buying land - what does this covenant/ charges register mean pls?

Bartoni79

Hi, 
Im looking to buy some land and downloaded the reigsiter. Could anyone translate what this means please into layman's terms? Ill be using a solicitor but wanted to see if there were any red flags in the title register in advance. Any advice or insights would be great. There is no yellow area road on the title plan as referenced below but I think it says keep the lane/ road clear all times and at least 5 ft of it for walking?

Property Register:
A Conveyance of the land in this title and other land dated 19 April 1920 made between (1) ABC Jones is expressed to grant the following rights:- "TOGETHER with all roads (and expecially a right of road at all times and for all purposes over so much of the road coloured yellow and Ten feet wide as is not hereby conveyed and also of foot and barrow road over so much of the several roads five feet wide shown thereon and also coloured yellow as is not hereby conveyed) drains (and especially a right of drainage into and of connection with the main drains placed or to be placed under the said roads or any of them."

Charges Register:
A Conveyance of the land in this title and other land dated 16 October 1900 made between (1) ABC (Vendors) and (2) XYZ (Purchaser) contains the following covenants:- "And the Purchaser (with intent and so as to bind not only himself personally but also all persons claiming title under him to the hereditaments hereby assured or any part thereof and to bind the said hereditaments into whosesoever hands the same may come but so that neither the Purchaser nor any other such person shall not be liable under this covenant after he shall have parted with the possession and control of the said hereditaments) hereby covenants with the Vendors That he the Purchaser his heirs and assigns will at all times hereafter observe and keep the building line shewn on the said plan." NOTE: No building line was shown on the said plan referred to.

Bookworm105

because back in those days rights needed to be spelled out to avoid some smartypants coming back later demanding money:

a) ensures purchaser cannot be landlocked by being denied access along the road to it or be unable to connect their drains from it

b) meaningless since you say no line is shown

eddddy

Bookworm105 said:

b) meaningless since you say no line is shown

I don't know about back in 1900, but today a 'building line' could be defined as something like the (imaginary) line along the front faces of all the buildings along a street/road or similar.

@Bartoni97 - Does the plan show one or more buildings, possibly in a row? (Which may have now been demolished?)

If so, the front faces of the building(s) could potentially be described as the building line.


(But even if that's the case, there's still the question of whether it's safe or unsafe to ignore the covenant.)

RAS

Sounds like the 1900 covenant refers to the original land purchase and owners all had to line up the front walls of their properties?

Might be an issue if you want to extend to the front of the property.

Bartoni79

There are no buildings anymore but it is surrounded by buildings on all sides and there seems to be an 2M perimeter where residents put their bins.  I think there used to be a building/s on the land. It’s serviced by a lane (in green) which doesn’t seem to be on anyone’s title so does the covenant/ information refer to this? Does this ensure that the lane (in green) can’t be blocked? Thanks 

eddddy

So it looks like the former buildings didn't come up to the boundary - so where those buildings finished is likely to be defined as the building line.


But taking a step back - what kind of area is it? That looks like a good sized piece of development land. So I guess you'll be competing with a few development professionals to get it.

I guess they might have a team of legal people, planning consultants, architects etc looking at potential, and feasibility, etc,

(Plus, was it a factory or workshop or similar - and therefore is there a risk of contaminated land?)



Edit to add....

Or if development professionals aren't interested in the land, why not?

Or have you spotted some potential which others haven't spotted?

(Or maybe you don't want to mention your strategy here - which is fine.)

Bartoni79

I was going to use it as storage..  as it’s surrounded by houses I assume it will be difficult to get the go ahead for development but I could be wrong 

eddddy

Bartoni79 said:

I was going to use it as storage..  as it’s surrounded by houses I assume it will be difficult to get the go ahead for development but I could be wrong 

Obviously I don't know the area, but it looks like 4 or 5 houses could be fitted on the site, or a block of flats.

The sort of thing the planning consultants and architects might be investigating include...

"Are we likely to get consent for a 3 storey block of flats, or maybe even 4 storey? If we did, how many flats could we get on each floor?"


How is it being marketed? Aren't the agents saying things like "development opportunity" and giving a guide price?