Covenant in house deeds breached, advice please.

[ArmelleSq]

From the house deeds the following covenants are breached

• parking rights including number of car parking spaces attached to each house
• 'not to use ....for any other purpose than as a private residence for the use of one and not more than one family'.

The house has five cars parked ( deeds say one space). Obstructions are to other houses and emergency service access.
House is let as a staff house to a local hotel.

Local council say that no LPA has been breached and that I need to contact a solicitor as a civil matter.

This is contrary to the initial advice from a different council employee who said that the initial planning would never have been approved without these clauses and that these must be maintained.

Your views much appreciated as to council responsibility or civil matter. ( before I pay for a solicitor)

I take it you've got nowhere writing to the hotel and pointing these matters out? The emergency access point is bad.

I think it would be down to whoever holds the covenant , is it the original builders ?

Good luck in finding the owner of the convent. If not already done?

Civil, the council has told you this? Why would any randoms opinion make a difference, you can’t go back to thr council and say well some folks on mumsnet disagee,

The title should say who can take action against the owner for breaching the covenant, either neighbouring owners or the sellers (Persimmon, Redrow etc) or both.

@Adeleskirts

Good luck in finding the owner of the convent. If not already done?

Civil, the council has told you this? Why would any randoms opinion make a difference, you can’t go back to thr council and say well some folks on mumsnet disagee,

Not 'randoms' - this is posted in the legal section where good advice is often offered from professionals.

Who is the covenant with and enforceable by? Many lapse over time as builders fold and properties are sold on.

@LIZS

I'm saying 'covenant' - maybe I'm not using the correct term.

I have TP1 from HM Land Registry with 'rights granted' - which are the terms above. (contravened).

For clarity, the hotel is not adjoining the property. The 'staff house' is 10 miles from the hotel, let to the hotel by the house owner.

Covenants are breached pretty often. If it's a very new development where the developer is still selling properties then they might be interested in pursuing it, but otherwise it's fairly unlikely I think. Our old house had covenants about only one cat or dog per household and almost every house on the street ignored that!

If it's a case of obstructing emergency vehicles then I would think council would be interested in it from that perspective.

Is it an HMO? If there are potentially five unrelated people living there, it needs to be registered as a large HMO.

@Hugasauras

Is it an HMO? If there are potentially five unrelated people living there, it needs to be registered as a large HMO.

No not listed as a HMO.

Three people live there ( I've no problem with that - except for the cars). They have guests often, hence the five cars.

I would prefer to sort the parking but realise the more legal recourse might be the HMO.

Who owns the land they are parking on? If it is a new build estate is there a management company. Who owns the property, the hotel or a landlord?

I think 3 unrelated people may count as an HMO. We have experience of covenants and they are very hard to enforce and probably not worth bothering with. I would try to see if any other neighbours are as irritated as you and look into other council enforceable things. You can report illegal parking on the fix my street app. It takes seconds and round here the enforcement officers come out to ticket pretty quickly. If the house has more than 3 floors or more than 5 people or possibly if there are unrelated people living there, depending on whether rhee are individual locks on bedroom sores then it could be an illegal HMO. You can look up the HMO guidelines online

So you're looking at two separate issues here: planning (public) and restrictive covenants (private). They don't usually overlap but what may have been implied to you is that there was a planning condition relating to the covenants to be imposed in the transfer. If that was the case then unless that condition also included an obligation to enforce it's not much use to you.

You need to get a copy of the planning which will be online and read the conditions in there.

@LIZS that's not correct. Covenants run with the land and are not personal so don't lapse in the way you've described.

I'm assuming your question is because their multiple parked cars are inconveniencing parking in front of your house?
If they're parked legally on a public road then I don't there's much recourse from that angle.
Have you tried asking the tenants to park more considerately?

I'm not sure going down the legal route of covenants and getting the house owner in trouble for not registering as an HMO will ultimately solve the problem.

Even one family living there could own multiple cars and have frequent visitors!

Thanks for the above.

Complicated I know.

To answer more queries. All houses (9) are in a courtyard development. The courtyard is owned by us all, we are all responsible for maintenance and upkeep.

Each house has parking for one car. The courtyard is the turning circle - with the 'rights granted' saying that this must be unobstructed.

Given that the staff house has between 3-5 cars parked, these obstruct the turning circle, especially when parked two or three deep.
Council are saying an obstruction would be a tree or building.

Emergency vehicles, delivery vans/wagons are unable to turn, we can't turn either to get in and out of our own spaces.
Without turning round, all vehicles have to reverse out onto a main road. Something as large as a fire engine wouldn't get through at all.

Initially, I was advised, in a call to the council that this would come under planning infringement as the development would not have been approved without the 'right granted' - further information from the council is that there isn't a planning infringement and see a solicitor to look at my deeds ( which I have and have quoted to the council).

Seems unreasonable that I have to pay a solicitor when someone else is obstructing access. I've contacted the letting agent, who have said the owner of the house says her tenants have every right to park there,

I'm checking that instructing a solicitor is the only way forward before I do.

I think instructing a solicitor is the only way forward. You could write a letter before action saying you will be instructing a solicitor to enforce the covenanted parking arrangements and will be pursuing them with regards to costs.

Start keeping video footage or photos of the day to day parking. Get statements from the neighbours.

My neighbour was always blocking our shared access and despite pointing out the terms of her deeds continued to do it.there was legal recourse but we solved it amicably.

If the courtyard is collectively owned is there any management fund in place for repairs etc. Could a joint letter to the owner from other householders have more effect?

If emergency vehicles can't get through I would suggest that might be another way of approaching it. Contact the FRS (non emergency of course) - they may do a drive through and leaflet the cars. Happened in my road.

When you say the courtyard is owned by all what's the legal mechanism for this?

And have you read the planning conditions. Easy (free) first step.

Unfortunately, no management company to help.

It is really difficult, I thought the council would have addressed this in a really objective way.

I appreciate that the council will be following their guidance though and this isn't the way forward.
Just frustrated that something that I was made aware of when I bought, which could have been foreseen as a future issue (parking) was protected by the deeds having detailed 'rights granted'. There was always going to be a possible issue of parking. I would have bought elsewhere.

Seems the 'right granted' are almost meaningless unless I pay for legal advice.

Technically it is private land though, so council has no jurisdiction on parking there.

Thanks @LIZS.

I'm assuming civil is the only way to go.

I’m not sure hmo is the route forward, with three people in a staff house it may or may not need a licence, it’s down to the individual council. Either way it doesn’t solve your issue.

The only route is hiring a lawyer. Do the other houses take issue? This is one of nine houses. If others take issue you’ve more chance and can split costs. If it’s only you, then I’m not so sure, as I assume as it’s private it’s hard to enforce anything here.

I sympathise with your position. The covenants are in position but the question is who has the right to enforce them? It is almost certainly not you and a solicitor will probably be a waste of money.