Have you ever heard of this?!?

[5614blocked]

Went in to discuss contracts with sol today. He's reading out all the normal stuff etc. then gets to the part where he mentions who built the house in 1972, states that in their original conveyancing(??) that the house is to be used as residential blah blah, and then... you cannot keep any poultry or rabbits, and no washing is to be hung out on a sunday, except for infants clothing but in a confined space.

Has anyone heard of this? Who is going to be checking that no washing is out on a Sunday? I'm a bit stumped, both me and partner was not expecting to hear it, all seemed very random.

We are not allowed ruminants!

We can't hold livestock, run a business from home or paint the woodwork any colour but brown!

No open cast mining
I knew some people who found coal when they were excavating for an extension, apparently they couldn't use it because it was the property of British Coal.

We weren't allowed to run a house of ill repute or allow drink to be sold on the premises!

We also can't burn clay tiles. Surprised to see that is common enough for someone else to have. Can't excavate sand or clay, live in a caravan on the premises or put up signs advertising a business.

No shed or front wall, but the house had both for donkey's years when we bought.

I, too, am not permitted to run a music hall, nor carry on any commercial activity which would result in ‘casual visitors’ !

I had neighbours knock on our door when I painted it cottage green as they wanted to know how I got round the rule that the door must remain white in the deeds. I was and read my deeds really carefully and there was nothing. They were 8 year old homes and all my neighbours had an extra paragraph that we didn't have. We seemed to set the precedent though and now most of the doors are anything but white

I wouldn’t let a ‘no rabbits’ clause stop me from buying, particularly when you’re so far along in the chain. Ask your solicitor if it’s easy to get the covenant removed. If not, i’d go ahead and move my rabbits in. I’m pretty sure no one is going to complain and you’re not breeding them - it’s family pets.

My house was part of a small estate built 60 years ago, there is covenant that no vehicles can be parked on the drive overnight.

They must all be parked in the garage overnight each house has a drive that could hold 3 or 4 cars.

No one abides by this rule and no one is bothered. Along with the keeping chickens rule and building front walls to the gardens everyone ignores the covenants.

Our house has to remain as a single dwelling and is not allowed to be subdivided.

DH and I pulled out of house purchase the day before exchange as that's when we got the 15 page covenants document. Major things like couldn't extend the house or garage (the reason we bought it), no working from home, to trivial things like couldn't park a boat or caravan on our drive. All ours were still in date and enforceable. One of the most annoying covenants was not being able to cause a disturbance to the neighbours. We went and spoke to a couple of the potential
neighbours and to see how they got on with the restrictions, and they warned us of the older chap who would be to our right. He reported one neighbour for changing her garage door (they all have to be the same colour green) as well as things such as shutting car doors too loudly. We have motorbikes and a dog, and could well imagine the noise complaints we would get so didn't risk it. Shame, it was a beautiful detached bungalow and we still haven't found anywhere else to buy.

We’ve currently got a neighbour who’s breaking their covenant, and I can assure you that getting them to stop is almost impossible even with legal help. And this one is a lot more sensible than no rabbits.

No work Van's and no more than 2 digs oer household. Needless to say loads of work vans and plenty of houses have more than 2 dogs. You can only get somewhere if it impacts on your daily living, or something like that, so there's no point in complaining. Walking past THAT house with at least 4 night barking dogs making me jump every time drives me nuts but its really not worth making an official complaint. Just be mindful you might get one arse claiming your little rabbits are impacting his life and take it forward (it wont but hell be an arse about it)

Ours is a fairly new estate; no livestock, no caravans (very annoying) and no tradesman vans, which I think is outrageous really.

We had a tiny trailer tent tucked behind a wall and a hedge on our drive, actually not visible to anyone, and our dickhead neighbour, head of the estate management committee, arranged for us to be sent a series of threatening solicitors letters. Wouldn’t mind so much but his son had had his trade van parked outside his house for the past year.

It was a real eye opener to us how pedantic and “rules izz rules” many of the neighbours were.

Our street had covenants when newly built 30 years ago about not parking trade vans or caravans overnight and not enclosing the front gardens - we were told it would probably only be enforceable by the builder who wanted the area to look naice until all homes were sold. 30 years on there are several vans and fences.

I love reading these old clauses! I bought a 1901 Glasgow tenement 15 years ago, and wasn't allowed to tan leather on the premises, but could fish in the Clyde.
I doubt anyone would object to pet rabbits in reality, but good luck with your solicitor, OP.

Most covenants effectively lapse over time unless they are shown to be directly relevant today and impact on others. Hanging clothes out on a Sunday won't be enforceable.

These old covenants are so funny I have one that says I'm not allowed any unusual pets. Not sure what they count as unusual, but the previous owners had a tortoise XD

Quick update, spoke to the solicitor which tbh proved to be a waste of breath as our sol is pretty useless. We’re going ahead with the purchase anyway, and if anything was ever said we have the backup that the rabbits could go back to living with my parents as they do currently. Hard to believe people would complain but judging by some of these responses some people just feel they have to!

That’s good news. It is unlikely it will ever be an issue, but good to know you could get round it if you need to.

Ours says no chickens and max two pets.

Luckily one bengals enough for me. The first sign of me having more than two would be me being sectioned.

Ours has a Victorian restrictive covenant that says

• No business can be run from the premises apart from a dr, solicitor, accountant, architect or apothecary- thankfully DH and I both have professions on the list

We also have to pay the original landowner £5 for every new house we build on the plot - it's a very large plot so in theory we could put 20 or so new large houses on it will ease but I think if that was the case we could afford the £100

I have a client that has a restrictive covenants from the 70s that requires us to get permission for any external changes to the house from the council which as we have to get planning permission anyway shouldn't be too much of an issue.

I would ask your solicitor for advice but I don't think the ones you have listed would give me cause for concern in your circumstances especially if the company that held the covenant no longer exists

We have the fairground and selling alcohol ones too.

We are allowed to drive pigs, sheep other livestock down our back path but not cows!

There goes my dream of having a cow in our suburban garden...