Carpet covenant on leasehold flat - family advising to ignore, sure they are wrong...

[xxxIntergalacticxxx]

Hi, so I’ve never owned a flat before but now I’m in the lucky position of buying one and have been looking at options for decorating prior to moving in. Will have a new born around the same time as moving in. All family have advised that new born plus carpet does not mix and would be expensive for cleaning so myself and my partner have been considering vinyl flooring, the cushioned type, for our lounge and dining room (where there is currently a mix of laminate and old carpet that needs replacing). Going to keep the old carpet in the hall and bedrooms though as the condition is fine. It’s a ground floor flat and the living room has no floor above it. The dining room where there is laminate currently has 4 floors above it.

Only problem is there is a covenant on the lease which says that all rooms apart from the kitchen need to be fully fitted with carpets. It’s an old flat and my family think we should just ignore the covenant and do what we want with the vinyl... my dad works in the building trade and my mum is a legal assistant... so they think they know everything and can be quite persuasive. However, I’ve got doubts and am wondering whether we’re walking into a tricky legal situation if we lay the vinyl.

Experience? Thoughts?

You’d be in breach of the convening, are there flats below you? I wouldn’t chance it, get a carpet that is treated for stain repellent and don’t annoy the neighbours. Your newborn will soon enough be a toddler clomping around

Some things to consider:

1. You are likely to have this covenant due to noise. If you lay vinyl and noise begins to travel to the flat below and a complaint is made against you, there is a slim chance that your freeholder investigates and insists you replace the vinyl with carpet at your own expense. (Unlikely but not impossible)

1. If you sell and your buyer reads the lease would be prepared to take out indemnity insurance to cover it?

If you have flats below you get a carpet, if you are ground floor don’t. You can get stain treated carpets now.

She’s already said it’s a ground floor flat.
OP, I bought a house with some restrictive covenants, some of which I queried and was told at the time they are unenforced. Would it be worth you querying if this applies to the ground floor?
I suppose the question is, would you still want to buy it if you HAD to have carpets?

Get a cheap carpet, and a carpet cleaner. Once the 'baby' stops making a mess on it (at around 22 years when they move out!) you can invest in a decent carpet.

She’s already said it’s a ground floor flat.

There could be a basement flat below it though.

I like carpets and had no problems cleaning them when my dc were tiny.

The covenant is old. You have purchased a flat with laminate in the dining room. Replacing it with a well cushioned flooring, albeit with a vinyl top layer shouldn’t affect anyone and without a complaint no one will try to enforce the covenant.

Your new person will be noisy. Washable soft furnishings help against noise.

Babies and toddlers bounce softer on carpets than hard flooring (voice of experience). It's not hard to lay out a playmat under the high chair once baby starts eating solids. Do your neighbours a favour and stick to carpet.

Any laminate would have to be so lavishly insulated, it would not be a cheap option.

If there’s no one below you if won’t matter.

I can confirm there is no basement so no flats below. Do people usually ask the managing company for permission in situations like this? I’m aware the laminate in place in the dining room has been there for a long time and clearly breaks the covenant.

If you are on the ground floor don't worry. It's due to noise

I work in this industry and in theory you would be in breach of your lease and this could (and sometimes is) be enforced.

You can get around this by applying for permission from your Managing Agent/ freeholder but they may charge for the pleasure.

As you have no one below you they would probably say yes.

But basically - NO. You need to stay within your lease or be prepared to remove the flooring when you get found out.

I would accept your parents advice re the legalities. Do you have evidence of the existing laminate floor? eg in the estate agent details.

As I said before a modern carpet and babies can be perfectly compatible, that would be your choice in your home.

who made you so special as to be above the covenant/lease restrictions? If you don't like them don't move in. What else do you propose to ignore once you are there? I wouldn't like to be your neighbour.

An elephantine toddler is horrendous to have above (hence the carpet rules). No-one below you so won't be quite so bad, but they still thud about. Kid and carpet are fine, carpets are easy clean now. Also a softer landing when it falls over, which it will do. A lot.

What do you want to do? Not sure why you are giving your parents advice so much weight.

Because my dad is arranging the floor replacement he has a lot of influence over our discussions and he has very strong views against carpet - “it’s rubbish!” But also family in general being very negative about carpet and babies has influenced my partner to favour vinyl, but also myself as I like the aesthetic of it. Would put plenty of rugs down. Also cheap carpet isn’t very nice but we can’t afford the natural/hemp/seaweed carpet that would be the ideal choice. So getting my dad to arrange is our affordable option, hence him having influence. I think on the basis of advice here I’m going to contact the managing company first to ask them if it would be OK to use cushioned vinyl. When the covenant was written it didn’t exist, so it might be acceptable.

Carpet with a baby, definitely. I've learned from experience that hard floors and babies don't mix. If you get one with some flecks in it then you don't notice the muck.

I have a flat that has that covenant. As you are ground though you are quite likely to get permission for vinyl.
I had slate floor with my babies and they survived.

You can get hard wearing, cleanable carpets. Both the carpet in my bedroom & HSL can be cleaned with bleach and won’t stain.

www.tayflor.co.uk/news/bleach-cleanable-carpets

As an example.

I still don’t follow why your dad is arranging it, but if he’s insisting on doing so, I’d insist he deals with any fallout from going against it.

I'd just ignore it. Worst case is that you get found out somehow and then have to replace but that is very unlikely.

If you are ground floor, you won't be bothering anyone.

Normally I'm as cautious as they come, but if you're replacing laminate I'd go for vinyl with good quality underlay in the dining room and kitchen. Carpet everywhere else.

If you add a few rugs here and there, maybe something like this for round the sofa, noise should be minimal.

As you have the ground floor flat, I wouldn't give it another thought tbh.

Babies & carpets aren't really a problem though unless you have one with serious reflux, even then cleaning isn't that much of an issue.

Get what YOU want.

And I prefer carpet for babies for comfort, warmth & softness when learning to sit/crawl/walk etc.

I shouldn’t worry too much. If you had a flat below, I’d say definitely stick with carpet, because it’s rather selfish to have hard flooring in an upper flat, but as you’re on the bottom, get what you want, with the caveat that if your freeholder enforces the covenant, you will have to change it. The chance of that is so remote, that I wouldn’t really concern myself.

That said, carpets are much nicer than laminate or wood for babies to roll around on, but you can always get rugs - which will have the added bonus of dampening the noise a bit.