Restrictive covenants - fence

[CarrieBlu]

Hi,

This is likely to be long winded but want to include all details...

So I’m looking for some advice please! We are first time owners of a lovely new house which was built in 2015, we’ve lived here for a few months now and we’re very happy here, neighbours are great etc.

However, as is the norm with new builds, we have a few restrictive covenants on our property. Most of which are of no issue to us, but there is one that might become problematic. The covenant states that we should not fence in (or grow a hedge around) our front garden. However, we are keen to put a small fence in to make the area safer for our young children. There is already a five foot railing fence (put in place by the developers) that runs alongside one part of the garden, so we are wishing to install a lower, but similarly designed, railing fence alongside the other two sides of the garden that are open, and place a gate across the garden path, which would then fully enclose our garden.

Our immediate neighbours are perfectly happy for us to do this and have offered to write a letter supporting our wish to install a fence, which is amazing, we know we’re very lucky to have neighbours like them!

All of the other houses on the street, apart from ours and our neighbours that are joined to our semi detached property, are owned by the local housing association. I know that in a similar housing development in our town, the HA granted permission for some of their tenants to enclose their front gardens with fencing.

However, this is where I am unsure how to progress and was hoping that a wise Mumsnetter may have some experience or advice. What steps should I take to challenge this covenant, or should I risk ignoring it as our neighbours seems unlikely to complain? If I go through the official avenue of contacting the developer for permission, is it likely to be an expensive process? Any thoughts or advice much appreciated!

Look at fencing that is "temporary" - there's several that have been developed to overcome these covenant issues.

Thanks @KatieMarieJ

I’ve just had a quick Google of temporary fencing, all I seem to be able to find is trellis type fencing or mesh, neither of which would work, it wouldn’t really look right. I’d rather be able to put up something in keeping with what’s already there, to minimise it’s impact on the neighbours. Or is there a type of fencing that I’m missing?

It seems that for most new builds, these rules aren't enforced after the developer has finished up and moved off. There's a similar situation where I live, with a few owners wanting to do things that aren't supposed to be allowed. One owner who wasn't in favour of these changes got legal advice and was told that enforcing the restrictions is a civil matter that few developers will pursue once they've sold all the plots. So you'd probably be fine.

Put up the fence, take out a restrictive covenant indemnity policy, but do not approach the other party to the covenant to enquire about the possibility of/fees for erecting the fence, as alerting them to the fact that the covenant may be breached will invalidate the policy.

The indemnity policy will cover you in the event that anything comes of it, but it's very unlikely that it will ~ the developers will have to prove they've suffered a loss as a result of your fence, and they're not likely to be bothered to incur the costs of doing so. Also, unless they're coming round to check the properties they're unlikely to find out anyway. Such covenants are put in place to ensure that the estate retains a uniform appearance while the units are being marketed (e.g. no caravans, no porches, can't change the windows), once they're all sold the developers generally aren't bothered.

The insurance is around £60, and in most cases it passes on to the next owner with the sale of the property. The fact that the policy is so cheap testifies to how rare any such claims are.

There's more info here (I'm not associated with or advocating this company, it's just the first link that came up and it gives a fairly comprehensive summary of what these types of policy cover): gcs-title.co.uk/instant-issue/policies-glance/restrictive-covenant/

Thank you for the information, we’re going to take the advice given here and put up the fence and take out insurance, and just keep our fingers crossed that it all goes unnoticed!