Removing restrictive covenant

[Spudlet]

When we bought our house five years ago, we were made aware of a restrictive covenant which says the property can’t be used for running a business. Our solicitor advised us that this was most likely not enforceable and basically not to worry about it. It’s an ex-council property and I suspect the intention was to stop anyone dealing in scrap metal or doing similarly noisy or messy things.

Fast forward to now and I would like to start operating a massage therapy business from a garden building and am looking at the ins and outs of this. The impact on our neighbours would be minimal - I’d be up at the top of the (long) garden, in a building, it’s not a noisy or smelly business, and we have plenty of off street parking. Our road is a relatively busy rural one and there are always lots of comings and goings in and out of the houses, so I really can’t see this as having a negative effect at all. Our current neighbours are lovely and I really can’t imagine them having a problem, but if they moved there’s always the possibility that someone might complain. So, has anyone successfully had such a restriction removed or varied, and if so how easy was it and how much did it cost? Or did anyone buy indemnity insurance - I’ve been Googling but I’m not quite clear on how it works exactly?

Thanks

A restrictive covenant usually has to be enforced by the original land owner/interested party. It's generally not something a neighbour can bring up against you if you breach it. This is why they can usually be safely ignored in practice - the original land owner/developer is long dead/out of business/has no interest in the estate etc.
See the vast housing estates with extensions/conservatories everywhere - most of those houses have covenants from the developer forbidding construction of outbuildings front garden fences etc, but after ~10 years the estate is no longer an example in their portfolio of shiny & new, & they have no interest in enforcing them.

But you say it's ex council which might complicate things as you will likely have to engage with them to register a business from home? I think you should get proper advice on it from a solicitor.

I was able to get a restrictive covenant removed. Mine was about building work not being allowed on a particular piece of my land. It's a long and complicated story why it was in place but it can be done. I'd suggest that get a solicitor involved.

Our house has a covenant; nobody left to enforce it but we had to buy an insurance policy just in case. About £100. Covenant was that any property on the land had to be at least £10 in value, and detached or semi. From 1860s.

In this covid day and age even post covid I think the council would struggle to enforce.

Thanks! I see this will have to be something factored into the whole enterprise - it looks like applying to remove one can be quite expensive too. Le sigh...

X-post with many replies - thank you all. Lots to consider.

It’s a business and the covenant is in favour of an entity that you know is still active (the council).
I’d speak to them about getting it removed.

I don’t know what the status of the shed would be but you might need planning permission for change of use too.

There was a thread about this same thing on Reddit a little while ago.

www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/bl94ou/buying_an_excouncil_house_discovered_it_has/

I remember one poster there said this:-

NAL but worked in Council Housing - these covenants are normally put in to stop certain types of business from causing a nuisance. Businesses that create a lot of noise or it significantly increases traffic for example. But normally you can ask permission (via your solicitor) and a lot of the time it will be granted under certain conditions (that shouldn’t be unreasonable for the type of business). Good luck!

Thank you, I will take a look at that, and I think I’ll try ringing the council tomorrow for a preliminary chat. Very helpful, thank you all!

It might be better to speak to a solicitor. Once you inform the council of your plans, they might be obliged to enforce the covenant. If they don’t know, they might not be very keen to know and have to enforce it.

Just be careful with that. Seek external advice first.