Buying a house with covenants

[MrsMaryBOOface]

Has anyone done this? We've found a house we love, but the vendors have moved next door and have made a load of rules. I don't want to spend a fortune (deposit and mortgage) to feel like we are under their eye... Has anyone else done this??

What are the covenants?

I'm intrigued. I wouldn't go into any property buying where their is rules . No thanks .

What sort of “rules”?

Depends what they are.

If it's no BBQs in the garden between May and September, or similar, then I wouldn't buy.

But if it's no caravans in the front garden, then I would.

No caravans in the back garden.
Frosted windows upstairs where it overlooks their new house

A few more but without being outing, I'd just worry they would nag at things like if you hadn't cut the grass or you had people over for a BBQ?

Are they legal ones or just ones they made up?

Can people just make them up?

Yes I think that would put me off, I think it would be quite uncomfortable to have them as neighbours.

@HappyDinosaur see this is what I think but on the other hand I LOVE the property

Wouldn’t touch with a barge pole, they sound like they’d be the neighbours from hell. I wonder what drove their next door neighbour away so they could buy that property?

Upstairs windows to the side are fairly standard building regs requirements anyway.

Covenants aside they sound like the neighbours from hell.

How are they making up the covenants? Do they own the land?

They owned the land and are selling it, having moved to next door

Have they built a new house in what used to be their garden?
I wouldn't OP, they may be fine but equally could be very controlling & still are it as 'their' house.

The two covenants you've mentioned don't sound unreasonable.

Once they’ve sold it, they can’t add anymore covenants and it’s not up to them what you do with the house. So they would just be like normal neighbours.

As long as the covenants are reasonable or things you can live with.

If the covenants are acceptable (and they sound like they are) then I wouldn't be worried - its not unusual for someone to make these when sell a piece of land for building.

Once you've signed they have no more right to demand new things from you as you have from them.

I don't think they can add covenants to an existing property or is yours a new house too?

I worked for lawyers in plot sales (New build) for years. No caravan or "house-on-wheels" is pretty standard. Has it got one about not selling cat's meat?

I wouldn't - as they are going to be neighbours, it would feel to me that they still expect to be able to control what you do with the house.

I am in the process of buying, and it has a covenant from the 1980s with the council that the owner cannot alter the exterior without written permission from the council. That is fairly impersonal, so I have decided to go ahead.

Most houses have covenants of some description. They sound pretty standard and wouldn't bother me. Obviously if you're looking to get a caravan, then I'd give it a swerve but otherwise they sound fine.

No thank you! They sound very controlling and they will always have an ‘interest’ in the house.

Restrictive covenants are fairly standard on many properties, all building estate houses will have them for example. Even Victorian terraced properties routinely have restrictive covenants, things like not to use the property as a tannery (particularly smelly trade) or open a public house etc. Most adjoining owners would want some restrictive covenants to protect their new property if they were living next door. However, the frosted glass in the upstairs back windows isn't really acceptable (unless there are only bathrooms looking that way) as that is likely to markedly reduce the resale value. Most people want to see out of their bedroom windows. You can ask your solicitor to review the covenants they want to impose and amend them to what they think are acceptable. They will see many more and will know which ones are of no concern.

Those sounding standard and reasonable ones to me!

Caravans are a common one and frosted glass on overlooking windows would be required by building control anyway. Unless the rest are onerous it would not of itself put me off. Have you met them?

It's usually planning that requires frosted glass. OP I wonder if there's room to manoeuvre on some of these covenants if you are the first buyers of their old house? It's be worth raising your concerns via your solicitor as they may not have considered things from a buyer's pov.

If it's not in the covenants e.g. no BBQs, then they can object. I agree with PP that if they haven't separated the titles yet, you might have some room for manoeuvre. It depends how stubborn they are.