Covenant on property - advice please!

[tootsieglitterballs]

We have a covenant on our home, from the 1960s, which we did know about when we bought it, however, it relates to the property next door, which is no longer there. It was demolished and flats were built there by a developer approx 10 years ago.

It relates to being able to conduct business from the property.

Does anyone know if this invalidates the covenant or makes it challengeable?

We will speak to our solicitor if it is even a remote possibility, but right now don’t want to go down that route if it’s a total no go, so hoping someone can give me even a vague idea!

Can you post the wording of the covenant? Who is the beneficiary of the covenant?

@wowfudge shall do as soon as I’ve done bedtime 👍🏻

Personally (as someone who isn’t in the slighted bit legal minded) I feel it’s a bit dubious , but I could be totally wrong. Shall come back to you ASAP

We have some funny ones on ours which were put in place by the developer, we assume to keep the Close all unified until all the properties sold.

Things like; not allowed to replace windows or doors, not allowed to change shrubs in gardens, no vehicles to park at property with advertising on or of a commercial nature, no businesses to operate from the premises, no caravans.

The properties are going on 30 years old now. No one has the original softwood windows they rotted very quickly, likewise the doors warped. Several neighbours have commercial vans, several caravans and many work from home operating businesses - including myself.

Vaguely from recollection, our solicitor told us in our case the developer put the covenants in place and would probably have to evidence loss to enforce them. As they had long since sold all the properties on the estate and many had already made alterations it was very unlikely any action would ever be taken.

A covenant normally applies to a defined parcel of land and its building(s) I think . You need to look at the convenant AND its accompanying deed to determine if the covenant still applies to your house and your parcel of land. I would have thought that it's clear cut. But I don't understand why a convenant relating to use of a neighbouring property would be YOUR convenant at all.....2 houses on one patch in the past maybe? You can take a specialist insurance out to cover the cost of a beneficiary raising the covenant - this wouldn't stop you from breaching the covenant but it would recompense any resulting loss.

They are normally a few hundred pounds and tick the box for future resale in eyes of a future purchasers. Getting a covenant permanently removed is very long and very slow.

We breached a convenant that stated the house could never be demolished ....ooops! The house is gone, the risk is insured.

Thanks all!

The covenant wording is ‘for the benefit and protection of the vendors adjoining property, known as ....’

The property as it was is no longer there, and no longer known as (and in adjoining, it is the land that was adjoining, not the property if that makes any difference) .

It basically says no business or trade can take place at the property , and we would like to have a home based business!

I think it's fairy standard for a lease to have a clause in to say you can't work from your home. I think many tenancy agreements on rental properties say the same.

Unless you want to turn your home into a noisy factory, or kennels or possibly a brothel, I'd just ignore it and carry on the business from home so long as it had no significant impact on the neighbours

There'd be no childminders in the whole country or other self employed people if everyone stuck to the letter of their lease. However, if it is the type of business that may impact on others a lot, I'd get legal advice. I would imagine the local council would quickly intervene if this were the case, whether the covenant was still in place or not.

Out of curiosity, what sort of business do you want to set up?

Nothing that would effect any neighbours at all.

I find the whole covenant thing rather baffling to be honest... you can pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to purchase a home, that someone who once owned 70 years ago can still have a say so on what you do! Bizarre things...

I was most worried that our mortgage company might have something to say on the matter.

You could try to have the covenant removed, but in all honesty depending on the actual business it's highly unlikely anyone would seek to enforce it. The more visible it is, the more problematic it could be.

I've been looking into this as our deeds say no business and I want to become a childminder. I can't remember the exact wording but I came across something that said that if the person who established the convenant is no longer trading then it ceases to be. With the caveat that a neighbour can enforce it if....(and this is the bit that's unclear to me)...it's also in their deeds but relating to your property and they can enforce it. I've worded that very badly and you'd be best off looking it up.

Firstly, will your mortgage company let you work from home? When I informed them they tried saying it wasn't allowed because the property needed to continue to be a single private dwelling (which it will) and so I disputed it and in the end they wrote and said it was fine.

I have decided that I'm going to go ahead and set myself up as a childminder and that I'll work the rest of later because I'm confident that as others in the area are childminding with no problem that it will be ok one way or another. Although I might take out some indemnity insurance. I know the developer has ceased trading so it can't be enforced unless by a neighbour. We do have a neighbour at the end of the road who is Mr curtain twitcher neighbourhood watch and tells everyone off so I'm expecting that if anyone has anything to say it will be him. Plus there are parking issues in the area so I know I need to be careful.

Do some research and get some proper advice. What is it you're wanting to do?

We have a house in a street that is full of these covenants. The aim of it would be to prevent someone setting up a noisy business that involves additional traffic, thus the street becoming some kind of trading area rather than a true residential street. In my street there is an Air BnB, a Homebase's hair dresser, an artist with studio and a guy that runs his own Homebased IT service. It is worth googling your street postcodes to find out what businesses are being run, that way you can determine the likely risk of any beneficiaries raising the covenant.

When we were buying my solicitor told me that clerical work at home and childminding were assumed to be fine in those circumstances. Loud things (Eg manufacturing), and people traipsing in and out (Eg a doctor's surgery) are out though.