Covenants

[Waitingfirgodot]

Hi, just wondering if anyone has come across this before and, if so, what came of it. The house we are trying to buy has a covenant on it stating that the current vendors cannot sell the house without the permission of the previous owner. Obviously this throws up many problems - one of which is that he appears to be untracable! Local rumour tells me that he ended up in prison for drug dealing - but who knows! Our solicitor tells us that it will be easy to have the covenant removed, so hopefully it won't be a major issue - it does sound like one though!
Any experience with this anyone?

Yes unfortunately. Found out about ours the day before exchange - a 15 page document full of them! All current and enforceable. Meant we couldn't do a thing to the property and we'd probably have needed our neighbours permission to fart in our own home.
They can be a nightmare, we pulled out.

Walk away unless the vendor can get the covenant removed. And get a new solicitor.

That is an odd covenant to have, presumably the land was split at some point to build the house you are looking at buying.

The house has been there since 1750, but the covenant only since the mid-90s. It just seems like a very strange thing to put in place

Sorry to hear about yours @Neron. Hopefully we won't have to pull out over it.

We have a covenant from the original owners (1960s) that they need to approve any changes to the house.
Our solicitor said to be mindful of it but not worry too much about it.

@7Worfs another odd one. I can't imagine feeling like I had any right to have any say once I'd sold a house!

Does the covenant have any details about the penalty of selling without permission? E.g will your vendors need to pay the beneficiary of the covenant?
What were they thinking agreeing to that covenant!

@rollercoaster1920 it doesn't say anything about a penalty in the information we've been sent - that's something else for me to ask about tomorrow!

Btw there was a recent covenant thread on here - some chancer was trying to extract money from an old lady because of a built garage (which was there at the time of purchase). I think there was some good general advice in there about how enforceable covenants actually are.

I think it was posted in Legal Matters

@7worfs I'll have a look for that!

So it seems as though to enforce a covenant you have to be able to prove that you are being negatively affected - I'm not sure that anyone could be negatively affected by a house they lived in 20 years ago being sold.