Title deeds allowing only one dog

prince3121

My husband and I are in the process of buying a house in Scotland. We are due to complete in 10 days. I’ve  just received the title deeds and upon reading them I’ve noticed a clause that states we can only keep one pet in the property. The house is a freehold 3 bedroom detached property. The problem is we have 2 dogs. I have never seen this in title deeds before. My question is how relevant is this and can it be enforced? There is no management company looking after the estate. It’s a 50 house, 30 year old development. Has anyone ever came across this before? I’ve tried to speak to my lawyer but she’s out of office today. 

user1977

Not that unusual, but immensely unlikely that anybody would even try to enforce it, and even less likely that they'd be successful.

Skiddaw1

That's exactly what I was thinking.

I suppose you could take the dogs for walks seperately if you're really concerned? That way, it'll be less obvious that you have two!

Brie

"Fido doesn't live with us, I'm just looking after him for my cousin."

Scotbot

user1977 said:

Not that unusual, but immensely unlikely that anybody would even try to enforce it, and even less likely that they'd be successful.

I am not so sure, it only takes one neighbour to complain. As to whether it would go anywhere the question is who do they complain to and how much would it cost? Your solicitor can advise.

lisyloo

I don't know if this is the case here, but when we bought our house on a new development, caravans and motorhomes and even satellite dishes were banned.
In practice this was only an issue whilst the developers were trying to sell the houses as they didn't want it to appear "trashy".
Once the developers were gone, no-one would enforce it.
Could it be something like that?

Olinda99

if anyone complains say they not pets but part of your stereo system - the subwoofers

BungalowBel

We had a property once that forbade 'the brewing of beer on the premises'.

I don't expect the home brewers took any notice.

Yours is probably a historical thing that no-one takes any notice of.  Ask your solicitor.

user1977

Scotbot said:

user1977 said:

Not that unusual, but immensely unlikely that anybody would even try to enforce it, and even less likely that they'd be successful.

I am not so sure, it only takes one neighbour to complain. As to whether it would go anywhere the question is who do they complain to and how much would it cost? Your solicitor can advise.

They complain to the courts. The courts have generally taken the view that such conditions can only be enforced where the breach is causing material detriment to the complainer. I've never heard of trivial stuff like this going anywhere.

Besides, if your dogs were causing some sort of objective nuisance, the neighbours may have other remedies anyway without having to rely on the titles.

RHemmings

Brie said:

"Fido doesn't live with us, I'm just looking after him for my cousin."

"This is our only dog. We previously had a <insert colour> <insert breed> dog but he died. Sometimes our daughter claims she sees his ghost; you know what kids are like. 

user1977 said:

Scotbot said:

user1977 said:

Not that unusual, but immensely unlikely that anybody would even try to enforce it, and even less likely that they'd be successful.

I am not so sure, it only takes one neighbour to complain. As to whether it would go anywhere the question is who do they complain to and how much would it cost? Your solicitor can advise.

They complain to the courts. The courts have generally taken the view that such conditions can only be enforced where the breach is causing material detriment to the complainer. I've never heard of trivial stuff like this going anywhere.

Besides, if your dogs were causing some sort of objective nuisance, the neighbours may have other remedies anyway without having to rely on the titles.

That's very interesting. Are there any well known precedents where this was applied that you could recommend? 

Note: I don't have any restrictions in my title deeds that I want to get around - I have no intention to open a pub in my property. 

Scotbot

user1977 said:

Scotbot said:

user1977 said:

Not that unusual, but immensely unlikely that anybody would even try to enforce it, and even less likely that they'd be successful.

I am not so sure, it only takes one neighbour to complain. As to whether it would go anywhere the question is who do they complain to and how much would it cost? Your solicitor can advise.

Besides if your dog was causing some dort of objective nuisance the neighbours may have other remedies anyway without having to rely on the titles.

I wasn't thinking about people complaining because the dogs are a nuisance I was thinking about the little Hitlers who love to enforce rules.