AIBU moving into house with a cat in no-cats neighbourhood

[museumsandgalleries666]

Asking for a friend :-)
Buying a house (freehold) in a newly-built (20 years old) neighbourhood and have received a letter from the resident's association advising no cats are allowed.
AIBU to continue my purchase and move in anyway? Do the Res Assoc have any legal right to stop anyone owning a cat?
Looking for advice as nearing completion and purchase chain will be affected.

Oo where is this place? I’d love to live in a place with no cats . I’m allergic and also sick of the cats of either side crapping in my garden all the time. To leave in an area with no cats would be bliss

What actually happens to a doorbell when it’s electrocuted?

Too easy too kill them? Please share - how?

Is it is residents association or a residents management committee? Some estates can and do have a management committee where the roads, open spaces, parking are managed by a legally appointed committee who also have the right to enforce restrictions on driveways (no caravans or commercial vehicles, no dividing fences or hedges), anything that impacts on the “look” of the estate. Sometimes if the developer can’t get the council to adopt the roads/verges or it’s a gated community then they set up a management committee. I don’t know about the rules on cats tho but I have seen ones where no piano or bagpipes (?!) can be played after 10pm. It also depends if it’s a freehold or leasehold house. I think I’d give it a miss personally.

God I'd love this. My next door neighbours have four fucking wanker cats and there are loads more around.

Between them and the foxes, doing my garden is less of a relaxing pleasure and more of a fucking obstacle course of disgusting turds .

@Toomuchtrouble4me they've died horribly themselves then they kill anyone that rings them with the residual current, particularly pedants

I wouldn’t because some charmer may well poison your cat and justify it to themselves because you chose to take a cat there. How weird that a Resident’s Association would have such a rule!

@AnnieSnap

I wouldn’t because some charmer may well poison your cat and justify it to themselves because you chose to take a cat there. How weird that a Resident’s Association would have such a rule!

It can't have any basis in law surely?

I wouldn't move there because it isn't worth the risk to the cat.

No cat neighbourhood sounds like nonsense.
How could anyone even enforce that, ‘Sorry cat but read the sign, no cats allowed, be on your way!’ 😹

Where is the development located? If its near to a site designated for its ecological interest they do sometimes get these covenants to ensure cats don't predate ground nesting birds. If that were the case it would be the local planning authority that were responsible and could in theory enforce with the removal of your friends cat. Might be possible if it could be proven to be a indoor cat or the garden was fully contained.

I love the idea of a cat-free neighbourhood.

Does it just say cats or dogs too? Seems odd. I've seen houses including mine which clearly say in the deeds that you can't run a business from them. My parents have had houses with restrictions about heights of plants in front garden (totally ignored), needing permission for conservatories and not being allowed to hang washing on a Sunday. I've also lived in a flat where you had to be married 😂. It could be part of the original deeds for the house so ask your solicitor on that one. Did they know your friend had a cat? Maybe ask the vendors?

If this house is freehold and the letter is from the residents association rather than the management company I’d say it’s completely unenforceable.

With a lease/share of freehold and a management company stipulation you’d expect to have been in the management pack the solicitor would have been sent at the start of the sale. If it was and the solicitor missed it, that’s your problem (or rather your solicitor’s).

But if it wasn’t in the management sales pack it’s their own fault.

So you need to establish 1. Who made this stipulation, 2. Was your solicitor notified.

Have you exchanged yet? If so she can’t pull out anyway.

The residents association if properly elected do actually have the power to enforce the conditions if they decide to take your friend to court and legally oppose her breaking of the conditions. However, it is not guaranteed to be upheld if a judge considers there to be no harm or significant detriment to the rest of the development being caused.

AFAIK RAs cannot start legal action, no more than they can they borrow money or take out legal contracts in their name. They’re not legal entities in law.

If it came to it, which seems highly unlikely, friend’s defence could be - assuming that the estate agent wasn’t provided with or didn’t provide friend with the RA regulations, or that the solicitor wasn’t notified via the sales pack - that she was only notified just before completion, too late to pull out. That if the RA are to make such stipulations they need to ensure it’s in the sales pack.

I would love to live there. Cats gave up burying their filth years ago. Now it's deposited on lawns, verges, footpaths and even the road. I wouldn't run the risk of starting on the wrong foot in a new place.

Don't buy this house - the Residents association is plainly a bunch of fascists who don't mind telling lies and making up illegal statements to bully everyone - move somewhere where reasonable people live

It’s all very well saying don’t proceed but OP will lose the money spent on conveyancing and potentially the stamp duty holiday.

@ERFFER can you please tell the cat that poops down the side of my house on the slabs that cats bury it, thanks

I really wouldn’t pursue the sale to be honest. I’ve heard so many horror stories of cats being harmed locally...and that’s not in a ‘non cat area’!

No one has to harm the cat to get rid of the cat.

If you aren’t in compliance with a covenant you get a letter telling you to get your act together. Generally there is a date for compliance and a channel for official protest with a deadline date for that. If both pass and you are still not in compliance they issue a fine. It’s actually really rare that it comes to that. It happens and there are some crazy stories that make the news, but mostly it’s just people being reminded to bring in their bins.

I’d get a pet cheetah or three.

I wouldn’t touch this house with a ten foot barge pole OP. Freehold it may be, but it sounds like your every move will be watched - nothing ‘free’ about that..... I wonder where these busybodies find the time for that kind of crap. I doubt it ends there tbh. No way would I risk taking my much loved cats there!

I wouldn’t continue

@museumsandgalleries666 that’s fucking harsh!
People who have cats usually have no idea what’s it’s like to live with other people’s pets crapping in your garden all the time because they don’t do it in yours. I have small children and we have to do a shit sweep every time we go in the garden because cat shit can bloody well blind small children.

As much as I think it’s unfair to impose rules like that I can completely understand why they have done it.
I think you need to be careful OP, because some cat haters will leave poison out - it’s rare but happens. If you decide to move in I think it would be a risk.