Caravan on drive? Covenant removal ?

[Maiseymoos]

We have just bought an ex council house built in the 1940.s with a drive on which we store our vintage caravan .
It has come to our attention that there is in fact a covenant on the row of houses which ban the parking of work vans and caravans .

Next door to us on one side is a huge motorhome and on the other a horse box , so this came as a surprise to us .

We have checked and the local storage facility
per annum is almost the cost that we paid for her . So it would mean we would have to sell her if in storage . Both neighbour's say Its not a problem . But we would be worried about anyone else complaining. Not here long .Can covenants be removed? The ‘ company’ who would have built the house was the local council. Rang someone at the council and they said read your deeds, and didnt want to talk about it which do say no caravan or work vans.. but it makes little sense when there is a massive motor home next door?? So can I ask it to be removed.?. get the impression the council would just say move it for ease as they would not want to engage?
Any solicitors able to advise? Happy to engage one if needs be but do not want to waste money if am going to hit a brick wall?! Also , if someone complained what would happen?

It'll be fine, IMO, if your neighbours are not bothered.

Worst case is you get asked to move it.

Thanks . Asked our next door neighbours both sides no issues . More worried about across the road .
i don't get why some people domt like caravans . Most motorhomes are twice the size .

Just park it and argue the toss if someone complains.

Worst case scenario is that you get rid of the caravan later rather than sooner.

Thanks . I cant argue tho as it says no caravans. Bit it seems mad when similar near .
I would like to know if there is a mechanisim to remove the covenant .. would be great!

As I understand only the person who put the covenant into your house deeds can complain and make you remove the caravan. You can contact the “ covenant maker’ I’m sure there’s a proper legal term and offer them money to revoke it. But if your neighbours have large vehicles and none of you are bothered I’d just leave your caravan where it is.

Also, if you offered the person who put the covenant on say £5000 to remove it your neighbours might not be too happy as they might be expected to pay the same.
If it’s not broke, don’t try to fix it.

Mine has a covenant of no inhabited caravan, is yours definitely covering empty ones? Mine also says no front wall or shed and everyone here has those! No issue unless there is a complaint and who would they complain to? Just stop telling the council and leave it there. Certainly don't rent storage when no one seems to mind

Great . Thanks. Maybe its like a agreement it ok !
The organisation who put it in place is the council not a builder. I guess people could ring the council but then it would impact on the others so maybe they will not do anything as a small caravan half the size of a motorhome cant really be argued about as the motorhome would then be in sharp focus ( although its interesting it only says no work vans or caravans as at the tome of the build maybe motorhomes didnt really exist much .

They would complain to council as x council

Yea i it says no caravan s ..it does not say more .

There are three options legally, but some options prevent you using others and I agree with everyone else that I'd ignore it until you have a problem:

1. Ask the person with the benefit of the covenant for it to be removed. Usually costs £££££s and prevents you from using option 3.

1. Apply to the Land Tribunal to have it removed. Again, costs a lot and takes ages with no guarantees. Its a common covenant so not sure on your chances of success either.

1. Get restrictive covenant indemnity insurance - doesn't fix the issue but should cover your costs if someone does try to enforce it. However you can only take this out if you haven't already sought permission from the person with the benefit to remove the covenant. Your contact with the Council may already prohibit you from going with this option - you'd have to provide a record to the indemnity provider of the correspondence so that they can decide whether they'd still be willing to offer cover.

In reality, if your neighbours had an issue they'd have to contact the person with the benefit (I.e. the council) to get them to enforce it against you and you'd be given notice. If your immediate neighbours have already been breaching it with no issues I'm not sure why anyone would bother putting the time and effort in that would be required to get the Council to enforce it against you.

I wouldn't waste time worrying about it. Highly unlikely anyone will complain and, it's a civil matter anyway so can't see someone spending money to take legal action against 3 neighbours (plus the ones with work vans etc). These covenants are normally on most deeds I believe.

If it was built in the 1940s you really need to chill out. Noone is enforcing this covenant.

Newbuilds sometimes enforce the covenants for the first few years to keep the estate looking nice

Thats great thanks !i think i will just leave it as it would seem oddnto complain re a tiny caravan when there is a huge motorhome. Its strange tho because technically the caravan is not allowed , but a huge motorhome , not being mentioned, would be fine. The council did not take my name so the insurance option may actually be useful to hold in the back of our mind . Thank you very much .

Don’t worry about it. We have the same covenant and I complained to the council about the neighbours massive caravan parked on the drive as it was all we could see out of our window, the council weren’t interested at all.

Its not that i am not chilled . Its that we rang solicitor who said oh no way you must not breach a coventant and apologised massively for not telling us at time of purchase.i guess his reaction made me feel a little worried.

Keep quiet, don’t worry about it until the unlikely event it becomes an issue.

Our estate has covenants of no work vans, no parking on the estate roads etc. Completely ignored by everyone.

Just ignore it, and definitely stop talking to people about it and making them aware that a) there's a covenant, and b) you're breaking it.

It's not necessarily the council who would have to give permission to remove the covenant. It might be every neighbour in the street/development and you would have to pay them all.

We have covenants on our house, and the way it was written, is that every property that was sold by the developer aquired the benefit of the covenants over the land that was still owned by the developer at the point that that property was bought. To know who can enforce the covenant on our house, we would need to know which houses were sold by the developer before our house was. It's bonkers, and all our neighbours have ignored the covenants and have fences between the front gardens etc.

interesting!
we dont actually live on an estate . There are just 4 ex council houses , then across the road , 18th century cottage s( that is who i think may have issues ) anyway thanks .. feels much better now

Restrictive covenants can only be enforced by the owner of the covenant (in your case the council) but there is case law that has said if they want to enforce the covenant then they have to still have some land nearby which is affected by the breach and if they tried to enforce the covenant through a court then they usually have to prove that they have suffered some loss through the breach of covenant.

As the covenant was put on in 1940 I doubt if they even know if its existence (I used to work in local authority legal departments). Don't communicate with them anymore and buy restrictive covenant indemnity insurance to cover you if they do contact you.

It usually only costs a couple of hundred pounds and costs nothing to enquire. Google Stewart Title uk.

My estate has something similar and I walk past half a dozen every day. Don’t worry about it.

Your solicitor can't say anything but that, can they!

Ask a daft question .....

I guess you are quite young and first time buyers. There are times you have to worry about things and do things right (leasehold requirements for house extensions or changes, covenants on new builds) and times you don't (covenants from 80 years ago).

Every housing estate you see probably has the same covenants on it.

Covenants cease to be enforcable when many of the houses covered by it breach it without consequence.

I have a covenant saying we are only allowed two animals in the house and no poultry. I have two dogs, two fish and two chickens. Like a rebel 😎 Those chickens have been in plain sight and clucking away for five years now. I wouldn't worry if I were you.