Covenants In Leases, Advice Please.

wavefinder

hi, as the freeholder of our property we are in the process of extending the lease for the leaseholder,who lives in same building. the terms and premium have been agreed. we have received quite a strong worded letter from their solicitor telling us to remove the covenant about no children under the age of 12 and its not enforcable by law, and if we dont remove said cov. they will walk away from the negotiating! now, we did not put it in it was already there when we bought. as its an old property with a shared garden, and from experience with past tenants, ie. kids running around in a 2 bed flat the noise is a bit to say the least annoying!
we are not old,we have kids ourselves,nor are we anti kids.its just that we would like to keep it in just to protect ourselves from being invaded. in the past there have been people here with one child and we didnt bother,we have been flexible and tolerant.
we consider it to be unsuitable for more than one child, if we remove the cov. whats it to stop anyone with 2 or even 3 kids moving in. especially as houses are becoming more expensive. weve already given them a discount on the premium and now we feel as though we are being forced to do this!
whats the point of having covenants,if nobody inc the law seems to take any notice!
sorry bout the long post. any info or advice would be appreciated.
thanx for looking!

dmg24

It is likely that such a clause would be contrary to age discrimination laws.

wavefinder

age discrimination! that means everyone who is advertizing flats/accomodation ie. no pets no children no dss etc must be breaking the law then! infact the whole country!

dmg24

wavefinder wrote: »

age discrimination! that means everyone who is advertizing flats/accomodation ie. no pets no children no dss etc must be breaking the law then! infact the whole country!

I don't think saying no pets or dss could be classed as age discrimination?!

amandajp_2

dmg24 wrote: »

It is likely that such a clause would be contrary to age discrimination laws.

I don't know whether such a covenant would be enforceable by law but as far as I am aware (I'm not a lawyer but I have checked the legislation) the age discrimination laws only apply to employers not to landlords/leaseholders.

Amanda

Porky996T

I have dealt a lot with commercial leases and their are some strange contractual obligations in them, but I have no experience in resi leases which are covered by different Acts of Parliament.
If you are in correspondence with the tenants solicitors it is worth a letter asking them to clarify the Act of Parliament the covenant relating to children under 12 is illegal. If it transpires that it is, you can always add covenants relating specifically to noise, landlords quite enjoyment and playing in garden etc to cover those elements of children under 12 that you find annoying.

Debt_Free_Chick

I don't see how it can be enforceable.

What if a couple - with no children - buy the flat and then start a family? Are they supposed to sell up? At what point? When the pregnancy is confirmed or immediately after the birth?

What about visitors - can they never have house guests who have children?

It doesn't "feel right" to use a legal covenant to try and control behaviour or "lifestyle". That's a very weak argument, from me, but it just doesn't "feel right".

I think you should remove it and deal with any noise/nuisance issues - if they ever arise - through the usual channels.

Would you really wave a legal piece of paper at them and threaten action? If not, then the covenant is pointless anyway.