an indemnity insurance policy. The current vendors have breached a few covenants already which our solicitor has questioned and a few of the neighbours in the estate have too (eg. not to park caravan trailer on property). Any advice is appreciated.

F70

It depends who can enforce the covenant, I had the same issue with my house 6 year old estate ,no caravans, motorhomes or commercial vehicles over 2t. No sky dish visible from road ect ect...

I asked solicitor before buying who can enforce it. He said only the original developer. It is standard practice to include these covenants on new builds until all the houses are sold then they don't care.

I currently have my 8m motorhome on my drive looking out at 7 sky dishes and 4 transits on people drives.

Don't worry about it. As long as you won't affect the neighbors (parking ect) I would not worry about it.

user1977

MrAnonymous1234 said:

It won't be easy to track the people who put it in place as property was built 40-50 years ago. The solicitor has advised to take an indemnity insurance policy. The current vendors have breached a few covenants already which our solicitor has questioned and a few of the neighbours in the estate have too (eg. not to park caravan trailer on property). Any advice is appreciated.

If the only party who can enforce it was last seen in the 70s, and everybody else has been merrily breaching the covenants, I'm not sure you've got much to worry about.

Moreover, this sort of restriction is extremely common, so you're going to be eliminating quite a large chunk of the housing market if you really want to stay clear from any such title condition - in fact, are you sure your current place doesn't have something like this in the titles?

aliby21

The covenant is likely unenforceable, but be prepared for frosty reception from others in the cul de sac. As you are at the end of the cul de sac an increase in traffic is going to be noticeable, and may well upset those who have bought in this position precisely because they sought somewhere with minimal people/cars going back and forth.  A house in any other position it would be less likely to be a problem. 

Bendy_House

As said above, what actual impact will/could this have on the neighbours? Just how many cars will be turning up each evening?! And will this cause an actual nuisance to anyone? How about taking up parking spaces?

Is it possible to tell your students to be dropped off at the top of the c-d-s?

The in-laws used to live in a newish estate, and one of the covenants restricted what could be parked outside - eg no caravans. Their new neighbour - after asking whether there were such restrictions, and being told 'yup' - still went ahead and bought, and - yup - parked their c'van outside their front.

Lots of annoyed neighbs, but when In-laws called up their LegProt to see what could be done, they were told there was little they could actually do to enforce it, and that they certainly couldn't take it on. In the end, they did move the 'van, but only because the self-appointed guardian of t'hood made it clear that many neighbs were peed off, and they would become very unpopular.

So, enforceable? Very unlikely. Peer pressure/annoyed neighbs? Possibly.

Section62

aliby21 said:

The covenant is likely unenforceable....

Don't confuse "unenforceable" with "unlikely to be enforced".

If the beneficiary turns up and wants to enforce the covenant they may be able to do it without too much difficulty.

If the beneficiary(ies) no longer exists then it is very unlikely any enforcement of the covenant can be done.

jonnydeppiwish!

user1977 said:

Who is able to enforce the covenant? A long-disappeared developer, or an actively grumpy neighbour?

In practice though, it's very unlikely to be a practical issue unless you're causing some sort of nuisance. Students occasionally being dropped off/picked up are hardly likely to irk anybody else.

I think this is the the key point here. Both of the houses I’ve had have had the same or similar covenants but you only need to look in both the roads to see businesses being run from them.

Is there anyone to enforce it or who would even want to bother with it.